Making Mille Fleur: Crossing Questions

[KinderKorner]

Alright. So I am interested in making Mille Feur. After some studying it doesn't seem that hard. Just a few generations.

I will be crossing Buff Columbians with Black Mottled. What color bird will result from this? All Black maybe with some leakage right?

Then you bred the F1's back to what? Together or to Buff Columbian? I think to get the mottled to pop up you would need to breed them together.

Oh. And If I decide to get a Mille Fleur, when should I mix that in?

If I bred my F1's to a Mille Fleur would it speed things up and create better color?

I'm kind of excited. I won't share what breed I am wanting to add the Mille Fleur into. But it should be fairly easy, and make some wonderful birds.

Can't wait to get my project going next month.


Oh one more thing! If I bred the Buff Columbian to Blue Mottled what would I get? Is it possible to make a Blue Mille Fleur. That would be neat as well. Everyone says to use Black Mottled, but has anyone every attempted blue?

I would love some input from people who have done this before. And what they got.

 

[amazondoc]

IMHO, you should not bring in another breed if you can avoid it. If you're working with a breed that has both buff Columbian and mottled birds already, then stick with that. Then you won't have so much tinkering to do with the type, just the color. Keep things as simple as possible!

 

[KinderKorner]

Don't worry. I won't have much 'Tinkering'

I am just interested in what the color crosses are.

 

[Krys109uk]

Everyone says to use Black Mottled, but has anyone every attempted blue?

Yes, I have. But in Orpingtons. Mille fleur pattern gets called jubilee when in Orps (& blue jubilee when blue is used); basically it is the same colour as mille fleur but with mahogany, which gives a red ground colour, rather than the tan colour.

It is my personal opinion that one particular base ought to be used rather than various combinations of three. If my memory serves Tom said his buff columbians were on brown which would, IMO, make a good base for mille fleur. My jubilees are on wheaten & that seems to work for me.​

 

[KinderKorner]

I'm not getting any Buffs from Tom. My Buffs aren't even the same breed, so I'm not sure what their genetic makeup is.

So would it be possible to produce Mille Fleur out of Black Mottled and Buff Columbian?

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
Yes.

You need three genes to make mille fleur: you need mottled, you need Columbian, and you need something to make the reddish/buffish background color. That "something" can be e(b), E(Wh), or e+.

 

[KinderKorner]

Yeah I knew you needed three things. But won't the Buff on the Buff Columbian count as the base? Right... lol.

Also still can anyone tell me what the colors I will get from F1, F2...

 

[Krys109uk]

I'm not getting any Buffs from Tom. My Buffs aren't even the same breed, so I'm not sure what their genetic makeup is.

You can tell quite a bit about their genetic make up by their chick down.​

 

[KinderKorner]

Thanks for all the Genetic help. I have a pretty good understanding of it. But I know more about horses, and the basics. Chicken genes is a new one to me.

What should I look for in Chick down? What colors of down go with which base?

 

[Krys109uk]

you need something to make the reddish/buffish background color. That "something" can be e(b), E(Wh), or e+.

It is the columbian gene restricting the black from & evening out colour which allows the ground colour to be red based especially in males.

won't the Buff on the Buff Columbian count as the base?

When referring to base it is usually the alleles at the e-locus Amazondoc wrote about. Brown(eb), Wheaten (eWh) & duckwing/wild type (e+).​