AshlyMommaWard
Chirping
Hello everyone!
I'm looking into beginning a project to meet a local market & create a beautiful chicken for my own flock and for enjoyment.
This beautiful bird is a combination of Australorp, Marans & Isbar. The bird in my imagination comes in the BBS variety and lays and olive colored egg.
There is a great market in my area for easter eggers and olive eggers. I love colored eggs & blue birds, so I see this as a lovely combination, as well as a bird I'd love to work with and enjoy watching free range on my farm.
Ive done my research on different breeding programs & have a firm idea of what to select for & what to cull for. I know how my breeding pens will be arranged & utilized and have a general grasp of how I will keep my bloodlines invigorated.
I have access to a good group of isbars from GFF lines, second import I believe. As of now I am in possession of one splash Isbar cockerel, he has great disposition & has proven to be very thrifty & a wonderful free ranger with good "street smarts".
The birds I am imagining are not just about looks or egg color. I will be culling instead for hardiness, production & disposition.
I'm looking for a bird with a good feed to production ratio, that does well in my area's (southwest Missouri/north west Arkansas) cold winters and hot summers. A bird who is not too flighty or easily bullied in mixed flocks, as most people in this area have extremely varied flocks coexisting. As do I. Occasional broodiness ( more often than never at least) would be a plus for me, but not for urban chicken keepers who will account for some of my market.
In order to assess the birds for these qualities I will have to raise the first few generations to full maturity, and out of the pullet stage to determine peak production.
My early culls will be only for very slow development as chicks, as I do not want any weak birds in my program, but am not aiming for the fastest maturing birds on the planet, rather a bird with a reasonably long laying life.
From my genetic research I quickly grasped the numbers for blue, black, splash (BBS) breeding and have a clear picture of what will come from my splash isbar over Australorp hens. With no access to any documentation of this cross before, (via google, BYC, etc.) My suspected egg color from F1 pullets would likely be a fairly light olive color. The mossy green under a medium brown. This is where a very small amount of black copper marans blood comes into the picture. I have two black copper marans pullets from a source who is breeding for hardiness & egg color, with not much consideration to SOP, which is fine by me. My girls are almost solidly black with "mossy backs" & lightly feathered feet. They should have very dark egg color, as these were from one of his great pairs & were not culls for any reason other than I really wanted them and he had plenty.
I am under the impression that egg color is slightly more inheritable from the sire. If this is incorrect, please inform me.
In theory if I put one splash isbar over black australorps & black copper marans all chicks will be blue. Eggs will be separated to avoid mistaking them for each other in case the feathered legs are not passed down, although I believe light feathering will be. The intent is to reserve 2 quality cockerels from the marans x isbar cross for crossing later down the line to improve the richness of egg color as well (possibly) as mothering. I am not aware of the strain of Australorp I have, unfortunately I know nothing about them except that they've had wonderful dispositions, hardiness & good growth, I will be obtaining more Australorp pullets this week and have more knowledge of this line, the new line will be tagged for identificatin against first line. My isbar line has great production and hardiness, but are flighty and have no interest in going broody or mothering.
I enjoy the assurance from black X splash breeding, but am also looking forward to the varying shades for blue from blue x splash, & blue x black. If all of my F1 are blues & all share the same sire, but have 3 different blooines of mothers I should be set for a short time, before I need to add fresh blood if I maintain a good clan breeding system? Using isbars is tricky this way. In a clan breeding system all sires should be unrelated, but as isbars have been imported twice through greenfire farms I couldn't get 3 unrelated cockerels (in reality) if I tried. Will I face genetic weakness if I begin with this? Would I be any better off if I had a brother of my isbar, genetically my initial thought is no?? I could obtain another isbar but from my reading green fire farms imports each have faults, import one good type meets criteria but lacks hardiness & production. Import two, bad type & many traits are wrong but are much hardier. Its obvious which import fits my needs if this is truly the case.
I have put a lot of thought into adding English orpingtons to the mix, as they seem to be superior to the orpingtons in my area which I am not impressed with, and can obtain in the black variety.
My thoughts are all over the place, and I'm sure you're lacking info, feel free to ask any questions.
I just need a sounding board for this project, as I am the only chicken fanatic in the house.
