Breeding Buff Leghorns

[danhonour]

CURTIS OAKES HAD RED LEGHORNS. I think the nicest ones Bud Blankenship has and Carl Baker may also have yhem. These would all be much better than hatchery Red Leghorns.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

The UofA took Cackle Hatchery White Silkies and in about 7 years has developed a nice exhibition line of White Silkies that are winning at some shows.http://www.cacklehatchery.com/bantam.html But they hatched thousands each generation and culled most. Sadly, they only have room for a few breeds at a time.

I still like Dan's idea on using some Ideal Buff Leghorn pullets with his Buff Leghorn males/ The same idea could work with Reds. Order 100 Red Leghorn pullets from both hatcheries, cull to the best 5 of each. Then mate those 10 to the best exhibition Red Leghorn you can find. Would give a shot of new blood. May only take 4 or 5 generations to breed them up to Standard.

mschlumb is working with the UofA as a student. Any thoughts on Dan's idea being used on the Red Leghorn?

Quote:

CURTIS OAKES HAD RED LEGHORNS. I think the nicest ones Bud Blankenship has and Carl Baker may also have yhem. These would all be much better than hatchery Red Leghorns.

 

[mschlumb]

CURTIS OAKES HAD RED LEGHORNS. I think the nicest ones Bud Blankenship has and Carl Baker may also have yhem. These would all be much better than hatchery Red Leghorns.

The ones that Bud and Carl have are Black Tailed Red. The last i heard Bud was considering getting rid if his, not sure if he still has them or not.

I do like the idea of using hatchery reds with a good exhibition male, even if it is a black tailed. Not sure how long it would take to get rid of the black tail though. Since they are very few reds out there it may be the best thing you can do, you'd just have to breed in large quantities and cull hard

 

[danhonour]

Get an idea of what ideal Leghorn shape should be.Then make your culling and selections based on Leghorn type. Hatchery Red Leghorns generally lack feather quality,narrow stringy tail feathers.Short legs and small earlobes,long backs ,tinted brownish egg color,strongly suggest R.I.Red blood. Without the back sweep and station,they just do not look like Leghorns..I think Bud used Dark Brown Leghorn x R.I.Red and was going to try a new line with Buff Leghorn. Maybe Dark Brown Leghorn x Buff Leghorn.Perhaps Hatchery Red Leghorn x Dark Brown or Buff instead of R.I.Red. If you could get some of Buds' stock it would save many years,for he has already done these steps.

 

[Clipclop]

Thanks for all the info. I saw in the APA site that there were two recognized varieties of Red Leghorns one was Red Leghorn the other was Red Leghorn black tailed. Do they show in the same variety? Or are they separate? Does anyone know how to contact Bud or anyone else that has these? The thing is if I get hatchery pullets I would have very little chance of finding an Exhibition quality male. I just havent had any luck in finding any. I definitely would use Buff Leghorns or Brown to get better type because I would not want to us RIR to do that. I just didnt know how the genetics worked on the Brown and how it would breed out or whether it offered a red gene or not. Any help I will take. THANKS

 

[cubakid]

Two seperate varieties shown separately. Red is uniform in color while the black tailed variety has a black tail.

 

[danhonour]

I think Bud has contact information through the American Brown Leghorn club.Red and Blk,Tailed Red are on wheaton allele,so is Buff.Dark Brown is on Brown (eb) and Light Brown is on wild type (duckwing) If you cross with eb you will need to backcross to wheaton (Buff or Red).

 

[danhonour]

You would also need to backcross duckwing (Light Brown) to wheaton to make Red Leghorns (either all red or Blk.Tailed Red).

 

[Clipclop]

From what you are saying I think I may be better off to find excellent Light Brown leghorns (probably easier to find than excellent reds right?) and cross with really good Buff Leghorns and keep the best reds I come up with and breed them back to one another. I want to get the all reds. Would this be a shorter path or not? THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO

 

[Piet1]

Hi,
At the moment i just have a few old large buff hens and their nicely buff coloured offspring with a bantamxlarge buff rooster. Only their size is not LF.
Now I have one off the young roosters in with the large hens and some of the pullets.
I bought some dark all red LF pullets. Would it be a good option to cross these with one of my young roos?
What can I expect colourwise? These hens are very dark in neck and tail but paler in the breast. One off them is more even darker red in the breast. Would I only use this hen?

Jake,
are the pictures you posted on buffxred F1? I would be very happy with a result like that.

I do have 1 young buff roo with thicker shanks. but he has a short and black tail. His sickels are buff. On his back the white undercolour shows through.
Would I use this one?He is either from Hatching eggs I bought or he is a buffxmillefleur cross.

I do have some very large millefleurxlightbrown cross roosters. These are blacktail red.
Would it be an option to use these in my buff breeding?

Or can anybody help me on a nice buff LF rooster?
I live in Belgium.