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Crossing Buff to Wheaten to improve Buff

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Mike Gilbert:
I hatched buff bantams this year that were 1/4 wheaten.  Michael Muenks has two of the pullets, and John got a third one; Bob Walchak has two of them also.   There was a tiny amount of black in the main tail of three of the five, but uneven buff color was not really an issue.  Of course I started with an even colored buff to begin with.  Uneven color is what I would describe as mottled looking, with lighter feathers intermingled with darker feathers in the same sections of the plumage.   I don\'t mean the varied shades found in different sections of the male plumage, as that is a different issue.

Guest:
Thank you for sharing your experiences.  I bought some buffs from John a few years back, grew them out and sold a hen only now I regret selling (pictured here).  She had the best blue legs.  Had I thought at the time I would still be interested in breeding buffs, I would never have given her up.  Ce la vie.

I didn\'t even think of leg color issues with breeding Buffs to Wheaten...was so focused on egg and plumage color/improvement.  I\'m curious if John is still getting nice blue legs in some of his LF buffs?  If so, put me on your waiting list John!  

Jean, if breeding for leg color is going to be a nightmare, what is suggested to help improve the buff line?  

Mike...how are the bantam buff\'s leg color in your flock?

Thanks for all input!  :)

Meagan

Mike Gilbert:
I got buff large fowl chicks from John last spring.  Leg color was not an issue with them.  One of the pullets took champion AOSB at a Wisconsin show in early October.   Light leg color was a problem in my buff bantams this year, but the wheaten cross was not the cause of that.  John\'s bantam buffs have excellent leg color.  

John:
When I first started reading this topic I thought it pertained to bantams, but now see both LF and bantam buffs are mentioned.
The bantams have the best pea combs in the world!  The combs on the LF are getting much better.
Overall both have good type and reasonable size.
Mike and I were able to get dark shanks on the bantams way back when, so they shouldn\'t be a problem.    
With the LF I haven\'t worked at getting the shanks dark.  I know the genes are there to work with and the shanks are blue to slate on all my birds.  Shank color and egg color have taken a back seat to other traits that I have concentrated on more.  It\'s that building the barn, before you paint it idea and we\'ve seen a lot of improvement in LF buffs over the past few years.  
Look for day-old chicks with even buff down all over...all down, even on top of thier heads should be buff.  Toe punch those chicks and see if they grow into the best colored birds.  Cull any buff chick that in hatched with dark legs.  They should start out like the chicks in the photo and thier shanks will darken with time.

As I read my new APA Standard I noticed the shank color of buffs is to be \"Slate\".  I\'ve already given away my old Standard...didn\'t it say something like \"blue to slate\" before?
Were some things changed?

Guest:

--- Quote from: Mike Gilbert ---I got buff large fowl chicks from John last spring.  Leg color was not an issue with them. One of the pullets took champion AOSB at a Wisconsin show in early October.   Light leg color was a problem in my buff bantams this year, but the wheaten cross was not the cause of that.  John\'s bantam buffs have excellent leg color.  
--- End quote ---


That\'s great Mike!  Congrats!  I have to admit, the Buffs I kept have light legs... :thinking:  I may just order another round of LF Buffs from John to help this program become a success vs. just working with what I have.  

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