Need Expert advice on solidifying traits in cross breds.

[CSolis]

I have a Beilefelder x EE hen that turned out rather smallish but has plenty of fluff.. I put her in with a Silkie roo with similar coloring. What I got was these two chick (now 5 weeks). The male has a big rose comb, and muffs and a sprinkling of the Beilefelder feather markings, while his sister has a straight comb and much more of the Beilefelder colors (for a hen). I don't want to breed bro and sister. But, I can put the male with my Beilefelder hen (not in this pair's breeding history) and hope to get a male to put with the gals (I'm collecting more eggs to hatch). In the mean time this gal will go back in with her father to hopefully gather more fluff in the babies without loosing the markings, then I can put those offspring with one from her brother's offspring by the Beilefelder hen. Would that make sense?
This first crossing gave me bantam Beiles with Pizazz!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I find the quickest way I've recaptured the traits I want is to line breed back to the parent.

I took a really nice Barnevelder rooster and placed him over several red hens, markedly a red sexlink. I got F1 birds that had the base color of the Barnie with broken lacing. I took the best of those daughters back to the dad and F2 produced some really beautiful Barnie golden laced hens (about 4 really nice lacing with one a bit muddy).

I'm now recapturing my Cream Legbar (due to a racoon disaster) by using the mom back to her olive egger son (1/2 CL and 1/2 Barnie). I hope to set some eggs on that soon.

After several generations, I then take the best line daughter to the best line son. Always choose for the traits you want.

Good luck
LofMc

 

[CSolis]

Good advice! I want to keep as much of the fluff as I can, so putting the female with her father will do that. Putting the male with a pure Bielefelder hen should strengthen the barring. Then breed the progeny of both should strengthen both traits I'm looking for while keeping them around bantam sized. I've noticed in each case I've bred a bantam roo to one of my hens the chicks are closer to bantam size. For example, my bantam roo x BO or BCM have produced smallish offspring.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I've noticed in my pairings (bantam Cochin with standard Barnvelder) that I too get smaller offspring....usually not bantam but not standard.

I'm not sure taking different traits from different lines will produce the combined traits you hope for. I line breed back for a particular trait (Barnevelder golden lacing) with red based birds to easily recapture the Barnie look. I'm breeding back to CL to recapture the CL look.

However if I take those 2 different trait lines and breed them, it won't mean I get the hybrid mix of Barnie lacing with CL coloring (barring) as I've got some strong barring genetics that will override the lacing. However I find the top crest from the CL does seem to come through the first generation fairly easily, as dose the white ear lobes.

Just saying that you'll get one line back to Silkie dad's fluff fairly easily, and one line back to Biel coloring fairly easily...but mix those 2 lines probably won't get what you hope for the first generation as you are breeding for color and fluff unless the Silkie line is pretty close in color to the Biel.

Silkie feathering seems to breed out pretty fast. I've not checked the books on the genetics, but I think standard feathers tend to be dominant. You may need to start 2 lines with Silkie, then breed those 2 lines to get the Silkie feather rather than taking Silkie feather line and mix with standard feather line.

My thoughts.
LofMc