Orange Mottled Chicken!

[I'mLovinIt<3 <3]

You have a good goal, and a good start. Hope you post pictures when you hit your goal!!!

It really ought to be interesting You should trying getting one of your 4th or 5th generation hens to breed with a Mille Fleur D'ulle roo or gold phoenix roo. I really suggest it: dealt with cross-breeding before. Very fun!

Good luck and cluck

 

[knjinnm]

I'mLovinIt<3 <3 :

You have a good goal, and a good start. Hope you post pictures when you hit your goal!!!

It really ought to be interesting You should trying getting one of your 4th or 5th generation hens to breed with a Mille Fleur D'ulle roo or gold phoenix roo. I really suggest it: dealt with cross-breeding before. Very fun!

Good luck and cluck

Wouldn't that make the offspring smaller? As well as smaller eggs"?

I would but "No Name" on a sex linked red layer and a Cornish Cross for meat and then breed the offspring together.​

 

[SuperPeacockman]

I'mLovinIt<3 <3 :

You have a good goal, and a good start. Hope you post pictures when you hit your goal!!!

It really ought to be interesting You should trying getting one of your 4th or 5th generation hens to breed with a Mille Fleur D'ulle roo or gold phoenix roo. I really suggest it: dealt with cross-breeding before. Very fun!

Good luck and cluck

Wouldn't that take out the orange?​

 

[alohachickens]

Quote:
Wouldn't that make the offspring smaller? As well as smaller eggs"?

I would but "No Name" on a sex linked red layer and a Cornish Cross for meat and then breed the offspring together.

Someone here on BYC emailed me about genetics, and warned against any of the sex-links that carry dominant white. Like, I think some of the Red Star or Golden Comets, are some kind of all-white chicken crossed with an all-red chicken. The hens end up red and the roos white. I guess I was told the problem is, with the sex-links with one white parent, is if you introduce the White gene, you will get solid whites popping up here and there for generations to come, and they said it would be really diffcult to remove!

A Cornish type bird wouldn't be bad for bringing up size, someone here in town is talking about giving it a shot. But I've been using a Buff Rock over here (HUGE golden birds) and WOW are these baby boys HUGE! And bonus - I found one little white feather tip on my Buff Rock/Aloha cross roo! That should mean that he carries Mottling, and if he does, WHOO-HOO - any size issues will be totally over with this monster guy in the flock, ha ha! He's bright deep gold, because he has some New Hampshire Red, too. You can really see the contrast of that white feather tip, he is much darker gold than a regular Buff Orp or Buff Rock.

So, I took their advice, and I played it safe. NO sex-links have been used, for color reasons, which is a shame, because those are great layers! So far, I have only worked with "solid" chicken colors, like solid red, solid gold, and Sussex, and one Blue Wheaten Ameraucana hen (which is where the Alohas are getting the puffy cheeks from. That hen was an AMAZING layer.)

For this reason I'm recommending Buff Rock, Buff Orp, New Hampshire Red. And a dash of Speckled Sussex - but keep the Sussex in moderation, and try to pick exceptional Sussex that have great size and color, if you can find them. Small sized Sussex with little motting and dull colors who are poor layers are NOT going to help just because they carry mottling, LOL. A BYC member on here named "Buns" has some AMAZING looking Sussex eggs for sale now, BTW. A few of her hens have big bold spangles and all have these really deep, heavy bodies. They're nice!

It seems if we can get the bloodline half "big chicken" and half Aloha, the babies turn out full-sized.

Maybe you can use Rhode Island Reds - but ONLY if they are exceptional layers and bigger in size. Some of the hatchery RIR around here are duller dark brown, and a bit small. I saw an Ebay ad for someone selling eggs from a Buff Orp crossed with a RIR, and the result was a bright dark orangey chicken, nice and plump but not as "puffy" as an Orp, and I bet they were good layers from the RIR. I did order some eggs and hatched a couple, but sadly they found a hole in the fence as babies and got in the neighbor's yard, and were eaten by his dogs, argh!!! Anyway, that looked like a terrific cross that would be ideal for this program for a "base" stock on some colors.

I Just keep it light, bright, and try not to bring in anything that isn't needed, like feathery feet, unless the bird is really exceptional (a auper laying black-tailed Buff Marans and you want big dark eggs, for example, would be OK) and be prepared to work hard to breed the unwanted stuff out again.

