The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[RiverOtter]

I'll see about getting into this more when I have time.
The last couple look like or if not close enough to exchequers. I would just go buy some instead of trying to build them. Ive work with them quite a bit and the info out there is limited or not in agreement or doesn't match what ive experienced.
In my experience exchequer is not simple mottling bred to that extreme. And I don't know if I believe its just a different type of mottling.
In my experience you can't make the pattern without having it in a starter bird.

The first bird is a blue gold duckwing. I saw that pic about 6 or so years ago and decided I'm making one of those.
The process is easy the execution is almost impossible especially if you want to use only leghorn blood. The US doesn't have leghorns that carry blue. We both saw the hatchery that offered them but they have since discontinued so IDK if they even sold any or if they were really leghorns.
I once heard someone pulled blue from a white leghorn but I can't confirm that.
I looked for two hears for any leghorn with the blje gene and never found any.
Depending what you could get it isn't hard to do. Breed whatever has the blue to a light brown then breed blue offspring back to browns until you get the duckwing pattern locked in and any unwanted bred out.
I started with a solid blue and bred it to a light brown. But of course that was to easy so I switched the next year and bred back to a silver duckwing and a cuckoo. I'm looking to end up with solid blues, cuckoo blues, and both blue gold and blue silver duckwings.

I'm just catching up on this thread and I know this post is months old, but it was me. I hatched blue birds out of a California White hen, father unknown. One wild little blue hen that stole nests everywhere and hatched out scores of chicks, most blue patterned. All her offspring laid like commercial birds the first year and were as broody as games the 2nd. I've been doing my best to keep the line going - the bird in my profile pic is a lemon blue from that line. I currently have two roosters that look exactly like what @MIAMI LEGHORN posted - blue gold duckwings.

Sadly, those two roosters and a lemon blue hen are the very last ones I have of that line, and at this point, due to outcrossing, they lay a creamy to very light brown egg. I would love, LOVE to get a bunch of Leghorns to put those roosters over, but I rent my farm, so can't build an official chicken coop, and the predators here are intense. I would give one of those roosters to someone who wanted to work on blue leghorns, although they're not terribly typey - I'll try to get pics soon.

If someone wanted to hunt up a blue gene in Leghorns, they might try California Whites, as the dominant white gene may be covering a surprise.

 

[RiverOtter]

Just remember - 11 months for a foal to drop. Then a few years to see that one mature and decide whether it should be used to breed.

LOL, as a horse breeder, you can get a pretty good idea of conformation at 3 days. My Connemara Sportpony stallion then...

And now...

But I definitely had to wait YEARS for his firstborn

Breeding chickens definitely has more immediate satisfaction - not only can you have a generation in less than a year, but you can have a hundred or more birds from one set of parents in that time!! Not just ONE!
On the other hand, I've never (knock wood for freak accidents) had an owl swoop down and destroy a horse breeding project.

But man, if you guys think being chicken-poor is bad, try being horse-poor!

 

[Painted Calls]

LOL, as a horse breeder, you can get a pretty good idea of conformation at 3 days

Sometimes, yes. Not always. Good confo doesn't always equal a well tempered, talented horse either. I'm the "Show me how you do in the pen" type of person. I've seen well bred horses that looked nice turn out completely useless in the show world.

I've also seen "trash horses" killing it in the show pen.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Lol don't get her started on horses and showing. And for that matter mice and showing either.

 

[Painted Calls]

Lol don't get her started on horses and showing. And for that matter mice and showing either.

 

[RiverOtter]

Good confo doesn't always equal a well tempered, talented horse either. I'm the "Show me how you do in the pen" type of person.

No, no, you missed the part where I said Connemaras. They all love to wear leather, regardless of the task, and they can all jump like crickets. I'll start a new thread with pics of that same horse skidding out a telephone pole, going over trails, popping over crossrails and carrying a kid bareback - sadly I don't have any pictures of him bringing in the cows, but he's happy to do that too.

Lol don't get her started on horses and showing. And for that matter mice and showing either.

I have mice too! But fair enough, enough thread drift. To bring it back to chickens, here are some ratty pictures of those two blue-red roosters. Please forgive the messy barn and bad pics, I snapped them while I was out checking on Bessie Cow, who slipped and sprained something and now won't get up, so gets checked, fed and watered round the clock - I'm back online because I'm exhausted (and awake!!) from it.

So, these fellows, while handsome and showing their Leghorn roots, are clearly not typey. Their legs were yellow as chicks and darkened to slate as they grew up. Still, they're a start and I mean it when I say I'll give one to anyone who wants to use them with some Leghorn hens.

LOL, those are call ducks and banties - he's not that huge

.
Same rooster, they're both molting out their tails

Back of the head doesn't show his paler lobes and bigger comb, but this picture of Roo Two has better lighting for their color - and was the only one I could get that wasn't just a blur, he's an active boy. His tail is growing back in and will be looking right in a month.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Meanwhile those calls and banties probably are thinking "There's a giant among us."

 

[Painted Calls]

I have mice too!

I snapped them while I was out checking on Bessie Cow, who slipped and sprained something and now won't get up, so gets checked, fed and watered round the clock - I'm back online because I'm exhausted (and awake!!) from it.

Make sure you're getting her up frequently. Poor girlfriend.

 

[RiverOtter]

Make sure you're getting her up frequently. Poor girlfriend.

Thank you. If I could get her up at all, we wouldn't be having a problem! Happily cows, unlike horses, spend hours and hours every day lying down, so it's not as bad. We physically roll her from hip to hip if she doesn't do it on her own. And the cow sling is on it's way! I'm kicking myself because I used to have one, then divorced and lost my farm and it got left behind, and I never thought about it. Ahh, well. Soon fixed.

If lifting her to her feet 2x a day for a couple of hours doesn't get her standing on her own, then it will be time for injections of steroids'/painkillers/anti-inflammatories, of the therapeutic hock-injection style. Fun times!

 

[Painted Calls]

Praying that sling gets there soon. Rolling her is good. They still weigh enough that they need to be up ASAP.

You can even rig up a sheet if you have a hay fork or a bobcat. Been there, done that lol.

Good luck with her. Keep us posted.