What's the best way?

[foxvalleyfarm]

So I have an idea for a project. I want to cross Polish, Brahma's, and EE's to get a bearded, crested, feather legged, colored egg laying chicken. And yes I know CCL's are all that but I want to try to get there on my own. Right now my birds are still chicks and eggs but would it be best to put all 3 needs together and then cross the offspring or do like Brahma's to Polish then to EE or some other way. I have 6 EE's not sure on sex yet. I have a light Brahma and 5 buff Brahma's. And an getting 12 mixed colored Polish eggs on Monday.

 

[enola]

Crested cream legbars do not have beards or feathered legs.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

Crested cream legbars do not have beards or feathered legs.

I thought some did. More reason to try my project.

 

[donrae]

You could get there faster with silkies and EE.

But since those are the breeds you have, it's just going to take a few years. I'd start with getting one trait, like breeding brahma to ee to get feather legged colored egg layers. Once you have those breeding consistently, add in the polish for the crest. You'll have to hatch a fair amount of chicks and cull pretty heavily for the traits you want. Do you have a plan for the birds that don't fit your breeding plan?

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

You could get there faster with silkies and EE.

But since those are the breeds you have, it's just going to take a few years. I'd start with getting one trait, like breeding brahma to ee to get feather legged colored egg layers. Once you have those breeding consistently, add in the polish for the crest. You'll have to hatch a fair amount of chicks and cull pretty heavily for the traits you want. Do you have a plan for the birds that don't fit your breeding plan?

I know I would but I don't really want the silkie feathers. And as for the ones that don't for they will either be sold, sent to freezer camp, or culled. Sounds harsh but I only have so much room and feed.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

I don't know much about the genetics behind the traits I want. Are they recessive or dominant? Or can someone send me to a site where I can read about them.

 

[Alia]

I love this thing: http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

But it only explains colours, not crests or eggs. I actually want to do a similar thing to you, except without the crests. I want great big fat Brahmas with more conservative leg feathering (OMG they get filthy) who are wheaten in colour and lay Easter eggs.

Crests are incompletely dominant. Your assorted Polish should all have big crests. Their offspring will still have little crests. Yay!

Blue eggs are dominant, though the blue interacts with brown to form green shades. All your Easter Eggers' babies should lay easter eggs too. Yay!

So here's what I'd do:

P (parent) step 1. Easter Egger x Brahma = F1 EE-Brahmas

P (parent) step 2. Polish x Brahma = F1 Polish-Brahmas

Cross the different sets of F1s - This gives you a huge cluster of F2 phenotypes, but you'll be able to see which of these have small crests, and which (at least with the girls) have inherited the coloured egg gene. Cull those without any crests. Incubate easter-coloured eggs only. I warn you that even after incubating your F2 easter-coloured eggs, half of the F3 chicks that come out of them will not have inherited the blue egg gene. However, this is the time when you will start to see big crests again: When your F2 eggs produce F3 chickens. 1/4 of them should have no crests, 2/4 of them should have little crests, and 1/4 of them will return to the big-crested Polish crest.

So why would I do it this way instead of making Polish-EEs for P step 2 and giving myself a better chance to get less culls with no blue eggs in F3? I think the Brahma provides the superior body type. You may be better off making Polish-EEs. They'll be skinny though.

I'm not 100% on the feathered legs though.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

I love this thing: http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

But it only explains colours, not crests or eggs. I actually want to do a similar thing to you, except without the crests. I want great big fat Brahmas with more conservative leg feathering (OMG they get filthy) who are wheaten in colour and lay Easter eggs.

Crests are incompletely dominant. Your assorted Polish should all have big crests. Their offspring will still have little crests. Yay!

Blue eggs are dominant, though the blue interacts with brown to form green shades. All your Easter Eggers' babies should lay easter eggs too. Yay!

So here's what I'd do:

P (parent) step 1. Easter Egger x Brahma = F1 EE-Brahmas

P (parent) step 2. Polish x Brahma = F1 Polish-Brahmas

Cross the different sets of F1s - This gives you a huge cluster of F2 phenotypes, but you'll be able to see which of these have small crests, and which (at least with the girls) have inherited the coloured egg gene. Cull those without any crests. Incubate easter-coloured eggs only. I warn you that even after incubating your F2 easter-coloured eggs, half of the F3 chicks that come out of them will not have inherited the blue egg gene. However, this is the time when you will start to see big crests again: When your F2 eggs produce F3 chickens. 1/4 of them should have no crests, 2/4 of them should have little crests, and 1/4 of them will return to the big-crested Polish crest.

So why would I do it this way instead of making Polish-EEs for P step 2 and giving myself a better chance to get less culls with no blue eggs in F3? I think the Brahma provides the superior body type. You may be better off making Polish-EEs. They'll be skinny though.

I'm not 100% on the feathered legs though.

I certainly want the giant Brahma bodies and was thinking to cross the ees to both of the others at the same time then to cross those offspring to themselves then cross the F2's with the proper traits to each other. So have ees with Brahma(p1.1) and ees with Polish (p1.2) then cross f1.1 to f1.1 and f1.2 to f1.2. Then cross f2.1 to f2.2 and decide what to do then. Im not sure how feathered legs cross but I'm hoping it's more dominant then not. But from what I've seen it's not...

Or would it be better since I want the Brahma body types to have my two p generations having Brahma's in them? So Brahma x EE(p1.1) and Brahms x Polish (p1.2)