which silver laced barnevelder roo to keep?

[Cluckatar]

I have five silver laced barnevelders that we hatched from shipped eggs this spring. Sadly we lost the blue rooster to a flying predator, but that's another story. I have two roosters in this group now. One of them has a few saddle feathers with slight brown coloration, the other does not. Is that a fault that would take him out of the running? At the moment they are only three and a half months old, and everyone is getting along fine, so we're keeping them both. But I imagine I will need to re-home one before spring if they decide to not get along. Pictures are all of the one rooster with the brown feather. The hens definitely like him better, as do I The other rooster is crowing, more dominant in behavior, and prettier.

 

[sourland]

What are your goals? If breeding for type - I'd select the other rooster. Other than that I would keep the cockerel with the best temperament. I'd definitely wait until they are more mature before making my decision.

 

[Cluckatar]

I would like to have nice healthy birds that are true to type, and will hopefully sell chicks from this group in the future. I managed a few pictures this morning of the two together.

 

[LaFleche]

birds that are true to type, and will hopefully sell chicks from this group in the future.

This would already exclude the one with brown, as he is probably a colour-mix.

 

[Cluckatar]

This would already exclude the one with brown, as he is probably a colour-mix.

Can you explain your thinking on this? I suspect that it's a fault that would exclude him, but I don't think he's a cross, at least not within recent generations.

 

[LaFleche]

Can you explain your thinking on this? I suspect that it's a fault that would exclude him, but I don't think he's a cross, at least not within recent generations.

A pure black silver double laced male would only show black and silver and nothing else. Any other colours like brown etc. popping up, show clearly that somewhere down the line in his ancestry a non black silver double has been added to his lineage.

This will often also show in the enhanced vitality and larger/heavier appearance, so some breeders do it on purpose to avoid the effects of inbreeding depression with a rare breeds or rare colours, where the acquisition of unrelated genetic material via hatching eggs or birds might otherwise be considered too risky.

In your case, unless you purchased the hatching eggs already from different breeders with unrelated parent stock, I would even consider acquiring hatching eggs from another breeder whose parent stock is unrelated to yours to avoid inbreeding right from the start.

 

[Cluckatar]

Another newbie question... if I took this roo and put him with my regular double laced barnevelders, what happens with those offspring? Will they be brown, or a combination?