crests dominant??

[klf73]

well I figure since I have so many projects planned, why not add one more

I was thinking about putting a spitz roo over some la fleche pullets and see if I can get a spangled la fleche. I just didn't know how hard it would be to breed the crests out?
Ideas?

 

[Henk69]

Crest is dominant. That is good news.

 

[onthespot]

good news indeed. Two generations and you are in the clear!

 

[klf73]

So would I just breed the F1 chicks to each other? Then take a La Fleche roo over any F2 visual spangled?
thanks for the help

 

[onthespot]

F1 on each other will get you 25% non-crested. You can do it if you want, just have to hatch more suspects, LOL.

Edit to add, you will also get 25% spangled, but no guarantee which 25, and odds are of COURSE none of the spangled ones will also be the ones that have had the crests bred out of them on the first try. That would be WAY to easy! Nooooo....! Instead you will have a frustrating combo of a little of this and a little of that, mostly black birds, mostly crested, a few with probably less than desireable spangling/mottling, but at least enough to show you which ones you want to go forward with. All you need is ONE roo that is non-crested and shows some spangling and you have a jump on the next generation. Of course, the one with no crest and spots will be some pullet that all the other birds hate and beat up because she looks different, or hatched later because you didn't get what you wanted in the first hatch. I would say keep on hatching everything you can until you get what you need to move on with. The lucky thing with crests is you can tell way early if they are crested or not. That is a plus. Good luck and keep us posted!

Edit again. The crested breed original birds are most likely homozygous for crests, so I think ALL of F1 will be crested, now that I think of it. Breeding them back to crested breed will get you all crested again, half will be homozygous for the crest, half will be heterozygous for it, which means you have a chance to breed it out next generation, but you will have no way to tell visually which one is which. If you want to be sure about only having one crested gene possible, you have to keep breeding to a non crested bird so that you know that every crested bird produced is at least heterozygous, or only carries one gene, and will produce only half crested half non-crested. Once you get your crests bred out, you can dip back to the original crested stock to tighten up on color, but you will have to breed back the same way agian to get rid of the crests. I see many hatchlings in your future in pusuit of this varitety!