My Silver-Laced Australorp(ish) Project

[Egghead_Jr]

I say Ramses tail set and body shape (viewed from above) does not conform to a dual purpose bird rather it conforms to egg layers. This is Mediterranean Class of bird trait. Not that of Austral bred to standard.

Keep in mind that Ramses will be the patriarch and all of the traits you like of him can be developed from the F1's. F1's will all be blue and black. There will be no criteria restriction excepting squirrel tail and side sprigs in your selection of a breeder to back cross to the dams. Hatch enough and you could have a Ramses II that carries the silver lace. See what I mean? Ramses the first is obsolete at that point and actually a determent to any progress in obtaining a silver laced flock.

 

[3KillerBs]

I say Ramses tail set and body shape (viewed from above) does not conform to a dual purpose bird rather it conforms to egg layers. This is Mediterranean Class of bird trait. Not that of Austral bred to standard.

Keep in mind that Ramses will be the patriarch and all of the traits you like of him can be developed from the F1's. F1's will all be blue and black. There will be no criteria restriction excepting squirrel tail and side sprigs in your selection of a breeder to back cross to the dams. Hatch enough and you could have a Ramses II that carries the silver lace. See what I mean? Ramses the first is obsolete at that point and actually a determent to any progress in obtaining a silver laced flock.

My concern about backcrossing to the SLWs is that I'd end up with just Wyandottes with a single comb rather Australorps.

 

[SourRoses]

Rameses doesn't look remotely like a leghorn. LOL

And he looks so nice and chunky!
I really didn't value that trait enough myself until we got a full-figured boy to witness firsthand.

 

[3KillerBs]

Rameses doesn't look remotely like a leghorn. LOL

And he looks so nice and chunky!
I really didn't value that trait enough myself until we got a full-figured boy to witness firsthand.

I'll get some more photos of him and of the girls tomorrow.

 

[Sally PB]

following! Silver laced, blue Australorps...

 

[3KillerBs]

following! Silver laced, blue Australorps...

I wasn't planning on selecting specifically for blue, but since my Australorps are blue some of the F1 will be blue.

The F1 won't be laced though.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

My concern about backcrossing to the SLWs is that I'd end up with just Wyandottes with a single comb rather Australorps.

Reread the second paragraph of what I wrote. The breeding choices are up to you, there is no Wyandotte once you make the first cross. Back crossing to a single comb hatchery quality Wyandotte with a hybrid does not beget a Wyandotte. However it does set the silver lacing you want.

Sure you are adding more of their genetics with the backcross but again you could be mating them with something that looks just like the sire. There is so much genetic diversity there is really no limit to what you can pull out except by limiting the number of birds you hatch.

Ramses does not meet many of the criteria of the Australorp breed. Personally I'd not call him one. You can always make any line of bird into any breed with planning and time but it must have all the characteristics of that breed to be so called. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

 

[NatJ]

If you are planning to keep both male and female F1 chicks so you can create an F2 generation, you might try also crossing the F1 male to his silver laced mother and see what you think of the chicks.

It is certainly a way to get good lacing sooner, and the birds should have SOME Australorp qualities (being 1/4 Australorp.)

I'm not saying to do the backcross instead of the F2, just consider doing it in addition, and then look at the results to decide which ones you want to keep for the next generation of crossing to Australorp.

I'm a little late to this discussion, but I'm just not seeing why it must be an either-or decision

A time benefit of doing the backcross: a cockerel is usually old enough to mate with his mother sometime before his sisters start to lay, and even longer before his sisters progress to laying normal sized eggs rather than tiny pullet eggs. So you can get through the first few generations faster, if you keep crossing cockerels to mature hens (Laced or Australorp, depending on which stage you're at.)

 

[DarJones]

You are looking at a lot of work to achieve the results desired. First, the Silver Laced Wyandottes are not good quality for lacing. They are missing 2 or 3 modifier genes that make the lacing more distinct. This will be particularly evident on the feathers near the tail button.

Crossing to your rooster will bring out a bunch of unanticipated traits in the chicks. They won't be laced, but whatever is in the background of both parents will show up in the segregating F2 offspring. If you are very lucky, you might get 1 in 32 with decent lacing, straight comb, and good egg laying.

As was suggested above, breed an F1 back to the SLW females to recover lacing, then select laced hens to breed to your blue Australorps. This will bring lacing into the Australorps background much faster than attempting random mating among F2's.

Silver Laced Wyandottes carry a trait you will struggle to overcome. They have these huge fluffy tailfeathers totally unlike the tailfeathers on your rooster. This trait tends to be dominant over the slim straight shank feathers you want. The puffy feathers hold heat a lot better which of course is not what you want.

I've posted pictures of my birds a few times. I started with eggs in 2013 of a Blue Egg lying Brown Leghorn line from UARK and crossed with Silver Laced Wyandottes from Jerry Foley http://www.foleyswaterfowl.com/ I am just now at the stage of re-selecting for good lacing combined with blue eggs and rose comb. All of the chicks hatched this year will lay blue eggs. I have about 1 in 64 that are really good for lacing, rose comb, feather type, and other traits needed. So far, that means about 4 good chicks out of 200 hatched. I have one young hen you would probably like to have. She shows straight comb, outstanding lacing, and overall excellent physical attributes. She is probably about 1.5 to 2 pounds in this picture.
http://selectedplants.com/miscan/slw.hen.jpg

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I would probably do the F1 x F1 cross and a F1 x wyandotte cross. This would give you a much better chance of having birds with lacing and birds with australorp traits that you can then breed together.