Breeding & Genetics Question *Now with MORE Pics*

[eggsrcool]

Hi,

I have a Sussex cross chicken, which I would like to breed (if and when I get one) with a pure Sussex cockerel, how many generations would it take until the birds could be considered 'pure'.

If this sounds too confusing, please ask and I'll try to clarify it

Thanks.

 

[onthespot]

You will spend hundreds of dollars and years of effort to produce a twenty dollar bird. Just buy pure sussex eggs and let your cross hatch them. Presto, pure sussex this year, very little time and effort.

 

[eggsrcool]

Quote:
Apart from I really want to breed this chicken with a Sussex, it is the only chick of my first chicks, if that makes sense, I'm just desperate to be able to produce a 'pure' Sussex over many generations. This chicken is very precious to me.

ETA- Or will its descendants always have the hint of a cross in them?

 

[Chris09]

You will never breed all of what ever your hen is crossed with all the way out... So the offspring will alway be crossbreeds and will not be pure..

Chris

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The reality is that when you come down to it, virtually all chickens (jungle fowl excepted) are the result of crossbreeding--some breeds recently; others many 100's of years ago.

There is no specific answer to your question. Once you have a bird that meets the breed standard, it IS the breed. Now the problem is that depending on the number of generations it is since the ancestors were crossed, you may get a higher percentage offspring that have breed faults and disquaifications than come from a bird with no outcrossings for many years.

New colours are almost always developed using outcrossing.

 

[tadkerson]

50% X 100% = 75%

75% x 100% = 87.5%

87.5% X 100% = 93.75 %

93.75 X 100% = 96.875 %

96.875 X 100% = 98.4375 %

5 generations for 98%

If the 100% bird is good quality bird, you should be able to have good birds by the 4th generation. It just depends on what genes make up the other 50% of the hybrid brahma .

Tim

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Quote:
My thoughts exactly. With ADGA and dairy goats it is the 7/8ths pure rule. You cross a nubian to a sable and you have 1/2. Breed that back to a sable and you have 3/4, breed that back to sable and its 7/8ths so it would be considered pure and be able to be registered. Like Sonoran said though, as long as it looks like a pure sussex, thats all that matters. I have crossed buckeyes and cochins and came up with something that looked like a brahma. It had not one drop of brahma blood in them but they looked like brahmas and when it comes down to it, thats what really matters since there are no registeries or pedigrees with chickens.

 

[eggsrcool]

Ok, thanks

So if it looks like a Sussex, it can be considered a Sussex.

 

[onthespot]

if it looks like a sussex and breeds true like a sussex it can be considered a sussex. I bet the cross above that looked exactly like brahmas, if crossed for the next generation (F2) would not produce all birds that looked exactly like brahmas.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Yes, F2 is where are the genes really start segregating out--that is where you have to do your heaviest culling to keep to the planned goal.