what happened to the silver laced brahmas?

[klf73]

There was a lot of talk on here last year about the silver laced brahmas and I can't seem to find any recent activity(could be due to my own disfunction) about this variety. Is anyone still working on them?

 

[Illia]

Yes.

The main activity was just people's interest as it was being shown around to the public and offered to the public for anyone interested in improvement and the sorts. It's likely died down now because either you heard of it and likely found someone you're interested in purchasing from, or you didn't hear of it and aren't asking about it. That or you did, but aren't interested or can't afford.

Now Buff Laced are getting a bit more publicity but mainly in the appropriate conversations, mostly because of owners talking more. Lately I find SL owners not saying much, but BL owners saying/showing off more. It's like with any other rare color or breed - It's all about if the owners are quiet or not.

 

[big medicine]

I responded to this on the old silver laced thread. Let's see if I can copy it over to here as well.



I'm still fooling around with them. Had a little setback with them a couple years back. Vulture hocks had been an issue from the beginning,due to their Cochin heritage. Over the years I had it down to the point I thought I was close to, or hopefully had removed it completely from my flock. Unfortunately one of the males I used in the 2010 breeding pens must have carried a hidden copy of this recessive trait, as well as at least one female. This resulted in a resurgance of hock issues among some birds in my flock, and unfortunately also in some chicks from the eggs I had sold. As a result I did not breed, or sell, any silver laced last year.

What I did do was get a nice light Brahma male to put over a few of my better silver laced hens. My plan this year is to put the best cockerel from this cross over a pen of the best pullets from this cross, and some of my better silver laced hens. My thinking here with the outcross is as long as I am going outside to try to clean up the hock issues, might as well hopefully also improve size and type a little. One long lasting feature from their Cornish heritage has been a rather pinched tail. The light male I used has a nice open inverted U shaped tail. Potentially, if all goes as hoped this may actually improve the line in the long run.

For the most part, the folks who recieved eggs from me have been very good about culling any sign of vulture hock in their birds, and for the most part, very good about not spreading compromised breeding stock to others. Hopefully I can get this worked out shortly and help repay their patience and diligence.

Here is one of the contenders to make this years breeding pens.

 

[klf73]

well, I have a trio(I got some chicks last year from greenfire). I culled heavily for the vulture hocks and now have 1 roo that looks to have dom lacing(the other was a bit "messy") and 2 hens(one gold laced and one silver laced). I haven't hatched any yet, and went out of my way to acquire the 2 non-vulture hock boys I got last year(had them shipped from another BYC'er that got just the two boys). I plan on working on it but didn't know if it died down because others just didn't want to do the work.
I will see what I get this year and if they produce well, then I will look to add new blood next year. Maybe contact Big Medicine

thanks guys

I just didn't know if I missed anything important on my time away from the board