Someone else asked about laying abilty. Right now, all of these are really good productive layers. Better layers than my purebred Buff Rock hen, and better layers than the pure Speckled Sussex hens that I used to own. They are not as good a layer as my purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana that I used to have, but she was exceptional, which is why I used her in the program. She was given to a friend and now at five years old, she is still laying like crazy, even in excessive heat of summer or short winter days. A trace of her bloodline runs through some of these. She is probably responsible for their good egg production. The only downside is the eggs are smaller, like the chickens themselves. If we get the egg size back up, the production is already there.

Bring in SOLID chickens, big, bright, and good layers! Don't get too exotic or crazy at this point, the Aloha stock will give you plenty of weird colors right now. Avoid dark colors or black. That's been my rules so far, LOL.

My Top choices if anyone wants to join me: GOOD Speckled Sussex, New Hampshire Red, Buff Rock. Also wonderful: Buff Orp or Buff Orp x RIR crosses; Buff or Light Brown Sussex, I think would work great.

Useable but not ideal: Anything with too much black, or carring the white gene. Avoid feathered legs UNLESS the hen is perfect in every other way (big, bright color, good layer, like some Marans.)

Avoid Polish, (wrong body type, top knot.) Avoid Cochins (poor layers, feathery feet) Aviod sex-links with white gene (will give you solid white babies.)

Unknown: Welsummers. They are pretty dark and boring in color, but hey, that is EXACTLY the body shape I'm going for!

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Wels/BRKWelsummers.html

Note the long tail on the males and the kind of "jaunty" fan tail on the females, my Alohas show this, and I'd love to keep it. The Welsummer or Sussex is the goal overall body shape goal. So Welsummers wouldn't be bad if you can offset the dull color with something bright.

 

[alohachickens]

Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex :

I think the reason nameless avoided notice till now is that he resembles the Cuckoos in coloring. The less barred one has the same size and color as nameless and both are skittish, so I bet I just thought he was another barred (and thus inelligible) roo hiding in the coop.

And I might take pairs/trios to the swap... it would be a shame to eat Easter or Peach. Or, for that matter my dark (but sweet) boys Fox, Condor, and Wings.

A lot of these boys are looking pretty awesome! See if any look exceptionally large in comparison. Bluetail's face looks a whole lot like my half NHR, half Aloha roo. This is him, note he is SOLID but his mom was a nearly white "Confetti" color hen:

Doesn't he look a lot like Bluetail? Especially in the face . . . .

If that's the case, ONE of these hens is Bluetail's mom:

 

[sundayschicks]

wow!!! very striking. i wish you good luck. with out people like you where would we get all our beautiful chicks.

 

[alohachickens]

Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex :

Eventually I will be willing to ship eggs or chicks, I just can't do so yet! My birds won't be laying until..... What age DO they lay at? My other breeds all started at 6 months or so, but what do I expect with these?
I think my little flock was hatched April 19th. Most of them are still peeping- though my boys are trying to crow. I need to build my breeding pen and get an incubator yet... I am new to this!
To answer questions- yes, Bluetail is fairly big. I actually have TWO that look just like that, but one is small. Easter is pretty big, as is the roo below that I somehow missed. Before I kick them out of the grow out pen and into the big chicken yard I will take pics of each one and weigh them (oh, they'll love that!) so we have a real comparison. I have a few really large pullets (bigger than half the boys!) of which Calli is one. The other big girls are the plain brown/red with black on the hackles, but they look like they might start to show white too later on. Only one bird so far seems really small (a dark red boy)


Its so hard to pick good pictures... picking a rooster will be so hard!

Note on CALLI: There was a BIG hen, who is half Sussex, half Aloha. She was crossed with a half NHR, half Aloha. IF "Calli" is the result of this cross, "Calli" is hands down going to be the most valuable hen in your flock right now! The hope was that the recessive mottling gene from the (solid brown) half NHR, half Aloha roo would cross with the colorful half Sussex, half Aloha, and the (hopeful) result would be a half Aloha, 1/4 NHR, 1/4 Sussex, that would be huge, and a brighter red base color than any Sussex, (from the NHR) with more white than any Sussex (from the half Aloha blood.)

Does this sound like Calli?

These would be her parents, if this is the case:

Half NHR, Half Aloha rooster:

Half Sussex, Half Aloha hen:

The breeder pen: (note how much bigger the half Sussex hen and half NHR roo are compared to the others.)

