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Post by walesman on Aug 4, 2009 19:21:50 GMT
I crossed my buff hens (which i know are pure) with a brown male from a brown breeder.... as I wish to improve the type of my Buff leghorns...the youngsters are at the 'grower' stage and I am a bit worried about the colour that has come out !!!....yes they have buff iin them and also the breast markings of a brown which i expected...but also have white flecks (more like white mottling)...now I cant think where this white mottling comes from unless the male bird has red mottled in it...or maybe it is just colouring which will be lost as they grow and moult....could anyone shed any light on this as I am not too hot on colour genetics.....I just dont think they should have white mottling !!! if anyone has had experience of doing this cross then I would be really grateful to hear from them....if it is wrong then I need to change the cockerel and if anyone has a nice pullet breeding male(young or old) then I would be interested to hear from them...thanks
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Post by khrday on Aug 4, 2009 23:54:36 GMT
WAIT TILL THEY HAVE THERE ADULT FEATHERS AND MATE BEST TO BEST BROTHER SISTER MATING OR PULLETS BACK TO BUFF COCK
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Post by danhonour on Aug 5, 2009 1:34:33 GMT
The white mottling may grow out,or it could be dominant white perhaps hidden in the Buffs.You should not expect good buff color in the first cross or even second.You need a host of color genes (in two doses) to get birds resembling buff.That is why backcrossing to pure Buff males helps speed up this as it allows more of the color genes to line up. You have to breed out the wild type coloring (duckwing) of the Brown Leghorn.The wild type are duckwing colored (chipmunk striped chicks),Buff is based on wheaton(cream or buff chicks).The first cross are a mix of faint stripes and head/neck spots as chicks. It takes about 4 backcrosses to Buff to get good buff color .Yellow legs can come back in 3 generations ,sometimes sooner,but f1 and f2 are often green/willow.It is a five year plan,so in the first and second cross pick the big,good Leghorn type,productive and healthy birds,along with any other trait you are trying to intoduce. It can be done,as I have done it.
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Post by walesman on Aug 5, 2009 10:57:21 GMT
thank you all for your experienced information...it is of a great help....I have been playing about with buffs for a while now and I have F2's from an original cross of Lavender x Buff and then the F1 from this pairing put back to a Buff male...the offspring are a dark Buff ...which I dont mind as they can be paired to Lemon type Buffs....some though have a few dark feathers but I will see how they grow to decide if I should not breed from them...the trouble with my Buffs is that they have small combs and I am trying to inject larger combs into the breeding line, and of course breeding out so as to avoid too much inbreeding..anyway...many thanks for your information...
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