Breeding Buff Leghorns

Hi All

I'm In Australia and i'm trying to breed Buff Leghorns....

Ok this year was my first year with them and what ive got i am pretty happy with but they do have some colour problems....

The cockerals some are a nice even buff which i'll keep and some have a red through the shoulders and some black in tails which i'm thinking i will cull.

The pullets i have 3 nice even dark buff pullets which i'll keep out of the others some have white in tail and some have black in tail which i'm thinking of culling as well ....

I guess what i am looking for is some one that has done this with this breed and has had these problems and if i'm goin down the right track....

I was thinking of keeping some of the pullets with a little black in the tail but not sure if this will come back and bite me down the track or if i should just stay as close to a nice even colour as i can.

Some of my chciks this year had a black spot on the back on the head but i didn't mark these chicks so not sure how they turned out. I'm wondering if this black spot means any thing.

Also what effect a dominent white leghorn would have on the colour buff would it wash it out or is it good to use once to fix up type and so on or would it put the program backwards by using it .

I'll upload some pic's if anyone is interested ....


cheers shane

Welcome to BYC shane.

I'm going to be watching this thread, we have two or three genetics gurus on here who should be by later today or tonight who can probably answer for you.

Good luck with your project!

I think folks here in the US have used Buff Minorcas. Using a white leghorn would only complicate things for you in my opinion because of the dominant/recessive factor.

Another interesting project!

Hey Shane good to see you on here! I hope someone here is able to help you out with your goals in the leghorns

Josh

Hey Josh

I hope so as well can't wait for this years breeding season to start really to see what the young produce.


thanks everyone for the comments so far. But please keep them coming



cheers shane

Shane,

You need to contact Dan Honour. He is the best as far as buff genetics goes and also tops for buff leghorns. I bought a quad of buff leghorns from him in January, they are gorgeous. I can also send you a link for a new leghorn club (forum) that is trying to organize now.

Some photos of my new birds:







I am new to this breed so I can't offer you much info. I will be using these birds to breed though.

What did you cross to get a buff leghorn?

Hi Shane

your post spurred me to register!

i have Buff leghorns aswell but in NZ and have the exact same issues as you. Mainly due to the lack of selection i can do with the parent stock, have to make so with what little there is around

My hens lacked depth of colour but have a very nice type, so looked around for a while to get New, strong coloured Roo to go with them but he has brought with him the peppering/back tails

i also bought some hatching eggs from a line that had a more even colour (both roo and hens were medium feather colour) and those chick were disappointing, there is only 1-2 out of the 10 hatched are of the same colour as their parents the rest have been washed out to be quite insipid lemon, and also the legs are a pale a slight greeness to them

from my pairing (dark fella over even coloured light good typed hens) the results are varied but the average is better, better colour, legs colour is real good, but the increase in colour from the roo was a little too much in some and has caused patchiness and peppering/back tails. But nonetheless the colour is better in all the offspring than their mothers.

I have a tips from Buff Orpinton breeder and was told that having some pepering in a couple of hens(but not all) but not the roo, is good to maintain colour and not to be too aggressive with the shade differences between the roo and pullets

(and actually this is what i hve found this year just that the peppering was in the roo)
but next year i wont go for such a lrage increase in colour difference to try and reign in the variation. and keep 1-2 of the best typed pepper tailed pullets, and dark buff non peppered pullets and pair them with a very even & strong coloured roo with no peppering

so i have found "compliment matings" to be sucessfull and the "like to like" not so good (as was the case with the eggs that i bought in) and am gonna look at it like that the parents dont have to be show winners themselves but have to display some show winnig traits and pair the fella with appropirate pullets,

i wouldn't go for the white leghorn as it will only 'leak' the buff not dilute it, unless you want pyle leghorns (that is what i will plan to do with my best typed, strong coloured (but patchy) pullets) just as a side project and utilize culls from the buff programme but perfect base for pyles

keep your best three pullets and maybe the one or two best typed black/peppertails (especially if she is strong in a trait that the roo may lack) ie very nice earlobes. Find your best, most even fella that might be just one or 2 shades daker than the pullets but def. free of peppering.

Effectively just what i am planning to do so if i am giving you bad advice, i will be doing it wrong aswell. would love to see some pics of the birds aswell, shame our 2 countries have the quarantine regs otherwise would be good to do an egg swap this next spring

Birch Run Farm, wow! what great even colour to your birds!!

they look great!

Thanks for the comments so far.
poultch i wish we could do the egg swop as well it would be great to get some new blood in... The computer that has all my pic's on has crashed but i will see what i can do to get some of this years birds and some of the parrent birds and post them here for you all to have a look at ....

Birch Run Farm that is the product i want to end up with such a nice deep even colour they look great. You have bought your self some real nice birds... I bet you can't wait to start hatching...

I was told by a friend that Dan Honour or Phil Bartz were the people that might be able to help as they have some of the best buff birds around .... But liviing on the over side of the world it is a little hard to find them or to be able to contact them so i hope ive came to the right place... Just need a little guidance in the early stages could save a lot of time in the long run....

I guess my plan is to try and pair up similar coloured birds nice even coloured hens to a nice even coloured roo maybe have the roo a little darker. But not put two birds together that have black peppering in the tail and things like that.

I guess i want to be 5 year alot the breeding but it all takes time and mistakes to get there ....

poultch if you have any pic's please feel free to post them here I'm sure it will be of interest to some one and that go's for any other memeber that has Buff Leghorns the more the better ...

chickenma I'm working on finding out the birds that were used in the cross i have two lines one has Buff Orpinton in it but you would never know they are leghorn types.....I'm not sure what was in the other line they were very hard to get hold of and a friend found them for me.....



cheers shane