Black Australorps birth token white chick

[Khoisun]

Hi All

So there is no more token white chick, cos when I looked in my incubator today, I found this :

So my little flock of BA's have produced a second white chick!
This is the third brood of chicks from my flock which makes it 2/30. There is a 4th brood on the way so we will see. I plan to do 4 more cycles of 2 broods each for this season, so hopefully I end up with at least 5 white hens & 1 cockerel. Would 2 flocks consisting of white birds breeding with their parents be enough to produce pure White Australorps? From what I have read this is where pure White Australorps come from:

http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/14E03A08.pdf

As for the original chick, who I have named Snow, here she is @ 4 weeks old:

Another pair of birds from same brood, I think the 1st one is a pullet and the second one is a cockerel(he is the only one with a red wattle):

Thank you all for your input, this is such an exiting journey

 

[NatJ]

Would 2 flocks consisting of white birds breeding with their parents be enough to produce pure White Australorps?

Probably yes.

If the white is caused by a recessive gene, then every white chick is already pure for that gene.

Breeding them to their parents should produce more white chicks, who are also pure for the gene that makes them white.

And breeding white ones to each other should produce only white chicks, with no black ones at all.

(All of that is assuming the white to be caused by the gene called "recessive white," or some other gene that works the same way. I think they probably are, but won't know for sure until they grow up and produce chicks of their own.)

 

[Khoisun]

Probably yes.

If the white is caused by a recessive gene, then every white chick is already pure for that gene.

Breeding them to their parents should produce more white chicks, who are also pure for the gene that makes them white.

And breeding white ones to each other should produce only white chicks, with no black ones at all.

(All of that is assuming the white to be caused by the gene called "recessive white," or some other gene that works the same way. I think they probably are, but won't know for sure until they grow up and produce chicks of their own.)

Thank you. The white is caused by "recessive white" gene, uncommon but it is carried by a small number of BA's. I am planning to split into 2 flocks as previously mentioned & then breed the white chicks to their white parents. So by the 3rd generation I should have 2 flocks of White Australorps.

Should I continue line breeding at this point, or "out cross" between the two flocks?

 

[NatJ]

Should I continue line breeding at this point, or "out cross" between the two flocks?

You could try it both ways and see which one seems to give the best results.

Or you could outcross to black Australorps: breed a white to a black, then cross their chicks back to white to get 50% white chicks but with some less-related genes.

If they all start from black Australorps, and the only unique thing is the white gene, you should be able to keep outcrossing to the black ones anytime you want.

I really don't know what would be best

 

[Khoisun]

Hi All

So here is Snow fully feathered @ 6 weeks:

Hatched another brood of chicks, but no white this time round. I will post updates monthly this age.

 

[Khoisun]

Hello All

Here is Snow @ 10 weeks

And here are her siblings:

 

[homeschoolin momma]

My orps also carry a double white recessive gene. The chicks produced are incredibly soft in my opinion. And all of mine have been female. I don't know if that means anything at all or if I have just been incredibly lucky. @ColtHandorf have you had any double whites in your orps turn up male? It would be unusual and quite curious.

 

[Khoisun]

Interesting. Only 2 so far and both are hens

 

[NatJ]

Interesting. Only 2 so far and both are hens

At least that will make it easy to breed more: you know their father carries the gene, so breed them back to him, and half of the offspring should be white.

I'm guessing that only one of the hens carries that gene, so 1/4 of HER chicks would be white (with the original rooster). But the other hens would not be producing any white chicks at all.

For both being female, with only two chicks, it's more likely to be random chance (1 in 4 rate) than anything about the color genetics. (But if it keeps happening with larger numbers, it might mean something after all.)

 

[ColtHandorf]

My orps also carry a double white recessive gene. The chicks produced are incredibly soft in my opinion. And all of mine have been female. I don't know if that means anything at all or if I have just been incredibly lucky. @ColtHandorf have you had any double whites in your orps turn up male? It would be unusual and quite curious.

Yes, I get males from them.