It seems like I am getting alot of questions about Rusty blacks and producing Jersey Buffs. This is one of my projects I am working on. Making my own line of Jersey Buffs. Porters site has a nice artcle on Jersery Bufffs and how the where recreated after they became instinct. The formula that they used is posted below. I like that they describe how they test bred all the turkeys to make sure they where pure.
To produce birds of Buff color, Black Spanish and Bourbon Reds were crossed. The resulting first generation was rusty black. These birds mated to the bourbon red produced a second generation with four color patterns. There were some Rusty Blacks, Bourbon Reds, Bronze Reds, and heterozygous Buffs. These hetrogygous buffs were then mated together, and the third generation was 25% Bourbon Red, 50% heterozygous buff and 25% pure buff. This last 25% was the foundation stock from which the present breed of turkey, now commonly called the Jersey Buff was derived.
The process of separating the heterozyous from the pure buff was slow and time consumming. The hens where mated to pure Bourbon Red toms, and all those producing any Bourbon Red Poults were known to be heterozygous for buff color. Those producing only buff poults were homozygous for pure buff.
Rusty Black
To produce birds of Buff color, Black Spanish and Bourbon Reds were crossed. The resulting first generation was rusty black. These birds mated to the bourbon red produced a second generation with four color patterns. There were some Rusty Blacks, Bourbon Reds, Bronze Reds, and heterozygous Buffs. These hetrogygous buffs were then mated together, and the third generation was 25% Bourbon Red, 50% heterozygous buff and 25% pure buff. This last 25% was the foundation stock from which the present breed of turkey, now commonly called the Jersey Buff was derived.
The process of separating the heterozyous from the pure buff was slow and time consumming. The hens where mated to pure Bourbon Red toms, and all those producing any Bourbon Red Poults were known to be heterozygous for buff color. Those producing only buff poults were homozygous for pure buff.
Rusty Black
