I have a nice little buff cochin roo who has white barring on his feathers. His mother was one of my buff hens and I am trying to figure out who his father might have been. The only barred banty roo I had at the time was a crestless silkie with black barring on white feathers. This seems like the most likely prospect. If I wanted to try to breed another generation of these "barred buffs", should I breed my buff hens back to the barred silkie roo? Should I breed one of the buff hens to the barred buff roo? Is there a different color/pattern hen that I should bring in to create this color? If breeding him to a buff hen would retain the barred pattern, I was thinking of trying to find a show quality buff hen to breed him to to in order to improve on the conformation. I would also like to avoid silky feathers. Although the crossbred roo has slightly fluffier feathers than the hens, they are definitely not barbless like the silkie. He also has a bit too much white in his fluff and his tail feathers, which I would want to try to breed out later. But first I would like to have a slightly larger group of barred buffs to work from, and try to improve the barring so it is more distinct and has better coverage. I would love some advice on how best to breed either this roo or breed to get more of this color and pattern. Thanks! Korina
