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[Jennc-123]

These are my 2 cockerels they are svart hona blue isbar crosses. I have a mixed flock mostly. I am keeping them and they will be crossed to blue andalusians, black austrolope, svart x. My svart honas I'm planning to breed true. Any ideas from people who know more about chicken genetics than me as to what to (mostly) expect?
I am planning quite a genetic program in the future (it will take years) and I'm hoping this will give me a better understanding, and some more beautiful chickens.

 

[Ruthster55]

A bit of info about Blue Andalusians and breeding them.

https://heritagepoultry.org/blog/andalusian-chicken-mediterranean-class
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/andalusian

Just my opinion, but I would keep the Australorps out of the breeding program and just do crosses between Svart Hona and Blue Andalusian and maybe the Andalusian/Isbar crosses. A more appropriate third breed than Australorp might be good quality (no leakage) Ayam Cemani if you are looking for melanistic blue chickens.

Hope you have a good incubator, several breeding coops and growout pens, and a taste for chicken! (the food i.e. culling). It gets complicated when there are 3 or 4 breeds involved and what you are selecting for.

Keep spreadsheets, and you will probably need to use either wing bands (permanent but slightly invasive) or leg bands (need to be changed as they grow older).

 

[Jennc-123]

Thank you! Just reading that first article and this seems to be a more exciting experiment than I thought. I have no problem culling, with 3 kids we go through a lot of meat lol. I also band based on breed and year hatched so I can cull once hens reach a non productive age.
I will likely not use the australorp in the experiment then if they will diminish the breeding quality.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Toe punches work too instead of legbands