Mille Fluer Genetics Question

[onthespot]

First generation would all be black mottled, all be feather footed, but less feathers than a regular cochin. If you cross those F1 babies to each other, some will come out clean legged. If you only use the clean legged ones, you will never get feather legs back again. If you have to use a feather legged F1 because it had the best traits, it would only be carrying one gene, so half of THOSE babies would be clean legged, and so on. Homozygous feather legs can be bred out in two generations, so I would not worry so much about the feathered legs for now, just work on the color and you will get incidental clean legs from time to time that you put in your "premium" pen to start the clean legged line.
If you don't want mahogany based birds, I'd stay away from the SS. There is a lot of nice lighter colored, buff based and reddish buff colors in the MF cochin lines I have. I honestly don't think you would have to cross in another line like SS, unless there was something about them you particularly wanted or needed for the birds you have in mind.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
Thanks, so if the first generation will be all black mottled, how will I breed them to get to buff Mille Fluer and up to a LF size? I'm not too worried about the feather leggs, I may end up likeing it. The only reason I was wondering about the SS is because I already have them and if I needed another LF breed to breed them to to give me type.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
If you are not going to get another variety of bird, what birds do you have to work with?

Tim

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
If you are not going to get another variety of bird, what birds do you have to work with?

Tim

Thanks , Right now I'm planning on getting pure Mottle Java and Mille Fluer Cochin Bantam eggs from onthespot. I need to know what I need to do to breed the Fi Cochin X Java Cross up to a LF size and and get buff Mille Fluer. Do I need to just keep breeding the Do I need to just keep breeding them to together or what. I could possibly used SS and BOs to breed up for size but I prefer not to bc that should set me back and I would end up with Mohagany based birds with the SS.

 

[tadkerson]

Thanks , Right now I'm planning on getting pure Mottle Java and Mille Fluer Cochin Bantam eggs from on the spot. I need to know what I need to do to breed the Fi Cochin X Java Cross up to a LF size and and get buff Mille Fluer. Do I need to just keep breeding the Do I need to just keep breeding them to together or what. I could possibly used SS and BOs to breed up for size but I prefer not to bc that should set me back and I would end up with Mohagany based birds with the SS.

I would use the speckled sussex on the buff orpington to produce the F1. Then cross the F1 offspring or siblings : one in four of the F2 offspring will be mottled. Some of the F2 offspring will have the mille fleur pattern. Pick the best looking F2 birds from the sibling cross and cross them together. Keep crossing and culling until you get what you want.

In the F2 birds, look for juveniles that appear to have mottling but then the mottling goes away when they are adults. These birds carry one mottling gene. You can cross theses birds to a mottled bird and produce some mottled birds. The birds that never appear to have mottling do not carry the mottling gene or genes.

Tim​

 

[onthespot]

tadkerson,

That does sound like a better way to start. No fussing around with black based "mystery birds" and no feathered shanks to breed out either... Still, if you still want eggs, just cuz, my offer still stands. It will have to be later on because nothing's laying worth a lick right now.

Edit to add, and no breeding up for size either. three good reasons to do what he said! LOL

 

[RAREROO]

OK onthespot, but I still want some of your eggs though, I'll probably work with all 4 breeds until I get what I want. MF Cochin Bantams, Mottled Javas, Speckled Sussex, and Buff Orps ( I have a young hatchery Buff Orp roo that is showing some mottleing on his back, does that mean he has 1 copy of the mottleing gene? I don't know if he will molt it out, but I'll keep him and see. But I want to end up with buff based Mille Fluer, I want them to be easily distinguished from my SS.

Thanks for all the advise.