Brown Reds and Crosses

[John W Blehm]

Here is my one cockerel that is birchen (E^R/E^R, S/s+), at the e-locus, from what I can see from his phenotype and is both silver and gold at the s-locus.  Putting him over the pure black looking pullets that are pure/homozygous for gold (E/ER, s+/-), due to it being sexlinked, should produce mostly Brown red cockerels and pullets.  I could also get some pure birchen (variety) pullets.  Using his brothers that are E/E^R, S/s+ over the pullets should produce some too, but with reduced odds.  Some of these brother cockerels may mature with more size than the one in the photo and they may be the better breeders to increase the size in LF brown reds.

[Mike Gilbert]

It's a start.   Are you seeing any lacing on the fronts of either gender? 

[John W Blehm]

This guy is the only one of the F1 cross with birchen phenotype.  He has a black breast, but I don't notice any lacing.  His siblings could carry it.  All the pullets are all black and the cockerels only show leakage as you would expect with this cross.  I have more cockerels then I need, but plan to grow them out before final culling.  That way I'll have a couple with the most size to add to the genetic stew.  The birchen guy has a beautiful pea comb and nice type so far.
Not all the started birds in this pen are from the brown red project though.  Some are F1 from lavender over silver for my LF "lavender silver" project.  All the birds are identified with slits in their webs (toe punch).

[John W Blehm]

I raised 5 of the brown red/black cross cockerels and weighed them yesterday.  3 were 5.9 pounds each and I'll save them to breed from.  Another was 5.5 pounds and the birchen patterned one was 5.1 pounds.  Those two went into a reject pen to be sold.

[Michael Muenks]

Those have some good size to them! Well done John!

[Mike Gilbert]

Looks like the blacks used were silver based.     

[John W Blehm]

Looks like the blacks used were silver based.   

Yes or silver and gold.  Check Reply #11

I'm a year behind you with my LF brown red/black outcross project.  I crossed a couple undersized cockerels over a nice black pullet.  I believe all the pullets are pure black, but would to catch and study them to know for sure.  The cockerels all leak silver/gold.  I'm inclined to believe my LF blacks may be more silver based than gold from the silver that I see.  One cockerel has more than the leakage expected from an ER/E, and I believe he in ER/ER so that indicates there is still ER floating around in my LF blacks.  The good news is due to silver/gold being sex linked I know all the pullets are gold.  By breeding these siblings among themselves and hatching many chicks I should, hopefully, maybe get some nice brown reds next year.

[Suki]

I raised 5 of the brown red/black cross cockerels and weighed them yesterday.

much larger than the one I picked up as part of a quintet...but then he's just 3 months old so maybe he'll grow.  i don't know when the shafting starts so i can't say if he has any.

[John W Blehm]

Today was my first hatch of the year.  I had crossed a couple LF brown red cockerels over LF black pullets and this year crossed the best of the F1 offspring among themselves, going according to type, size, egg color and egg size.  Most of the chicks have some feathers on their shanks.  This is not unexpected with an outcross and even if I end up with some nice LF brown reds, feathers/stubs will be something to look out for. 

[John W Blehm]

...Some are F1 from lavender over silver for my LF "lavender silver" project.  All the birds are identified with slits in their webs (toe punch).

Here are some of the lavender silver Ameraucana chicks that hatched overnight.

[Suki]

Are these bantams or large fowl John?

[Suki]

This is not unexpected with an outcross and even if I end up with some nice LF brown reds, feathers/stubs will be something to look out for. 

  What outcross?  Wasn't this Am to Am?

[John W Blehm]

These are large fowl (aka LF).

The outcross was from one variety of Ameraucana to another. 

Outcrossing - crossing (mating) different strains/lines of a particular breed. 
Crossbreeding - "mating two...individuals from (two) totally different breeds".

[Beth Curran]

I think Sue was wondering why the cross would be more prone to stubs, since both parents are Ameraucana. Or did you mean that recessive traits in general tend to surface when outcrossing?

[Mike Gilbert]

The occurrence of stubs is quite common when unrelated strains are crossbred.   Not a big deal, as they normally are quite easily bred back out.    In all my years of raising brown red large fowl I don't remember having ever spotted one, though I did have a black d.q.'d years ago for stubs, and she did have brown red blood in her.   It happens.