Breeding Buff Leghorns

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Hi Ann, I can not judge the type of this male at this picture. He has to mature before you can see if he gets the good tail lenght.
Can you make an new picture in an other angle? From the side maybe?
At this picture I see some light feather tips. Look at the color when he is matured and when he has then the light feather tips be carefuly with breeding. When you use a female with the same problem you have change for many chicks with the same problem.
I have somtimes females with light colred feather tips in the neck. They are very smal and I can see them only when I look very good at it.
My advice, let them grow out and see what they look like then. Hold on your mature birds Ann, you will need them.
 
Arie I agree it is best to wait until fully mature to evaluate buff birds,especially males,pay attention to the small details,it really helps.

In regard to slate blue legs,it is very possible,Buff Catalanas,Buff Ameracanas and Buff Laced Polish all have it and it breeds true when bred together.When breeding the white leg you need to watch the males and use those with white (sex linked),white leg females are pure,white leg males can carry slate,but slate is pure in the male.
 
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Another interesting note. Last season I hatched a few chicks from a Leghorn/ Minorca cross. I kept two that have very nice color. The female has some pepper in her tail but very good leghorn type as does the male. Both have white legs. They both have good size as well, and as I said favor the leghorn type. Right now I have the male in with some Minorca pullets, and the female is in a pair mating with the best of the Leghorn males I raised last year. Later I'll match the male up with what I consider my best couple leghorn females and hopefully I'll get some decent leghorns from both of those breedings. I am using the male with Minorcas because of his color and overall size. At any rate, the Minorcas have been laying tinted eggs. At least the Buff Minorcas have been. I did a cross to Black Minorcas a couple years ago, and the egg color on the crosses is white. The white legged female from the leghorn X minorca cross is laying a slightly tinted egg. Just thought it was interesting how much influence I see even after a cross to strain that I get nice white eggs from. Couple pics of the birds I am talking about below...
White Legged Male (in with Minorcas)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/15970_dscn0760a.jpg

Leghorn Male
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/15970_dscn0773a.jpg

White legged female
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/15970_dscn0776a.jpg

Hi Tom, You have dark colored leggs on that Buff Minorca female in the first picture?
Me was told that it was not possible to get that dark legcolor.
I take my hat off to you. How many generations did you need to get the leggs dark?

Arie,
Remember that I did a Buff X Black cross a couple years ago. Everything from that cross had slate legs. LAst year I bred the f1's together and kept 2 males and 4 females that were more toward Buff. I posted a couple pictures on the Minorca thread. So that female you can see in the first picture is an f2 bird originating from a Buff X Black cross, and then those f1's bred together. She has slate undercolor, light slate legs, and some stippling/pattern on the back. I'll try to get some photos of some of the other crosses that I've done in an effort to improve size and type on the Buff Minorcas.

Tom
 
We have been talking about egg size and shape here and there on this thread. I have been working to increase egg size and shape in my Buff Minorcas. Here's an example of what I am putting in the incubator from Pen 1 this year.
15970_dscn0819.jpg
 
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10 months old. They've already gone through the pullet egg stage and I didn't keep any of the medium sized eggs for hatching.
 
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