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
Wouldn't that make the offspring smaller? As well as smaller eggs"?

I would but "No Name" on a sex linked red layer and a Cornish Cross for meat and then breed the offspring together.

Someone here on BYC emailed me about genetics, and warned against any of the sex-links that carry dominant white. Like, I think some of the Red Star or Golden Comets, are some kind of all-white chicken crossed with an all-red chicken. The hens end up red and the roos white. I guess I was told the problem is, with the sex-links with one white parent, is if you introduce the White gene, you will get solid whites popping up here and there for generations to come, and they said it would be really diffcult to remove!

A Cornish type bird wouldn't be bad for bringing up size, someone here in town is talking about giving it a shot. But I've been using a Buff Rock over here (HUGE golden birds) and WOW are these baby boys HUGE! And bonus - I found one little white feather tip on my Buff Rock/Aloha cross roo! That should mean that he carries Mottling, and if he does, WHOO-HOO - any size issues will be totally over with this monster guy in the flock, ha ha! He's bright deep gold, because he has some New Hampshire Red, too. You can really see the contrast of that white feather tip, he is much darker gold than a regular Buff Orp or Buff Rock.

So, I took their advice, and I played it safe. NO sex-links have been used, for color reasons, which is a shame, because those are great layers! So far, I have only worked with "solid" chicken colors, like solid red, solid gold, and Sussex, and one Blue Wheaten Ameraucana hen (which is where the Alohas are getting the puffy cheeks from. That hen was an AMAZING layer.)

For this reason I'm recommending Buff Rock, Buff Orp, New Hampshire Red. And a dash of Speckled Sussex - but keep the Sussex in moderation, and try to pick exceptional Sussex that have great size and color, if you can find them. Small sized Sussex with little motting and dull colors who are poor layers are NOT going to help just because they carry mottling, LOL. A BYC member on here named "Buns" has some AMAZING looking Sussex eggs for sale now, BTW. A few of her hens have big bold spangles and all have these really deep, heavy bodies. They're nice!

It seems if we can get the bloodline half "big chicken" and half Aloha, the babies turn out full-sized.

Maybe you can use Rhode Island Reds - but ONLY if they are exceptional layers and bigger in size. Some of the hatchery RIR around here are duller dark brown, and a bit small. I saw an Ebay ad for someone selling eggs from a Buff Orp crossed with a RIR, and the result was a bright dark orangey chicken, nice and plump but not as "puffy" as an Orp, and I bet they were good layers from the RIR. I did order some eggs and hatched a couple, but sadly they found a hole in the fence as babies and got in the neighbor's yard, and were eaten by his dogs, argh!!! Anyway, that looked like a terrific cross that would be ideal for this program for a "base" stock on some colors.

I Just keep it light, bright, and try not to bring in anything that isn't needed, like feathery feet, unless the bird is really exceptional (a auper laying black-tailed Buff Marans and you want big dark eggs, for example, would be OK) and be prepared to work hard to breed the unwanted stuff out again.

Someone else asked about laying abilty. Right now, all of these are really good productive layers. Better layers than my purebred Buff Rock hen, and better layers than the pure Speckled Sussex hens that I used to own. They are not as good a layer as my purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana that I used to have, but she was exceptional, which is why I used her in the program. She was given to a friend and now at five years old, she is still laying like crazy, even in excessive heat of summer or short winter days. A trace of her bloodline runs through some of these. She is probably responsible for their good egg production. The only downside is the eggs are smaller, like the chickens themselves. If we get the egg size back up, the production is already there.

Bring in SOLID chickens, big, bright, and good layers! Don't get too exotic or crazy at this point, the Aloha stock will give you plenty of weird colors right now. Avoid dark colors or black. That's been my rules so far, LOL.

My Top choices if anyone wants to join me: GOOD Speckled Sussex, New Hampshire Red, Buff Rock. Also wonderful: Buff Orp or Buff Orp x RIR crosses; Buff or Light Brown Sussex, I think would work great.

Useable but not ideal: Anything with too much black, or carring the white gene. Avoid feathered legs UNLESS the hen is perfect in every other way (big, bright color, good layer, like some Marans.)

Avoid Polish, (wrong body type, top knot.) Avoid Cochins (poor layers, feathery feet) Aviod sex-links with white gene (will give you solid white babies.)

