Can I breed my crossbeak?

[Kezzie]

Okay, before you start yelling at me, here is my line of thinking:

I have 3 Cuckoo Maran hens. One has a cross-beak and a messed-up foot, BUT she gets around just fine and can eat and drink fine because her bottom beak is straight and she can use it like a spoon. Rosie has the BEST coloring and markings of the 3 by far. The other two have really indistinct cuckoo coloring.

I realize that the crossbeak and foot could be either genetic OR an incubation problem. I believe someone on the board once said that if the crossbeak develops AFTER the hatch, it's likely to not be genetic. Obviously, if it is genetic, I wouldn't want to include her in the breeding program.

So, my question is, is there a way to tell whether her problems are genetic or not? I'd really like to start my breeding program with the stock I have now. I know that some of you would have culled Rosie herself when the crossbeak presented, but she does just fine. If I can get some pics of her later, I'll put them up. She's still beautiful to me!

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Here's what you could do.. Go ahead and breed her, hatch the babies and see if they develop the defects she had.

If they do - well... yeah.

If they don't - that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't carriers, it could be recessive. You can either breed siblings to siblings or breed the sons back to her, and the results will tell you the what's up.

In the sibling to sibling cross you might get some that do carry it and some that don't. Cull (i.e. give away, eat, whatever...) the ones that do have defects and keep the ones that don't. You should be clear of it, just keep good records on who's breeding who so you can trace back if one pops up later on down the line.

 

[NYREDS]

Have to disagree. Since you are asking for opinions here's mine & it reflects my approach to breeding. I don't think there's anything to be gained from using birds with disqualifications in the breeding pen. I don't do it & never would. If it were mine I'd cull it.

 

[Kezzie]

Would it help to specify that my ultimate breeding goals are a Dark Cornish/Cuckoo Maran cross for meat birds? It's not that I want to ignore the standards, but showing is not my ultimate goal.

 

[PattiXmas]

I would think that if the crossbeak is a genetic defect, that the defect could possibly be passed down to the offspring. If you want to breed for defects, go for it.

Even though you state breeding for meat birds, I wouldn't really do it. Doesn't a crossbeak cause problems with eating, drinking, etc?

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
GO FOR IT..!! but I will tell you that what she maight have is a genetic defect and probably a recessive one, and you could not see this defect in the first cross but a f1Xf1 cross will probably give you alot of crossbeaks, and will set you back afew months, but if the deffect is NOT genetic related you will be way ahead of time...GOOD LUCK on your breeding program

 

[Kezzie]

Quote:
I would definitely NOT do it if it were genetic. I don't just want meat birds, I want to work on a line.

 

[Krys109uk]

It doesn't seem logical, to me, to breed possible problems into ones birds whatever their end use.

 

[Kezzie]

Here are some pics of Rosie:

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Hmmm.... that's not the type of crossbeak I thought it was. Usually it's the bottom beak that goes wry. With the top one having grown crooked, ya got me.

Bent toes could be genetic, nutritional, an incubation issue, or even broken and healed crooked.