building a white flock from 'scratch'

[Gina Neta]

Thank you for the feedback! I too think her type is good overall.  She is also nice sized.  I have two Ameraucana males - one black and one white.  Given she is a 'sport' from black parents - which male do you recommend I breed her to?  I am ok with either black or white offspring.....

[John W Blehm]

Because she isn't a "clean" white, I wouldn't use her to try to make show quality whites unless you have good clean whites that lack type and other traits that she would bring to the table.  She could be used in the same way to improve blacks that are lacking type, etc.
But if already good whites and blacks are available, it doesn't seem worth your time to use her except as a the good laying hen that she is.

[Mike Gilbert]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained?  And we might learn something in the process.

[Gina Neta]

I will have to think about my options.  As far as overall type and size- she may be the strongest female I have.  If nothing else offspring would make good layers and/or chicken noodle soup.  Thanks for your thoughts!!!  It might be interesting to see what happens when crossed with each of the males, as far as color. 

[John W Blehm]

Developing a good line of LF whites should be very easy.  Put a "clean" white Ameraucana male over the best black Ameraucana female you can find.  Mate the best typed F1 birds together and only keep the white F2 offspring.

[Gina Neta]

Sounds good John.  If you come to Galesville please bring me 2-3 good typey black females.  That would be terrific and will be my first foray into color genetics.  It will be good for me!!!

[Cesar Villegas]

Developing a good line of LF whites should be very easy.  Put a "clean" white Ameraucana male over the best black Ameraucana female you can find.  Mate the best typed F1 birds together and only keep the white F2 offspring.

Define Clean? Like no ticking?

[John W Blehm]

Refer to Reply #24...

By that I meant a recessive white that feathers pure white.  I was getting some that didn't have the typical recessive white chick down and had some grayish feathers as they matured.

The chick down should look like the photo below, not like the ones in Reply #24.

[Cesar Villegas]

Refer to Reply #24...

By that I meant a recessive white that feathers pure white.  I was getting some that didn't have the typical recessive white chick down and had some grayish feathers as they matured.

The chick down should look like the photo below, not like the ones in Reply #24.

I got some whites hatching in a couple of days. I got them from a person who inherited a white flock. In person they're werent the best, but it gives me something to hatch this spring. I just need the recessive white gene, though Im hoping its recessive haha..

[John W Blehm]

If you cross the whites with blacks (that don't carry recessive white) and all the chicks hatch black your whites are recessive white.
If some chicks hatch white, some of the whites carry dominant white.  If all hatch white, the white parents are dominant white but could also carry recessive white.
Be sure to use a white male over black females, if possible.  The best whites will be silver (S) at the S-locus and since it is sex-linked you'll want to use that to your advantage.