Unknown: Welsummers. They are pretty dark and boring in color, but hey, that is EXACTLY the body shape I'm going for!

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Wels/BRKWelsummers.html

Note the long tail on the males and the kind of "jaunty" fan tail on the females, my Alohas show this, and I'd love to keep it. The Welsummer or Sussex is the goal overall body shape goal. So Welsummers wouldn't be bad if you can offset the dull color with something bright.

The person who told you the information about the red Sexlinks was incorrect. The reason red Sexlink males are mostly white is due to having one copy of silver, the females do not have this. Since dominant white replaces black pigment, it would be very useful in getting rid of the black in your Alohas. The only way you would get mostly white birds would be if you crossed the red Sexlink to one of your blue or black mottled Alohas, or crossing to Alohas with the silver gene. Do not use red Sexlink males though, as they would introduce silver which would result in the gold being eliminated.

 

[alohachickens]

Tamra - I went back and looked at your photos of Calli. She absolutely does not look like a pure Speckled Sussex, which is good, we want these to look like a NEW breed. Take some more photos, if you can, of ALL of the biggest birds, and let us see them! Even if they are boring in color. When I hatched your eggs, I had only the Solid roo with colorful females, and the solid (BIG) females with a colorful male. Every chicken in your flock should carry color. Even if it just looks solid. So let's see the BIG ones! Color is WAY more fun, but those boring solid big ones can improve the quality, so we can't ignore those . . . . so I'd love to see more photos of Calli and the big solid ones you mention.

Remember, that according to the whole genetics theory behind Mottling, if Big Red NHR Cross is put with Spotted Sussex Aloha cross, only HALF the chicks should show mottling, but all would CARRY it. Maybe Calli is one that shows it, but if you have plain brown ones that are also big, they could be carriers. If you post more pics of Calli, maybe we can all figure it out? I noticed she does not have puffy cheeks, which would make sense, if the Sussex cross was her mom, and the NHR roo was her dad. Neither of them have puffy cheeks.

 

[alohachickens]

quote/ The person who told you the information about the red Sexlinks was incorrect. The reason red Sexlink males are mostly white is due to having one copy of silver, the females do not have this. The only way you could get mostly white birds from crossing with red Sexlinksfemales is if the Aloha was ether Birchen or Extended black based. Since dominant white replaces black pigment, it would be very useful in getting rid of the black in your Alohas. The only way you would get mostly white birds would be if you crossed the red Sexlink to one of your blue or black mottled Alohas, or crossing to Alohas with the silver gene. Do not use red Sexlink males though, as they would introduce silver which would result in the gold being eliminated. /quote]


Thanks for the info! I think I'm inclined to "play it safe" and just stick with simple reds or golds, but someone like you who REALLY understands what is going on in each cross, like you do, could probably use a lot more crosses. I'm doing the "Chicken Breeding For Dummies" approach, and trying to stick plain old red or gold breeds, LOL. Just so I accidentally don't mess it up. There are so many "other" color genes out there that I don't understand yet. I do have a good basic understanding of genetics but it comes from mammals, not birds. Few colors in horses or dogs are sex-linked. That's a whole new element that I barely grasp in birds!

Someone else asked if I was trying to breed out the black completely? Because the red/black/white "calico" effect is really pretty? No, I'm not trying to eliminate black altogether! I really like the red/white/black crosses. Early on, we got some that looked like a Speckled Sussex in color, but were a brighter red, with the black and white on there, too. It looked fabulous!

But I'm trying to get orange/white and buff/white, because those are NEW colors we don't see really, in big chickens. And I wanted these to be something totally unique and new. It seems the red/black/white "calico" color was actually pretty easy to get, I had that right away back in 2009. But getting an buff/black/white or a buff/white is really tough. I'd rather get the hard stuff out of the way first, LOL! Right now, I want to get buff/white or a "mille" color of buff/black/white not because I think it will be the most beautiful color - all are lovely! I even like black and white, too, I just had to take it out so I could get the other colors, the black just took over, but I do like black & white mottled. But we have black mottled in a BUNCH of breeds. No one has a buff or gold mottled color, except Seramas and Mille Fleur D'Uccles, never in a BIG chicken? I want to get the gold and orange mottled colors it because it seems so HARD to get! I like the challenge, ha ha ha!