Spitzhauben - genetics question

jossanne

Crowing
14 Years
Jul 11, 2008
3,109
24
326
Gila, New Mexico
I have been browsing FeatherSite this week, and was looking at the appenzeller spitzhaubens. They look like a cross between a silver-spangled hamburg and a polish. I have a white polish pullet, a trio of silver-laced polish, and 4 SSH pullets and a cockerel. None are laying eggs yet, but I've been thinking...

If I wanted to end up with a bird that looks like the appenzeller spitzhaubens, which would I breed? I'm thinking the SSH cockerel on the white polish, because the roo determines color, right? Or does that only work with same color birds - the roo's more or less vivid color would show in the chicks?

With silver lacing and silver spangles, is one dominant over the other? If I bred a laced bird with a spangled bird, would it be a wierd something in between? Or is there a possibility of spangles in the babies? And which would be the roo? The SSH or the SLP?

I have no more room in my coop, but I'm thinking it just might be worth building another or adding on just to experiment a bit. I love the look of those spitzhaubens! I don't care if I come up with a perfect spitzhauben, though it would be great if I did, but I'm curious if I have birds that would make something resembling them.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Spitz/BRKSpitzhauben.html
 
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Hate to admit it but it would not be worthwhile your time to breed Spitzhaubens when a few of us here in BYC has them.

The mowhawked hairdo and the feather markings are very important as well as disposition. Their eyes suppsed to be dark, not light yellow or greenish in shade. Slate legs as well.

Crossing with Polish, you would get muddled feather patterns and BIG top hat. I had to cull out any Spitz that had a BIG top hat. Allenwranch can explain alot better than I can because I got started in Spitz last year and there is alot of work to be done to improve the breed here in US.

If you can get started in Spitzhaubens itself, it will cut your time and money short rather than trying to go the long and expensive route to weed out the undesirable Polish traits. If you still want to go that route, go for it and see what you will get.

As for me, I am going to experiment getting some Spitzhauben bantams.....none found in the US so far and will cross a Spitz roo over my SSH bantam hen and see what I will get. I will have a very long way to get to that point.

Good luck!
 
I don't care if they are actually spitzhaubens, I was just wanting to get babies that had that general look. It sounds like a fun project. What crosses of my birds would give me the closest thing to spangles?
 
If you want to have some fun, then crossing the Polish with the Hamburg should produce some interesting chickens.

The Hamburg is the only bird in the US that has silver spangles (I think). Crossed with the Polish you may get a mixture of spangles and lacing.

When I crossed some frizzles with my silver laced Polish, I got both.

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You've got some great-looking birds Carla. I agree with the others, the frizzled spangled one is marvelous. Do you think I'd get spangles from a SSH cock on a white polish? I can hardly wait for my birds to grow up so I can try all the different combinations!
 
Jossanne,
I am not a genetics expert, but I think it would be fun to try your combination. I would love to see what the offspring look like, and I bet you would get some spangled.

The pictures were taken four years ago, and "Elle" the white spangled frizzle was the cutest thing I have ever hatched. I was attempting to make a silver laced Polish frizzle and failed miserably, BUT I had a lot of fun and loved how the different birds turned out. I no longer have any of the birds.

Something interesting about the breeding is that they all started out with a brown frizzle cochin banty hen and a silver laced Polish rooster. Most of the offspring were black and white. However, I bred one of them back to another silver laced Polish and they produced all brown hens, two frizzled and one not. Go figure.

The following two hens are full sisters from black and white birds. One is gold laced, the other solid brown. (The gold laced has a full crest, but I trimed it so she could see better.)

TinaLindaGinger.jpg
 

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