Help with colors in breeding...

[chicksngoats]

Sorry for so many questions...I've searched this a bunch and still can't find a really good answer to the question.

How do I figure what color crosses are going to result in? For instance, what happens if you mix a black & white silkie? Or a black cochin and a golden buff color hen?

Here are a couple of pics of my roo & hen that I would like to breed, but was wondering what color they would produce. Or if I breed my hen with one of my black silkies?

Thanks so much!

 

[Krys109uk]

What cute looking little birds.

If you're just wanting to cross your birds for a bit of an experiment you could get some fun results. But for serious breeding without a specific purpose crossing those colours probably isn't a good idea.

Recessive white crossed with anything can be unpredictable because no matter what other plumage colour genes a birds carries, if it has two recessive white genes it will be recessive white. In most cases white X cross black would give poor coloured blacks but this is not necessarily the case, especially with silkies.

The first cross between black & buff can be quite attractive for a bit of fun, but would be of little use for anything except a pet. The cross won't do anything to help either colour. With blacks the general idea being to get the blackest bird without any leakage of colour. With buff birds the general idea being to get solid buff birds with no black. Breeding the two together is likely to cause leakage in subsequent generations of blacks & put black into subsequent generations of buffs.

 

[chicksngoats]

So if I want to breed for something a bit more serious, then black would be the only color that is really good to breed with black? Or is there any other color that would good to breed with it? What if I get a blue silkie? Then I could get blues and blacks, is that correct?

And with the cochin roo, would that be the same? Just breeding with a black hen or would there be another color you could recomend?

I really need to take "chicken breeding 101" lol

Thanks!

 

[Krys109uk]

Well really black, of any breed, is best bred with black or with barred/cuckoo. Often black is bred with blue &/or splash. Under certain circs one might breed black to lavender, mottled or dominant white. There are probably others that I haven't thought of.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

To a certain extent, black is fairly neutral, and is a good colour to breed to when you need "something" and have nothing. However, in most cases it probably does not do much good for the quality of black colouring in the offspring. The big concern would be removing melanizers that keep a black bird black.

 

[chicksngoats]

melanizers? I really need to take "chicken breeding basics"

Seriously tho, is there a good crash course on learning about all the dominants & recessives and all the other terminology that is making my head spin?

I didn't realize I was going to have to get a degree to be a chicken farmer:cd

Thanks again!

 

[jenjscott]

but aren't both of those frizzles? You are not supposed to breed two frizzles together.

 

[Krys109uk]

Melanisers are genes which cause more black pigment in the chicken's feathers. Loss of melanisers causes colour to leak through. Once melanising genes have been lost & one has colour leakage in ones black birds it is rather difficult to regain a good black.

Here is an excellent link which explains come of the basics of poultry plumage genetics.

http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm


This is also beginner friendly.

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Lol!

Melanizers are non-identified genes that put additional black pigment (eumelanin) into the feathers. Without them you will never get a completely black bird--typically the hackles will have some gold or silver showing.

So, do you have any genetics background/training? The best websites are: http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html and http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/ I would suggest looking at them in that order.

Then there is the chicken calculator to try out different breeding combinations.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
That is not a universally agreed upon precept.