Thanks all!
I'm looking into beginning a project to meet a local market & create a beautiful chicken for my own flock and for enjoyment.
This beautiful bird is a combination of Australorp, Marans & Isbar. The bird in my imagination comes in the BBS variety and lays and olive colored egg.
There is a great market in my area for easter eggers and olive eggers. I love colored eggs & blue birds, so I see this as a lovely combination, as well as a bird I'd love to work with and enjoy watching free range on my farm.
Ive done my research on different breeding programs & have a firm idea of what to select for & what to cull for. I know how my breeding pens will be arranged & utilized and have a general grasp of how I will keep my bloodlines invigorated.
I have access to a good group of isbars from GFF lines, second import I believe. As of now I am in possession of one splash Isbar cockerel, he has great disposition & has proven to be very thrifty & a wonderful free ranger with good "street smarts".
The birds I am imagining are not just about looks or egg color. I will be culling instead for hardiness, production & disposition.
I'm looking for a bird with a good feed to production ratio, that does well in my area's (southwest Missouri/north west Arkansas) cold winters and hot summers. A bird who is not too flighty or easily bullied in mixed flocks, as most people in this area have extremely varied flocks coexisting. As do I. Occasional broodiness ( more often than never at least) would be a plus for me, but not for urban chicken keepers who will account for some of my market.
In order to assess the birds for these qualities I will have to raise the first few generations to full maturity, and out of the pullet stage to determine peak production.
My early culls will be only for very slow development as chicks, as I do not want any weak birds in my program, but am not aiming for the fastest maturing birds on the planet, rather a bird with a reasonably long laying life.
From my genetic research I quickly grasped the numbers for blue, black, splash (BBS) breeding and have a clear picture of what will come from my splash isbar over Australorp hens. With no access to any documentation of this cross before, (via google, BYC, etc.) My suspected egg color from F1 pullets would likely be a fairly light olive color. The mossy green under a medium brown. This is where a very small amount of black copper marans blood comes into the picture. I have two black copper marans pullets from a source who is breeding for hardiness & egg color, with not much consideration to SOP, which is fine by me. My girls are almost solidly black with "mossy backs" & lightly feathered feet. They should have very dark egg color, as these were from one of his great pairs & were not culls for any reason other than I really wanted them and he had plenty.
I am under the impression that egg color is slightly more inheritable from the sire. If this is incorrect, please inform me.
In theory if I put one splash isbar over black australorps & black copper marans all chicks will be blue. Eggs will be separated to avoid mistaking them for each other in case the feathered legs are not passed down, although I believe light feathering will be. The intent is to reserve 2 quality cockerels from the marans x isbar cross for crossing later down the line to improve the richness of egg color as well (possibly) as mothering. I am not aware of the strain of Australorp I have, unfortunately I know nothing about them except that they've had wonderful dispositions, hardiness & good growth, I will be obtaining more Australorp pullets this week and have more knowledge of this line, the new line will be tagged for identificatin against first line. My isbar line has great production and hardiness, but are flighty and have no interest in going broody or mothering.
I enjoy the assurance from black X splash breeding, but am also looking forward to the varying shades for blue from blue x splash, & blue x black. If all of my F1 are blues & all share the same sire, but have 3 different blooines of mothers I should be set for a short time, before I need to add fresh blood if I maintain a good clan breeding system? Using isbars is tricky this way. In a clan breeding system all sires should be unrelated, but as isbars have been imported twice through greenfire farms I couldn't get 3 unrelated cockerels (in reality) if I tried. Will I face genetic weakness if I begin with this? Would I be any better off if I had a brother of my isbar, genetically my initial thought is no?? I could obtain another isbar but from my reading green fire farms imports each have faults, import one good type meets criteria but lacks hardiness & production. Import two, bad type & many traits are wrong but are much hardier. Its obvious which import fits my needs if this is truly the case.
I have put a lot of thought into adding English orpingtons to the mix, as they seem to be superior to the orpingtons in my area which I am not impressed with, and can obtain in the black variety.
My thoughts are all over the place, and I'm sure you're lacking info, feel free to ask any questions.
I just need a sounding board for this project, as I am the only chicken fanatic in the house.
Thanks all!
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