Interesting. They look good from what can be seen in the pictures. Thanks for letting me know that she went outside the breed to make the improvement. Delaware makes since. Get a good line, that is nice and wide with the deep breast similar to what I have now. A project beyond my present skill level, but something to think about. What percentage of Delaware did they settle on before they bred the crosses?
What if the Breed Conservancy organized an improvement project for BR. I think their current project is the Black Java, but I think our more historically important breeds should be improved to make sure they assume their rightful place, putting food on the table of small holders like myself.
You would have to find the best typed birds that also mature fast, and lay plenty of large eggs. Otherwise it is for nothing.
The Delaware shares many of the color genes with the BR. Theoretically, it is half BR already, so to speak. A viable option to fix and add what the BR needs.
It is not out of your reach. None of this is rocket science. You simply breed back to the best typed and colored BRs that you have, and pick the best offspring. How far you go is a personal decision. You need to keep going back enough to set the BR characteristics, and not so much that you go back to where you come from and have done it for nothing. It is a balance. You are probably safe going back three times. The 1st generation is 1/2 BR, the second 3/4, and the third 7/8. If you choose to call the Delaware 1/2 BR, then you are at 15/16.
You are going back to the BR and the best that you can come up with. You are selecting the best typed and colored offspring of many. Then you are also selecting the pullets that come into lay first, cockerels that develop the best, and set the largest eggs. Go until you are worried about losing the production characteristics, and then select them as they are BRs from there on out.
They will lay better. They will grow better. They will eat less. They will look good, and have good type if you selected well. They will never when the nationals however. You can cancel that out, but you can have a good flock of farm worthy Rocks.
All projects like this should be done on the side. You do not sell the farm for it. You run it through, and after you are successful, you commit to it. If it does not work (and it will if you stick it out), you chop their heads off and eat them. That is what we do with chicken anyways. We eat it.
