My Silver-Laced Australorp(ish) Project

[3KillerBs]

As discussed in this thread, I love the silver-laced color pattern but there are no silver-laced breeds that meet my needs for a production-oriented breed that thrives in my hot and humid climate. My Silver-Laced Wyandotte and my son's Silver-Laced Cochin are gloriously-beautiful birds, but they wilt when the weather is in the high-90s, as it so often here in central NC.

I also love my Australorps, which perfectly suit my climate, my production needs, and my management style. So I'm going to try to breed some silver-laced birds that have the same good qualities of my Australorps.

The adult SLW I have is unsuited to breed because, though her lacing and type are quite reasonable for a hatchery bird, she lays wonky eggs with weird calcium deposites and/or odd wrinkles. Not just occasionally, but every single egg.

Therefore, I ordered some SLW's from Ideal this spring, actively hoping to get some non-SOP, single-combed chicks and, despite a snake eating half my chick order, I succeeded. Among the survivors are these two SLW girls, currently 11 weeks.

Victoria

Maria Theresa

And here is my 10-month-old Blue Australorp cockerel, Rameses,

If I understand the genetics correctly, the lacing won't show in the F1 but should show in the F2. Then I can breed the F2 back to the Australorps and repeat alternating crosses until I get something that looks like an Australorp but has the desired lacing.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Watching with interest. My Cochins are the same way about heat, especially the large fowl. I always joke that they have a melting point of 80° F because they like to spread out on the ground trying to cool off when it's any warmer than that.

 

[SourRoses]

I was reading some interesting stuff about breeding for blue on a breeder forum and thought of you, but I wasn't sure if you're going to keep the Blue going or not?

@DarJones did quite a bit of work with Wyandottes and knows a lot about genetics!

 

[3KillerBs]

Watching with interest. My Cochins are the same way about heat, especially the large fowl. I always joke that they have a melting point of 80° F because they like to spread out on the ground trying to cool off when it's any warmer than that.

View attachment 3229950

Vigor is the #1 thing for me. I want good health and the ability to thrive in my climate under my management system.

For my chickens in the summer, 80F is a cool day even for the less heat-tolerant birds, but the Cochin and the Wyandotte are the first to melt.

I was reading some interesting stuff about breeding for blue on a breeder forum and thought of you, but I wasn't sure if you're going to keep the Blue going or not?

@DarJones did quite a bit of work with Wyandottes and knows a lot about genetics!

Yes, I'm keeping up my Blue Australorps as my primary flock. Australoprs are just about perfect in everything I want out of a chicken, I just want to try adding in my favorite color pattern.

I don't intend to select one way or another for blue vs black in my SLA(ish)'s until well after I have the main characteristics established. Since I'm starting with a blue rooster the blue will be there, but I'll use vigor and type as my main criteria.

 

[3KillerBs]

Victoria and Maria Theresa are 15 weeks old now.

 

[3KillerBs]

Victoria (single comb), and Maria Theresa are now 17 weeks and developing beautifully.

 

[Emily_loveschickens]

How is it going?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The single comb should do wonders in your heat. I don't see a need to back cross to the Australorp again unless you want to add more of those Leghorn characteristics he carries. No bashing him but he's genetically closer to Leghorn than Austral.

If you don't want the blue just breed blacks from this cross for F2 generation. I'm a sucker for blue varieties, like the fact you have one gene pool but three different colors. Regardless, there will be plenty of diversity to stick with the F generations with back crosses to keepers of each generation for narrowing the traits you want. Though back crossing a blue F1 cockerel to the dam would set your lacing faster. Not that blue does anything for silver lacing it's just my preference of variety.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

http://kippenjungle.nl/chickencalculator.html

Setting the lacing with back cross to one of the silver laced hens results in a blue or black silver laced bird (complete lacing) for every 8 chicks hatched. To not back cross to original hens puts the odds closer to 1 in 250 chicks. I knew it made a big difference but was a bit taken aback by how much. Figured I'd post the calculator so you can verify.

So yeah, back cross F1 to dams then stick with those resulting with complete lacing. Of course there is going to be a chance of rose combs so you're looking at hatching 50 or so eggs to have any choices for future breeders- body type and so forth. Hatching less shackles you to the birds with lacing regardless of body type and that could even be squirrel tail or combs with side sprigs. So hatch a lot!

 

[3KillerBs]

How is it going?

Victoria and Maria Theresa are approaching point-of-lay at the end of the month, I believe.

The single comb should do wonders in your heat. I don't see a need to back cross to the Australorp again unless you want to add more of those Leghorn characteristics he carries. No bashing him but he's genetically closer to Leghorn than Austral.

It's the Australorp traits that my current flock carries that I value.

Why do you say that Rameses (my avatar is a current picture of him at about 1 year old), looks like a Leghorn? I raised one of his sons out of a California White to butchering age and he was much different than his father in size and build. (Photo in this thread if you are interested, but the bird himself has already been consumed).

So yeah, back cross F1 to dams then stick with those resulting with complete lacing. Of course there is going to be a chance of rose combs so you're looking at hatching 50 or so eggs to have any choices for future breeders- body type and so forth. Hatching less shackles you to the birds with lacing regardless of body type and that could even be squirrel tail or combs with side sprigs. So hatch a lot!

I understand that I would get the lacing much faster that way but what I'd be getting would be single-combed Wyandottes -- which I could get easily by simply ordering a lot of hatchery birds, keeping the single combs, and selling the rose combs.

It's the Australorp traits in my current flock that I value most. Their laying, their personality, the perfection of their fit to my mental image of chicken, etc. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ps-because-medium-doesnt-mean-boring.1547066/