sebright thread

[EyeHeartBantams]

All such beautiful birds. I can't wait to get my Silvers home this weekend. I'll make sure to post pictures, as I'd like to see what kind of quality I'm getting. Just a quick question; I've heard so much about poor fertility and even sterility in male Sebrights. Should I get two roos then, just in case? I'm getting a trio for sure, but was thinking of getting a second roo as well. Any opinions on the matter?

 

[BuckNBark Farm]

Mine was a "get a hen, gotta get a rooster" deal, because he has too many roos. He did say that I would have and extra if one was not fertile. I saw eggs all over his place- and one Sebright was broody- but he said that wasn't the norm. He did say that the chicks are hard to raise because they don't do well. Good luck with yours!

 

[EyeHeartBantams]

Honestly, I'm buying mine for a cross-breeding colour program anyway, but I still want fertile males obviously. I'll also be breeding for purebreds (because this breed is extremely rare in my part of the world, likely only a dozen breeders in the whole country would be my bet), but I thought it'd be fun to take my love of genetics and a) create a new Sebright colour (specifically, blue) and b) try to improve the breed with some hybrid vigour before back-crossing to purebred.

So I'll be crossing my Sebrights to Rosecombs and visa-versa. I chose Rosecombs because they are a true bantam, they have the spiked rose-comb, and I can get Splash Rosecombs from a local breeder; though not an accepted colour, it will throw me all blues when out-crossed to the Sebrights. I also feel that the Rosecomb has a similar body-structure, although it does lack the hen-feathering in the roosters. But from what I can tell, hen-feathering is a dominant gene anyway. Also, Rosecombs (blue specifically) are actually laced, and thus splashes should have genetics for it.

So 2 goals; new colour, and try to improve fertility in the breed through hybridization. I will also try to select for temperament where able, as I believe strongly in having quiet, easy to handle animals.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Honestly, I'm buying mine for a cross-breeding colour program anyway, but I still want fertile males obviously. I'll also be breeding for purebreds (because this breed is extremely rare in my part of the world, likely only a dozen breeders in the whole country would be my bet), but I thought it'd be fun to take my love of genetics and a) create a new Sebright colour (specifically, blue) and b) try to improve the breed with some hybrid vigour before back-crossing to purebred.

So I'll be crossing my Sebrights to Rosecombs and visa-versa. I chose Rosecombs because they are a true bantam, they have the spiked rose-comb, and I can get Splash Rosecombs from a local breeder; though not an accepted colour, it will throw me all blues when out-crossed to the Sebrights. I also feel that the Rosecomb has a similar body-structure, although it does lack the hen-feathering in the roosters. But from what I can tell, hen-feathering is a dominant gene anyway. Also, Rosecombs (blue specifically) are actually laced, and thus splashes should have genetics for it.

So 2 goals; new colour, and try to improve fertility in the breed through hybridization. I will also try to select for temperament where able, as I believe strongly in having quiet, easy to handle animals.

Hen feathering is technically autosomal incompletely dominant.

 

[Helen in the Desert]

Honestly, I'm buying mine for a cross-breeding colour program anyway, but I still want fertile males obviously. I'll also be breeding for purebreds (because this breed is extremely rare in my part of the world, likely only a dozen breeders in the whole country would be my bet), but I thought it'd be fun to take my love of genetics and a) create a new Sebright colour (specifically, blue) and b) try to improve the breed with some hybrid vigour before back-crossing to purebred.

So I'll be crossing my Sebrights to Rosecombs and visa-versa. I chose Rosecombs because they are a true bantam, they have the spiked rose-comb, and I can get Splash Rosecombs from a local breeder; though not an accepted colour, it will throw me all blues when out-crossed to the Sebrights. I also feel that the Rosecomb has a similar body-structure, although it does lack the hen-feathering in the roosters. But from what I can tell, hen-feathering is a dominant gene anyway. Also, Rosecombs (blue specifically) are actually laced, and thus splashes should have genetics for it.

So 2 goals; new colour, and try to improve fertility in the breed through hybridization. I will also try to select for temperament where able, as I believe strongly in having quiet, easy to handle animals.

Sounds like a wonderful project! post pics next year when you get the chicks going too so we can see how you are progressing.

 

[Nelson-90]

They are alot bigger than I expected, and the one male mussed up his tail in transport because the cage was a little to short for him. I don't know anything about them as they came to me "second" hand from someone who bought them two weeks ago and then couldn't keep them due to the crowing. I figured the tails were light on the lacing but not bad overall birds for unknown origin.

My friend is taking a trio to cross to her polish and work on bringing good lacing back into that breed since it stinks right now, and them being bigger is a plus for her. I was going to cross to my D'Uccles to work on getting some sort of tolbunt going so their being big is not so good for me. How big should they be compaired to D'Uccles? Maybe someone could post a pic of one next to thier hand so I could get an idea?

We were going to keep the sebright line also, if they are good enough, and maybe show. If they have too many faults though, we will just use them for our projects and not breed more faulty birds. The nice thing is they are exceptionaly healthy

here are my golden maybe that could help
i would try to do the hand comparison if the rooster wouldnt give 500 kicks and pecks before i set my hand down on his cage

 

[Helen in the Desert]

here are my golden maybe that could help
i would try to do the hand comparison if the rooster wouldnt give 500 kicks and pecks before i set my hand down on his cage

Yup, mine are big. not that much bigger, but still big. The roos are spazzy but the hens seem well handled.

 

[EyeHeartBantams]

Hen feathering is technically autosomal incompletely dominant.

Yes, of course. Either way, I will be selecting the chicks to use for breeding based on:

1. Feathering (hen-feathered roos and the quality of the lacing in the F2s. I'm sure the hen-feathering will be somewhat bred out at first but I can breed it back in I'm sure.)
2. Breed character (obviously I'm looking for strong Sebright characteristics)
3. Personality (temperament and the like; it's something my family strives for in our animals)

And I will certainly be posting pictures and may even make an article on it. I will be posting pictures of my Sebrights in this thread once I get them; they aren't quite breeding age (2 months old now) but I hope to start getting eggs around mid-winter and intend to incubate them all. Though I will be watching for broodiness in the hens as well, as I feel that's another good trait to breed for and like to see good broody hens.

 

[FarmGirl01]

Sounds like you have a great project. Will be looking foward to your progress reports

 

[Nelson-90]

sounnds like fun too