Creating "crele" coloration

[JohnLongIsland]

Happy holidays folks.
I'm gearing up for a bit of a genetics/breeding project, hopefully launching in spring. I will put out there that my training is in chemistry, and my genetics knowledge is high school/bio 101 level Mendelian Punnet square stuff. After much reading, chicken genetics is well beyond my grasp!

My basic plan is to try to create a crele colored bird, by crossing a barred rock with a partridge colored hen.

Is my understanding correct, that the "partridge" color, genetically, is similar regardless of the chicken breed?

I'm asking, because what I would like to do is produce a first generation by crossing a barred rock (rooster) x partridge wyandotte (hen). This should, in theory, produce 100% barred offspring.

From there, I would select the roosters with the very best barring, and cross them with another partridge hen. I was thinking a partridge brahma.

My reading says that 25% of the chicks should show partridge coloration, and out of those chicks, 50% should grow out to show crele colors.

This might be a little ambitious considering my limited facilities. But is the science ok at least? Does it matter what partridge hen you use? What I'm ultimately hoping to do is create a large, crele bird. Being 50% brahma, crossed with a wyandotte/barred rock cross should produce some large birds. Thanks for any info. I'm trying to sort through the genetics, and just inter-library loaned a couple books on the subject.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Unfortunately, Partridge has two different meanings. American Partridge is actually pencilling, which has a different base pattern. European Partridge is gold duckwing, or wildtype, which is the color you actually want. The name of the color sometimes differs depending on what breed you have.

You have no way of knowing what's under the black-with-barring (gold or silver genes), so if you want gold crele, you should try and use a barred female for the first gen—not only will that make your offspring sexlinked, it'll make sure that all of the offspring carry at least one copy of the gold gene. The roosters will be barred and the hens will be black.

You'll then want to breed a rooster from that crossing to a gold duckwing hen. Only a very few of your offspring will be what you want, though.

There may be a simpler way of doing this. @The Moonshiner does colour genetics for a hobby. He, @nicalandia , and @Sneebsey might be able to help better.

 

[JohnLongIsland]

Thank you for the response. I had no idea that "partridge" had two meanings. I need to read more when I get a chance. I'm looking forward to my inter-library loans to come through. That should hopefully clarify some things. As I'm not a commercial breeder, I'm ok with some degree of guessing/chance. Even a chick that doesn't meet the goal isn't "bad". She just doesn't make it to the next round, but would still be a good producer.

 

[Sneebsey]

@sylviethecochin has given some good advice regarding pairings. Both silver and barring are sex linked, which is a hindrance in this situation; she has suggested the best road that I can think of.

Partridge, for me, would mean birds which are eb Partridge at the e-locus, however I have seen Duckwing varieties referred to as Partridge and Partridge Wyandottes are Gold Pencilled. While Crele can be created on eb Partridge, I would stick to Duckwing/Wildtype to avoid the stippling seen in partridge hens' feathers.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Thank you for the response. I had no idea that "partridge" had two meanings. I need to read more when I get a chance. I'm looking forward to my inter-library loans to come through. That should hopefully clarify some things.

The Chicken Genetics Site:
http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/default.html

The General Knowledge: http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/theory.html#gen_theory_intro

Try this site; use a pencil and paper and take notes. It's about the best resource for chicken genetics I've ever found and also both easily accessible and free.

As a former librarian, it's always nice to hear about someone using a library.