Is this considered a purebred

[CESpeed]

I was recently told about a farm that has Blue Australorps. When I asked about buying some, I was told they don't ship live birds and they have a 2 year waiting list for eggs.

Then I was told that they started theirs by breeding a blue Orpington with a black Aussie. That seems strange to me. I would have thought such birds would be considered crosses and not purebreeds. Am I wrong? How long would one have to develop such a pairing for the offspring to be considered a new breed?

I will not name the farm as I'm not trying to hurt anyone's business, I am simply trying to get some expert information.

Thank you

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

You need to ask what generation the birds are. There is a big (huge) difference between and F1 and F15. There is no "real" answer as to when the birds "are" the breed rather than a cross. Just that they should meet all SOP characteristics and a good percentage of the offspring from a cross to each other or to another line of the breed should meet the characteristics as well.

 

[CESpeed]

I don't know what F1cand F15 means.

Are you saying that one can mixed breeds then after a certain amount of time they are considered a true breed? At what point does that take place?

 

[CESpeed]

Can anyone else weigh in on this?

 

[tadkerson]

The bird has to meet the breed standard and produce birds of the same breed/variety. That is what makes a breed purebred. If the bird is hybrid it will most of the time, not meet the standard and most of the time the variety will be wrong. If a person crosses a white leghorn with a white plymouth rock the variety will be ok- white; but the standard will not be met by the hybrids. If I take the hybrids and back cross them to a superior white plymouth rock, then take the offspring from the back cross ( select only white rock looking birds to cross) and back cross them with a superior white plymouth rock then the next generation will look like plymouth rock. Once the birds meet the minimum standard with no major faults, they are purebred white plymouth rock. Faults are not always genetic in nature- a chick could accidentally damage a comb. At times, purebred birds will produce birds that are substandard. That does not mean the parents are not pure bred- things can happen to developing chicks that are not due to genetics. A bird can be substandard and be genetically the same as a superior sister or brother.

Some people think that a bird is only pure bred if it came from a certain line or a certain breeder. That is not true; purebred means that the organism has each allele in a gene set that are exactly alike. The only exception is in sex linked genes; females only carry one allele for each sex linked characteristic.

If a person crosses two organisms that are both pure bred ( both birds are genetically the same) then the offspring will inherit the same genes from the parents and the same allele sets as both parents and is purebred.


Tim

 

[hallerlake]

F1 is the first generation after the cross. They will be half orp and half australorp. If they cross the F1 birds back to an australorp, the next generation, F2, will be three quarters australorp. If they cross the F2 birds back to australorps, the next generation, F3, will be 7/8 australorp. At that point they are considered pure bred for all intents and purposes.

 

[hallerlake]

Blue Orrpington--------------------Australorp
| |
| |
F1---------------|
| |
| |
F2--------|
|
|
F3

Does this make it clearer?

I don't know why my lines don't line up. They do in the original

 

[CESpeed]

OK. Thank you. Your responses help. It sounds like a lot of work and expertise to create new color of a "purebred" chicken. Not quite up to the task just yet, but maybe in the future.

 

[hallerlake]

OK. Thank you. Your responses help. It sounds like a lot of work and expertise to create new color of a "purebred" chicken. Not quite up to the task just yet, but maybe in the future.

It gets even more complicated if one is working with a recessive trait.