Crests on Legbars and Breeding them Out

[RoostersAreAwesome]

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.

Bantam ameraucana may be a better idea because they seem to match the size and type a bit better than legbars. Also, they have the same comb type. Beards can be bred out just as quickly as crests.

 

[sjango]

Barnum Ameraucanas come in more colors too...good idea RoostersAreAwesome. And you’re right, the size is way more ideal!

 

[sjango]

I have an update, I was able to secure more Raraku, so I WILL NOT BE OUTCROSSING! I have also learned a lot more about them since I first got them. They are ideally supposed to have a small tassel/crest! I also learned I have a red line, but there is a silver birchen line out there. The ones in the article linked prior are silver birchen.

As for the Ponape, they ideally have beard-muffs! Many of the traits I was initially planning on breeding against I learned are perfect examples of the landrace genepool. Go figure! The more I thought about it, I decided I will not introduce any foreign blood to these lines. As stated before they are very rare already, and I don't want to dilute there lineage any further. I will also not breed for anything in specific to keep a semblance of the natural diversity of their ancestors.

 

[Lauren86]

However I assume it would get messed up in the process. Of course it could be bred back in, though that would be doubly challenging to keep no crests but preserve auto sexing.

My green egg laying chickens all have no crests, all preserved the autosexing traits bar 1 green laying hen but her breeding is different to the others. The others are all crossed back to barnivelder. They look like barnivelders. I incubated all 6. The only one from an olive egg was my roo. At this stage he is mostly black with some barnivelder features. But he too had the opposite autosex markings to the hens and could be identified as a roo from hatch.