Barred Orpington??

[Krys109uk]

Do you know whether buster is wanting to go for the really tidy barring as in exhibition barred rocks or just to get typey barred orps asap? If he is after typey barred/cuckoo orps those barred males to the best typiest black females would be the better next move.

 

[speckledhen]

I got a surprise Barred Orp myself. Buster's rooster is the son of my Blue Orp rooster, Suede. Suede was mated with my big RIR/Buff Orp cross hen, Meg, and produced this boy who has white legs. Apparently, Suede carries the barring gene and can pass it on to his sons.

 

[Krys109uk]

Nice one.

I remember the thread about your mystery barred chick. White skin is dominant, so that helps. Suede can pass his barring gene onto his sons & his daughters but he will also pass on his not barred gene just as often.

If you put Suede onto really nice typey black Orp females you'll get in the region of half single barred & half non barred blacks.
All you'd need to do is keep taking the males with one barring gene & putting onto the very nicest black Orp females until you are happy with type then put single barred male to barred female to pick up the extra barring gene for the male & then they will breed true. Pips.

 

[speckledhen]

Funny thing is that only two of these barred babies from Suede, that I'm aware of anyway, have shown up, so more likely than not, the progeny will appear as normal BBS Orps. So many have hatched eggs from me and only Buster has gotten one, then I got this boy. I did have Suede's black daughter, Delilah, in with him for awhile, but she had a couple of faults that I didn't want to intensify, so I put her in the laying flock.

 

[Krys109uk]

Nice & interesting surprise wasn't he?

I think it was mentioned before, barring can be a bit odd with blue & doesn't always express. Your barred baby would do the job very nicely with some pretty black hens, if you felt like going on with them.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm not up for a new breeding project at the moment, but the barred Orp boy now lives with lockedhearts and hopefully, she'll do some work with him as you suggested, Krys.