How Do I Get Chickens to Breed True?

[LapisLazuli]

I'm trying to create a new breed and I want it to breed true to type. I will hopefully be starting with breeding stock. Here is an example of the foundation of the breed I am trying to create:

 

[nicalandia]

I'm trying to create a new breed and I want it to breed true to type. I will hopefully be starting with breeding stock. Here is an example of the foundation of the breed I am trying to create:View attachment 2352413

What is your end goal? What color?

 

[LapisLazuli]

I am trying to create a small cold hardy chicken that lays a lot of eggs and has a good temperament I don't care as much about the color.

 

[black_cat]

I am trying to create a small cold hardy chicken that lays a lot of eggs and has a good temperament I don't care as much about the color.

If you are going for small it may be better to go for cochins instead of brahmas, as you keep the fairly small comb and leg feathering but lose the giant size.

 

[centrarchid]

I have project that is eight years in. It is derived from three American Dominique's and 2 American Games representing very different stocks. The games were selected to restore meat production, vitality and white skin. Only one game bird brought in the white skin. First generation was making for a flock that was 50% American Dominique and 50% American Game using the game with yellow skin. Then a couple generations were bred to fix so all males homozygous for baring and all birds had at least one copy of rose come gene. Then I bred a couple of the pullets to the white skinned American Game. Male offspring from those where bred to the remaining pullets without white skin. Selection effort is ongoing to make so all have white legs, barring and rose comb. This all being done while conserving the ability of the birds to produce good number of medium sized eggs and good muscle mass when about 12 weeks old. As the project has progressed I decided that base black is not essential so nearly a 1/3 of birds hatch as yellow rather than black. I expect to invest at least another decade in the project. It helps to have a suite of traits in mind at start and it is good to write them down and keep them handy every time you think about doing some brood stock selection. The more traits of concern, the more generations you need to select for homozygosity of those traits. I am also concerned with issues of inbreeding depression which means you need to have more than just a few birds running around.

 

[centrarchid]

Chantecler is one I would use for comb attributes providing cold tolerance.

 

[black_cat]

I can't vouch for size, but faverolles also have feathered legs, and relatively small combs. Also beards.

 

[NatJ]

If you are going for small it may be better to go for cochins instead of brahmas, as you keep the fairly small comb and leg feathering but lose the giant size.

Cochins and Brahmas both come in bantam size and large size. Both bantams are small, both standards are supposed to be large. I'm not sure why the chart calls for standard Brahmas rather than bantam ones.

And they have different comb types: single comb for Cochins, pea comb for Brahmas. The pea comb gene has an additional effect of making the wattles smaller than usual, when the bird has two copies of the pea comb gene. (Muff/beard also shrinks wattles.)

 

[black_cat]

Cochins and Brahmas both come in bantam size and large size. Both bantams are small, both standards are supposed to be large. I'm not sure why the chart calls for standard Brahmas rather than bantam ones.

And they have different comb types: single comb for Cochins, pea comb for Brahmas. The pea comb gene has an additional effect of making the wattles smaller than usual, when the bird has two copies of the pea comb gene. (Muff/beard also shrinks wattles.)

Yep! I"m aware of all that. I did not know about the pea comb affecting the wattle size, though. That's super interesting!

 

[nicalandia]

Chantecler is one I would use for comb attributes providing cold tolerance.