Because the chantecler doesn't have many colors. And I think it would be very cool to add a new one into it. I would most likely also breed the other colors, but I like this color better
A breed doesn't need a lot of colors. Most breeds can only support about 3 color varieties. Probably in Chanteclers it will be White, Partridge, and Buff. The problem with a lot of colors in a breed is this ( don't get offended, I am just saying, not pointing at you). Most people stay in poultry maybe 5 years. If they take up a new color they can end up with chicks of crossed alleles and mixed color genes. Sometimes the chicks are sold to other fanciers and breeders of that breed as "project birds" or worse, as birds of a pure color variety when in fact, tho they may
look like a pure color, they are carrying hidden color modifiers and recessive color genes.
These incorrectly colored or "mixed color" birds get spread around the breed's gene pool. and can have make breeding a proper color a problem for many years. Witness the Black Copper Marans/Wheaten Marans cross or the Black Copper Marans/Golden Salmon Marans cross color problems , etc.
Or searching to improve a production trait like darkness of egg, witness the Pedescenda(sp?)/ Black Copepr Marans cross and the comb issues it brought to the Marans breed.
My point is, the Chantecler breed seriously,
very seriously, needs breeders for the three colors we have now. Pick one and champion it. We
really need you. If you like the gold birds, pick the Buff. It is a
very difficult color to breed correctly and should give you years of enjoyment perfecting the proper hue.
Here's a wonderful compilation about the color Buff put together by the renowned Leghorn breeder, Danne Honour, called the Dean of Buff poultry.
Buff Coloration In Poultry http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/Buff-Coloration.pdf
The Gospel of True Buff Colour On Domestic Fowl by W. H. Card.on page 57. Danne Honour says this is the best article he has ever read about defining the color Buff. Judge Card was Danne Honour's Uncle's Uncle. He was a renowned veteran poultry man and creator of the White Laced Red Cornish fowl. He also had a gift for making complex breeding ideas simple and wrote one of my fav little books of poultry wisdom. Here it is to read for free online :
LAWS GOVERNING BREEDlNG OF STANDARD POULTRY OF ALL RECOGNIZED BREEDS OF DOMESTIC FOWLS, WITH CHART
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087299559;view=1up;seq=5
I love this little book because Judge Card states Laws, not opinions or theories. After 40 years of breeding fancy fowl, he states,
here are the rules; if you do this, then that will happen. The breeding plan he espouses will work for multiple species and had been used for many decades before he put it in his book. It is a sure way, with judicious culling to get cookie-cutter descendants from one's breeding animals and birds.
Best Regards,
Karen
