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I take that back, there is five of us. Me, Leisha, David, Peter and you. Hope I can take some to the Crossroad show to sell. The whites came about in a weird way. I wanted to produce the bantam Ermine. Years ago I got some eggs from England ( which I wouldn't try to do now ). I hatched a blue bantam cockerel and an Ermine pullet. The blue bantam cockerel wasn't right so I had to put him down. I had received some blue bantam eggs from Jim Pollard a year earlier and put a blue male on the Ermine pullet. I didn't use a salmon male because I felt it would give me to much crap. My intention was to get more Ermine's. I hatched 16 chicks from this breeding then lost the Ermine pullet. Out of this breeding I had a lot of black males with either gold or silver in the neck. I got rid of them. I had a few all black pullets and kept them for my black line. When I bred these black hens to my black males the mottles popped. Another surprise. From the 16 chicks I also kept a dark blue pullet, a silver blue pullet and two splash pullets, and I had one weird blue male which was unique in color. I bred him back to his blue sisters expecting to get some Ermine chicks. I think I did get one Ermine but it was a blue Ermine. Then I got about 7 all white birds from this breeding. This is how the whites came about. About a year later There was an old man in the Poultry Press that had some white Faverolles bantams for sale. I needed them for new blood in the white line I had. This man lived in Mississippi. Richard Labranche and his family did me a huge favor. They went and picked up the birds for me which I think was a 5 or 6 hour ride for them. The birds were in real bad shape. One of the males died on the way home. Richard's wife nursed the birds back to health before they sent them to me. I'm indebted to them for what they did for me. These white's were sports from the Faverolles line that he had. I bred them to my white's to give the line more vigor. I hatched a lot of white chicks come the following years. Reading more and more into genetics I realized I wanted gray chicks instead of white chicks.
Years ago I sent Mike Stapish some black bantams. A white male had popped out of his breedings and he asked me if I wanted the bird. I took the male because I knew this bird was carrying the silver gene that I wanted.
I almost got out of chickens. Leisha and her husband came to my place and took my best bantams in white, salmons, blues and buff. What I had left were the culls. We'll I got the chicken bug back. The whites I had left were mostly culls and the one male I had to work with was the bird I got from Mike Stapish. Now I'm almost back where I want to be. Ive noticed if the white chicks hatch out white they could have some salmon casting on them,but if they hatch out gray then they will be a silver white. If you bred a silver white male to hens with salmon casting on their wings all the pullets will be silver white. If you breed a white male with salmon casting to a silver white hen all the cockerels will be silver white. Here is where you have to be careful. A hen carries one gene for color, so a silver white hen is a silver white hen. A male carries two genes for color. He might look silver but could be carrying gold. You won't know till you do your breedings. I have two males that I kept from last years breeding and four males from this years breeding. I'm hoping to have six breeding pens. I believe I have enough silver white hens to go around so time will tell. One male I hatched this year I believe has two doses of the silver gene. Some of his feathers still show some gray. He's not good for show but I think he should be great for the breeding pen. I wonder if I'll get any blacks out of him. Time will tell. We'll enough of my babbling.
Dick
Please, babble away! It's a great chance for the rest of us to learn! Thanks, Dick!
