Crests on Legbars and Breeding them Out

[sjango]

It's not that I don't like the crests. I'm just looking for clean birds without beards, muffs, crests, or feathered legs. I'm going to use them in an experimental line of Raraku to hopefully improve egg production. I'll keep one pen using only the parent stock without any mixing.

Below are two of the birds from my starting stock. They are an interesting landrace from Easter Island, and as an unmaintained bird they only lay about as well as a Junglefowl.

 

[sjango]

They lay blue eggs, so I thought the Legbar would be a good idea. If it turns into too much of a genetic mess, I'll still have a pure line with only the starter stock.

 

[SulkyBantam]

Nice!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Agree with @Amer it will take 2 generations.
You can't do it in one and don't get fooled by seeing/using just small crested birds.
A pure legbar will have two copias of the crested gene. F1s will all get one copy and will have a 50/50 chance of passing it to the next generation.

 

[sjango]

Agree with @Amer it will take 2 generations.
You can't do it in one and don't get fooled by seeing/using just small crested birds.

Thank you Moonshiner. Overall Im confident removing the crest is doable, now I’m thinking through all the other genes that will need to be put back into place. It’ll be a fine project to my project at very least.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

You will get crestless offspring in the first generation cross, but you'll also have to consider whatever color eggs the other breed lays. Egg color genetics are much more difficult to get right than simple dominant cosmetics like crests. If egg color and laying are your primary priorities, will you be breeding to other good layers with blue eggs, or will you introduce brown eggs to the line giving offspring a green egg? Will you use a white egg layer like a leghorn and have to grow out all of your pullets and test mate to eliminate the white egg gene? The latter is something we're currently dealing with in lavender legbars and let me tell you, that ain't fun.

If your top priorities are productive blue egg layers, why cross at all? Legbars got it going on. Knowing what your goals are would be very useful.

And by the way, if the crests are such a turn-off, crestless legbars DO exist in the US in unfortunate abundance. It's quite annoying.

 

[sjango]

If your top priorities are productive blue egg layers, why cross at all? Legbars got it going on. Knowing what your goals are would be very useful.

And by the way, if the crests are such a turn-off, crestless legbars DO exist in the US in unfortunate abundance. It's quite annoying.

Thank you for the info! The chickens I'm working with already lay beautiful blue eggs, that's one of the main reasons I wanted to use Legbars. I chose them over Ameraucanas or Araucanas because Legbars are easier to find and don't have the beards or tufts. If I can find crestless stock that would be ideal.

The problem with the birds I'm working with (a landrace from Easter Island) is that they are lousy layers. They are rare and I enjoy them, but production is a few eggs a week and nothing in the winter.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Thank you for the info! The chickens I'm working with already lay beautiful blue eggs, that's one of the main reasons I wanted to use Legbars. I chose them over Ameraucanas or Araucanas because Legbars are easier to find and don't have the beards or tufts. If I can find crestless stock that would be ideal.

The problem with the birds I'm working with (a landrace from Easter Island) is that they are lousy layers. They are rare and I enjoy them, but production is a few eggs a week and nothing in the winter.

Interesting. I would personally think loooooong and hard before introducing anything else to something so special. A shocking amount of progress can be made with selective breeding inside an existing gene pool. Will you be able to maintain separate lines? Also be aware that the barring gene in legbars can be very difficult to work with if you do not want barred birds.

What are these Easter Island birds called? Do you have a thread for them here somewhere? I'm intrigued.

 

[sjango]

They are called Raraku, they are a type of Rapanui landrace There’s a bit about them in this Article:

http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/13E06A05.pdf

A user named Yashar used to raise various Rapanui breeds, his birds are around, but he doesn’t have his flocks anymore.
Feather site also has some info on Rapanui fowl.

 

[sjango]

Interesting. I would personally think loooooong and hard before introducing anything else to something so special.

I agree with you 100%. It’s been an idea, but I certainly am afraid of the damage that may be done. I have an open breeding pen, so I was thinking of testing out a cross. I wouldnot be mixing it back in with the main line unless I achieved something identical to the original. This would take a lot of time. Again, this is just an idea as of now.