Crests on Legbars and Breeding them Out

[sjango]

I want to use Legbars in a breeding project but I want no trace of crests in my birds.
Their color and egg laying ability are desirable to me, as well as the blue eggs, so they seem like the best choice.

Does anyone with experience know about how many generations it takes to breed the crests out of a Legbar?
Does anyone have a line of Legbars without crests already?

 

[BlueBaby]

If you breed them to a non-crested breed, just keep any chick's that do not have the crest. Do not breed any chick's that do have the crest.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

If you start with the right stock, it only takes one generation to get crestless legbars. Crests are a dominant gene. One copy of the gene gives single crested legbars that have small crests. Two copies gives a double crested legbar that has a large crest.

Get adult stock that have small crests. They are likely single crested. When you breed them, 25% of the chicks will be double crested, 50% will be single crested, and 25% will be crestless. When you breed the crestless legbars together, 100% of the offspring will be crestless. If you decide to retain some of the single crested legbars, when you cross them to a crestless you get 50% single crested and 50% crestless.

 

[Amer]

Two generations. Breed them with another breed. Breed offspring together. Voila! 25 percent of your offspring don’t have crests. It’s easy because it’s a dominant gene.

 

[sjango]

Thank you everyone!

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

I'm not sure how outcrossing to another breed would affect the autosexing feature, and personally, I would consider that before outcrossing.

 

[sjango]

I'm not sure how outcrossing to another breed would affect the autosexing feature, and personally, I would consider that before outcrossing.

I’m not interested in preserving the autosexing gene.

 

[sjango]

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.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

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.

If you wanted to keep autosexing but get rid of crests, you could do it the way that @FuzzyCritters described, but if you aren't interested in preserving the autosexing, then go ahead and make some mixes! I'd love to see some pics when you do it.

Edited for spelling

 

[SulkyBantam]

Interesting idea.... Why don't you like the crests?