however they're extreme frizzles and I would like to breed some smooth feathered healthier looking chooks. They are excellent, large to jumbo egg layers and I love their calm personalities. The Roo is a nice big boy but not mean or flighty. I should add that the hens are all quite heavy solid birds.
I also have one that is "Wild Type" Coloured.
If I took those four and crossed them with this roo would I have a decent chance at a better feather?
Obv, it would be so much easier to just go out and buy a quality bird, but that's just not an open option to me here. I'm going to have to make do with what I have.
Your birds have the most extreme expression of the frizzle phenotype. Your birds carry two genes for frizzle and do not carry a modifier that would inhibit the expression of the frizzle genes.
The modifier of the frizzle gene is recessive so a bird must carry two of the modifier genes to effect the expression of the frizzle genes. The frizzle gene is also incompletely dominant. If you combine all the gene possibilities there can be varying degrees of expression in frizzled birds.
The fact that the birds are the most extreme form of frizzle presents some problems when attempting to out cross to produce a cemani. The good news is that the male chicken you want to use as a breeder should carry the recessive genes that would help modify the frizzle gene.
A bird can carry one frizzle gene and if it also carries the two recessive modifiers; the bird can look almost normal feathered.
What is the color of the shanks of the male you have in the above picture? If he has blue or slate shanks that would be good. Does he have blue or slate shanks? What color of skin does the male have? Does he have white shanks, green shanks or yellow shanks? It would be best if he had white or blue shanks.
I need to know this before I can give you any breeding advise.
Tim
