LittleDinosaur
Chirping
Hello,
I currently raise purebred Bielefelders in the Adirondacks of Upstate NY. This is the first and only breed of single-combed rooster I've ever worked with (I have single-combed hens, but their combs are super small). It gets really cold here and so far have had terrible luck with frostbite on all of my roosters regardless of what I do. So, with that said, I am starting a breeding project with the goal of producing a small comb Bielefelder while retaining auto-sexing and other SOP.
My understanding of genetics is very basic, but I'm doing as much reading as I can to understand. My current theory of how to do this is to cross a Bielefelder rooster (double barred e+) with a pea-combed barred hen I have, and then doing the same with another set so I have 2 unrelated lines going. F1s will have 50/50 small-comb / single-comb, so I will breed small-comb F1s to create 75/25 small-comb / single-comb F2s and then continue selecting to breed small-combed F3s and F4s in an attempt to wipe out the recessive single-comb gene. This is all assuming that the Bielefelder over a barred hen will still produce auto-sexing chicks.
I'm looking for any and all input on whether this is a sound theory.
Thanks!
I currently raise purebred Bielefelders in the Adirondacks of Upstate NY. This is the first and only breed of single-combed rooster I've ever worked with (I have single-combed hens, but their combs are super small). It gets really cold here and so far have had terrible luck with frostbite on all of my roosters regardless of what I do. So, with that said, I am starting a breeding project with the goal of producing a small comb Bielefelder while retaining auto-sexing and other SOP.
My understanding of genetics is very basic, but I'm doing as much reading as I can to understand. My current theory of how to do this is to cross a Bielefelder rooster (double barred e+) with a pea-combed barred hen I have, and then doing the same with another set so I have 2 unrelated lines going. F1s will have 50/50 small-comb / single-comb, so I will breed small-comb F1s to create 75/25 small-comb / single-comb F2s and then continue selecting to breed small-combed F3s and F4s in an attempt to wipe out the recessive single-comb gene. This is all assuming that the Bielefelder over a barred hen will still produce auto-sexing chicks.
I'm looking for any and all input on whether this is a sound theory.
Thanks!