Breeding Gnetics to Create a Cuckoo Self Blue Cochin Bantam

[dbarket1]

I recently saw pictures on the net of a pair of Cuckoo Self Blue Cochin Bantams. I contacted the breeder who lives in Spain. I was told, to the best of his knowledge, this color variety cannot be found in the U.S. It is my understanding that the color was created by crossing Buff Barred to Self Blue. Since I have both of these varietie's, I thought it would be interesting to give it a try. I have raised poultry all my life, but never delved into genetics. I would be interesred in any advise I can get in regards to this project. Thanks.

 

[Wappoke]

If I was going to do the project I would not use buff barred but a black barred male over a lavender (self blue) female. This first cross has to be barred male over self blue female. This cross will produce F1 offspring. All the F1 will be black with barring. The lavender gene is recessive so no offspring in this first cross will be lavender. You have options on the next cross; this is what I would do.

you can backcross any F1 male to the mother or another female self blue. This cross will produce some BC1 barred self blue females and some BC1 barred self blue males. You will have to hatch over 10 chicks to get what you want. I would hatch over 20 BC1 chicks to make sure you get the proper male and female BC1 for the next cross.

The BC1 male will only carry one barring gene (female barring). Barred males usually carry two barring genes,

Next cross a BC1 barred self blue male and a BC1 barred self blue female. This cross will produce some males with two barring genes and some males with one barring gene. The females will be barred lavender or lavender

Now you have what you want. Use the self blue two barring gene males to breed to any barred self blue female.


Why did I indicate to use a black barred male and not a buff barred. Using a buff barred bird will introduce genes into the offspring that you would have to breed out to get a self blue. A self blue and a black barred both carry the same genes the only difference between the two are the barring gene and the lavender gene.

buff birds carry genes like wheaten, dark brown, columbian and the sex linked gold genes. You do not want any of these in your lavender barred birds. There is even the possibility of dominant white being carried by the buff bird. You do not want that showing up in the offspring.

 

[donrae]

I agree with the above poster. Introducing buff is going to open up a whole word of hurt in your gene pool. It's going to take forever to breed those genes back out. Stay with black, it's the same family as self blue so you've got less to cull out down the road.

Plus, buff barred birds are also pretty rare, so why track down one difficult to find color to make another

?

 

[RogerB]

If I was going to do the project I would not use buff barred but a black barred male over a lavender (self blue) female. This first cross has to be barred male over self blue female. This cross will produce F1 offspring. All the F1 will be black with barring. The lavender gene is recessive so no offspring in this first cross will be lavender. You have options on the next cross; this is what I would do.

you can backcross any F1 male to the mother or another female self blue. This cross will produce some BC1 barred self blue females and some BC1 barred self blue males. You will have to hatch over 10 chicks to get what you want. I would hatch over 20 BC1 chicks to make sure you get the proper male and female BC1 for the next cross.

The BC1 male will only carry one barring gene (female barring). Barred males usually carry two barring genes,

Next cross a BC1 barred self blue male and a BC1 barred self blue female. This cross will produce some males with two barring genes and some males with one barring gene. The females will be barred lavender or lavender

Now you have what you want. Use the self blue two barring gene males to breed to any barred self blue female.


Why did I indicate to use a black barred male and not a buff barred. Using a buff barred bird will introduce genes into the offspring that you would have to breed out to get a self blue. A self blue and a black barred both carry the same genes the only difference between the two are the barring gene and the lavender gene.

buff birds carry genes like wheaten, dark brown, columbian and the sex linked gold genes. You do not want any of these in your lavender barred birds. There is even the possibility of dominant white being carried by the buff bird. You do not want that showing up in the offspring.

Thank you for this very informative facts, may I know if I will use a light barred male to a self blue female, will they are an excellent pair to produce a barred lavender?