Questions on breeding Bantam Cochins and the colors

[chicken_china_mom]

Ok, I sold some Bantam Cochins and the lady I sold them to was told not to breed them together because they are both blues. Is there a reason why not to breed them? And here are a few more colors and I'm wondering what I could possibly get if I cross them.


Black
Blue
Blue Splash
White
Partridge
Black Mottled
Blue Mottled

So far, it looks like if I cross the Splash with Mottled or Black, I get Blues and Blacks. I haven't bred my Blues yet since they are only 10 weeks old, but what would I get if I did cross them with any of the above colors, or with other Blues? What I currently have together is:

1 Blue Splash roo
4 Blue Splash hens
1 Barred roo
1 Barred hen
1 White roo
1 White Frizzled hen
1 Black Frizzled hen
1 Partridge cockerel (16 weeks old)
1 Black Mottled roo
1 Black Mottled hen
Blue pullets and cockerels
1 pair of 10 wk old Blue Mottled
Black cockerels


I will probably sell off all the Black cockerels, and all of the Blues except maybe a pullet. But what would I get if I combined any of the above colors? I was told that if I cross my Partridge roo with any of the dark hens all I will get are Blacks. Could anyone give me more info on this? Thank you. I tried that genetics calculator and I know it's not accurate enough. It said all my Cuckoo Marans mixed chicks should have hatched out cuckoo, but so far, not a single one has. Probably because my roo is a Silver Cuckoo, and the calculator doesn't make adjustments for latent genes like that. So I figured I would ask the experts, lol. Any info on this would be MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Goose and Fig]

You can breed all the blue, black, and splash together- even the mottled if you want more mottleds down the line. Maybe she was thinking that you won't get all blue babies from blue x blue? Not necessarily a BAD thing! The black helps keep the blues nice with lacing, and the splashes from getting that "washed out" color.

I would just keep those colors together, but don't breed frizzle to frizzle. You can get "frazzled" babies with very brittle feathers- sometimes they're even bald.

With the rest- you can always keep them together, but best to only breed each color with it's match, or you can end up with mixed (non-standard) colors of chicks. Might not show up in the first generation, but you don't want someone buying a pair of partridge from you, breeding them, and getting black chicks.....

 

[HBuehler]

She heard wrong.In cochins or other frizzled breeds don't breed frizzle to frizzle now for the colors
Blue x Blue= 50% blue 25% splash 25% black
Blue x splash= 50/50 no black
Blue x Black=50/50 no splash
Splash x Black=100% blue
Splash x splash=100% splash but repeated crossings will loose the color and look about white
Black x black=100% black
There is no "blue" splash just splash.The under color may vary but genetics are the same
Add white and you may or may not get white chicks depending on what's under the white
Partridge should result in many black chicks if not all depending on how he was bred..did he just turn out that way or did he come from a true breeding pen where only that color is possible.
What is your breeding plan..that would help you determine what to keep.If that were my flock the white and partridge would be sold or put in a separate pen for mixed breeding but wouldn't have them in my BBS pens

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Quote:
Thank you. that helps give me an idea of what to breed to what. My plan at the moment is to move the Whites, probably in with the White Silkies. Those particular Silkies are pet quality, and I don't need to breed them, I can just eat their eggs. The Partridge, I'm not sure yet what to do with him. I might get him some ladies of his own and set them up away from the other birds. Can I leave the Barred in there? I might for now, only because the Barred roo is flock leader and the best roo I have. But I would definitely like to create a B/B/S pen because most of my birds are really nice and I am slowly working on adding better and better stock.

I know not to combine Frizzles. I deliberately keep only female Frizzles and sell off any males that hatch out. I have 3 Frizzled chicks in my yard right now, and I know for sure one is a pullet. The other two are too small to know for sure, but they will both be sold just because I don't want to take a chance. I got some eggs a few months back from another BYC'er and it appears that they let their Frizzles breed one another because I hatched out a chick that not only has stunted growth, but it's almost completely naked too. It's a roo, and he's going to be separated out from the breeding pen as soon as he's sexually mature. I don't want him breeding at all. He has a couple of wing feathers, a couple of foot feathers, and a few neck feathers. Otherwise, he's naked as a newborn baby. If it goes below 75, he starts shaking and begging to be picked up, and I don't wish to create more birds like him!

Thanks everyone for your advice. It gives me an idea of what direction I want to go with my birds. It's much appreciated.

 

[Goose and Fig]

If you leave the barred HEN in with the BBS you may get some male blue barred chicks (nice!). If you have the barred ROO with them, and he is the dominant one, they'll all be barred blue or black-except the splash.

Basically- the barred hen's chicks can be sex-linked.

 

[HBuehler]

Oops I missed the barred...wasn't paying attention to much other than color. HappyMtn is correct

you can get sex links which is always nice.What color barred hens are they? If you have black barred and put them with your splash roo you will get all blue chicks and sex links at the same time.