Rookie breeding question

[Lonomakana]

I have 1 Barnevelder rooster and have the idea of eventually breeding him with my RIR's. The idea is to get work towards lots of dark eggs. Do offspring tend to pull specific traits from mom or dad (ie. baldness passed from mom, in humans), or is it all a crapshoot?

 

[herechickchick]

Are Barnevelders not good layers? Instead of creating a cross why don't you breed true Barnevelders and breed for both type and egg color, they sure could use some attention. If you cross 2 birds each parent is going to contribute to the chicks but it depends on what is dominate and what is recessive in each parent and what they will mean to the offspring.

Edited to Add:

I would get the BEST Barnevelders I could get my hands on and begin there. I am not sure if they are an APA accepted breed but there are breeders out there can can give you that information. So choose the best Males for type and they best females for type AND egg color and breed them together and continue from there until you are getting good hatch rates with birds meeting you criteria.

Good Luck, it is a lot of fun

 

[Lonomakana]

I figured that would be best, but I couldn't get ahold of any female Barnevelders. There aren't any local breeders here and Hawaii only allows day olds to be shipped here. I'll just be patient. I hear that Barnevelders are average layers but I thought I'd try mine out with the RIR hens to see what I could get. Thanks for the help.