How to Make a new color strain of Chicken "Applies to most ornamental breeds"

@nielcdg (709)
Philippines
May 9, 2007 5:02am CST
First find a breed that you would like to work with, example: Ismer Phoenix Then establish the color that they dont have and pick one that you would like to develop, lets say the buff color. e.g. Ismers have no barred color or buff color in the breed also solid reds "no black feathers on their body just red."The next step is to get two trios or atleast a trio of the parent breed, One ordinary Ismer Phoenix and 2 same colored hens of the same breed (male must not be related to the hens, best if none of them are closely related.) Then get a trio of a similar breed with the color you want, lets say a buff leghorn, physically they are close to the Phoenixes. Now write down the Physical characteristics of the main breed, height, weight, body form, length of the feathers and the plumage of the original line, comb type color of the legs. Then write down the characteristics of the breed where the color you want to use is comming from "the leghorn" then make a list of what you would want your new strain to have. e.g. Body comformity of Ismer's Phoenix Feather length and type of Ismer's Phoenix Buff colored Then write down the characteristics that you dont want to come out of the new breed you want to establish. Now comes the lengthy and tricky part, the actual breeding. As a rule of thumb, male chicks follow the body of their mothers and 50% of the color females follow the body type of their fathers and 50% chance on their color. Breeding Program: Pen 1(Ismer males X Buff leghorn hens) Pen 2 (Buff Leghorn male X Ismer hens) F1 of Pen 1 (Males: look more like their mothers yet there is already a hint of buff on some of them or a duckwing might appear, their tail lengths are considerably longer for the leghorns but shorter than an Ismer.) "keep them as surplus for the stabilization of the breed in the future" (Females: look more like hens of their Dad's breed, some might come out silver or duck wing but a majority will be buff.) "Keep these aside for the F2" F1 of Pen 2 (Males: will follow their mom's breed having good tail lengths but not that long yet, some might come out with buff colors but a majority will be silver.) "Get the buffs with their mother's body conformity for F2" (Females: will follow their Dad's comformity in body, most will be duckwing or silver.) "Set the buff colored ones aside to cross back to the Ismer males" F2 (Males form F1 Pen 2 X Hens from F1 Pen 1)=Most of the characteristics you wanted will already be there what's next is just good husbandry skills. "Do not breed full siblings together to attain a better strain. Instead use the undesireables of F1 and breed them to the Ismers and get the closest buff colored ones to breed with your new strain type just to keep the line healthy until a good gene pool for the breed is established." repeat the process again until you have a large enough population for the breed with consistent offspring....Bring to a Country Fair and VIOLA! Instant sensation with the crowd!
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