Once Upon A Breed

[SourRoses]

This project was inspired by Clifford, our sweet English Orpington rooster.
I dreamed of a bird with his personality, large size, spots, and soft feathering.
They would also lay Blue jumbo eggs, have muff & beard, pea comb, slate legs, and the straight fanned tail from Ameraucana.
Colors will include Black, Chocolate, and Lavender, all Mottled.

Satin, our favorite Black Am hen, was mother to the first generation.

Here they are together:

 

[SourRoses]

The best F1 hens were Freckles and Cocomo (chocolate).

Freckles and an F1 rooster produced Clancy, the next flock rooster. Here he is as a juvenile:

 

[SourRoses]

Clancy and Cocomo were paired for June/July ‘24 hatches.

Mottled:

Some split chicks:

Dolly (pullet, looking so gangly, hehe):

It was pretty hot here yesterday when these were taken, so wings out and panting. They're now 10 weeks old.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Beautiful 'project' you have. Clifford is absolutely stunning...

 

[SourRoses]

Beautiful 'project' you have. Clifford is absolutely stunning...

Thank you! We dearly loved him, he was a wonderful flock leader and daddy to his chicks. Sadly he's gone now, but he has a lot of grandkids and I look for bits of his personality in every keeper/cull decision.

Clancy passed away after our last hatch. I now have a lot of boys to sort through for fall hatching season!

 

[SourRoses]

A drawback of these two breeds in combination is slow growth with a later onset of lay. My goal is maturity around 6 months, to balance the healthy growth of a large bird with utility.
To accomplish this, I began a side project early on, by crossing a Leghorn with Clifford. I was also looking to increase egg size to jumbo.
My research indicated that Leghorns have a wider pelvic aperture, which increases egg size relative to the body size of the chicken. In combination with the Orpington size genes, I believe it would lead to jumbo eggs without health complications.
The F1’s of this cross were extremely fast growing, attained a large size, and laid jumbo cream eggs within the first year.
Of course there was/is a lot to weed out, so I consider it a side project still. I was picky and kept just one of the F2’s, a chocolate hen named KitKat.
This summer, KitKat and Clancy produced three fully mottled chicks.
So they are roughly 50% English Orpington, 25% Ameraucana, and 25% Leghorn. I know that's not a real metric, I just find it handy to remind me what I'm looking for.

Here’s Monty, hatched June 1st:

I couldn't believe it, but yesterday I saw Monty mounting Cocomo at just 10 weeks old, and successfully at that! My mom nicknamed him "Monty the Mounty"

I'm going to evaluate him for a while more, (and of course separate out cull cockerels) before I set any eggs, but this is a massive improvement on his dad Clancy taking 6 months to begin breeding.
I plan to use 3 different roos this fall and winter. Each will get their turn, contributing different traits, and move along to pet homes, as I'm determined to make up for the slow start to the year.

Here’s Mabel, hatched July 4th from an enormous egg... it's supposed to be short for Maybeline, due to the eyeliner on just one eye, hehe. But Mabel looks a bit less like a pullet lately...

There's so much white, I wonder if this is another mutation of the mottling gene. I have seen that before, but still haven't decided which I like best.
The best part about making a new breed is I get to make the rules!

 

[SourRoses]

The lavender will hopefully come from Pearl. She's a backcross with Ameraucana.
We really like the smoothness of her lavender feathering.

The two above were taken on the 13th. The two below are from last month.

She's bigger and wider than the Ameraucana although she hasn't quite finished filling out.
I hope she will lay blue, not green, but an intermediate shade would be fine at this stage of the project.

 

[NagemTX]

Love the project and the info on how your going about it!

That is interesting on the mottleing.

 

[Slothinc]

Wow your project is incredible and I love all of the details you have given! The birds that you are using are absolutely gorgeous. I am so impressed by how far you have gotten in a short amount of time. Can’t wait to follow along! I love mottled chickens (and lav, choc and black are my favorite colors) and I love blue eggs!!

Side note, I have been dying of curiosity to know what would happen if lavender and chocolate were both present in the same bird. I have searched high and low and never found a photo of a chocolate who is also expressing lavender. If by some crazy chance you end up with one I would love to see it! (Both parents would have to be/carry lavender for that to be expressed, as well as having a parent that could pass on chocolate.) You may be trying to breed away from that combo but if somehow you get one somewhere along the line, that would be cool!