The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding
Genetic discussion of slow Feather (K) and tardy feather (t)
crystalcreek:
Beth I think the best course of action is to immediately stop using these males that don\'t grow a tail until after 6 months. If you have females that are normal (k-), these can be crossed on a normal black cock and you have eliminated it in one generation. If you didn\'t watch them carefully when they were chicks, you probably won\'t know at this point because they are fully feathered. I\'m guessing since their offspring are naked, the females must be K-. If you think your females are K-, I can help you start over with female older chicks this coming spring. Then you can cross those on a normal black cock/cockerel and you\'ll be good to go by fall. It might seem as if we are taking two steps backward, but I think this is the way to go. I looked in my brooder last night and I saw about five chicks, both lav and split, that have about 3/4 to 1\" of tail growth at 9 days. These should all be fast feather females. It\'s only five out of 41, but hey, it is five. One of those is bound to be a keeper, right? I\'ll share my lav females with you to get this thing back on track. Don\'t you have some splits from me from the Smith birds? If those don\'t carry it, you can hang onto them to use later.
So I guess we\'re in the market for phenomenal black males around here.
I\'m going to watch carefully the offspring of my young cockerel that had an apparent normal tail and see what they do. If he\'s kk, I\'m truly in luck. We\'ll see.
Clare, what do those 5 you raised look like? Do you still have some?
Beth C:
--- Quote ---you got real unlucky with the birds you chose to breed
--- End quote ---
I\'m starting to feel that way no matter what the genetics. But that\'s what happens when you roll the dice on hatching eggs instead of coughing up the money to ship birds the breeder has had a chance to evaluate. Slowly making my way around the learning curve... ;)
Cindy: That\'s pretty much what I\'ve been thinking - time to pull the plug. The original males bit the dust when I saw what they were producing. The only male still here from this season is a split. He feathered normally but is starting to show some leakage in his hackles, so he\'s out. I think I\'m going to do one hatch with my black cock over the fast-feathering pullet and see what I get. Depending on what happens, I may take you up on your offer (which is very nice of you, btw). I have them under lights, so hopefully she will start laying soon.
crystalcreek:
--- Quote from: Beth C ---The only male still here from this season is a split. He feathered normally but is starting to show some leakage in his hackles, so he\'s out.
Yeah, don\'t use him.
I think I\'m going to do one hatch with my black cock over the fast-feathering pullet and see what I get.
If you have a black fast feather cock and a lavender fast feather hen, you\'ve got everything you need! The male cannot pass it on and neither can the female, so make some splits and either put the splits together or a split son back over his momma.
--- End quote ---
Your genetic diversity will be lacking starting with just two birds, but you can add fresh blood in your F2 or F3. You should obtain a black chick order in the meantime or hatching eggs and be working on that at the same time.
If you get slow feather again, either your birds are not truly fast feather, or perhaps you are dealing with a double whammy involving t, and if that is the case, maybe it\'s time to get all new birds.
You should be able to obtain two lav pullets without breaking the bank, to cross back to your black cock. Just make sure you get them from a trustworthy source if you get birds that are already feathered. If you get hatching eggs, you know when you grow them out at day 12 what you got.
If you are able to mark and keep the offspring from each of two pullets separated, I think you could safely mate the splits together, doubling up only on the black cock genes (he is a good one, right?) and 25% of your offspring will be lav with fast feather in your F2. You can ditch all the blacks at that point, since you won\'t know which are blacks and which are splits.
Jean was already doing that (split to split) cross in 2010. I was lucky enough to get some hatching eggs from that cross and I currently have two split daughters and one lav son of one of those original hens.
I have 5 lav females at my place that are laying or starting to lay (well, one is broody). I believe they are all fast feather. I think my course of action is going to be finding a nice black male to put over these lav hens and make some splits (again).
It looks like my Pen B lavender cock, sadly, is on his way out--he does produce some gorgeous female offspring, so it\'ll be a little while, as I don\'t want to back myself into a corner with too few birds to work with. I do have the young cockerel who is his son to replace him with, I know his mother is fast feather, so at the worst he is Kk, and I can still produce females using him.
And I will see what the other cockerel with a faster tail does for me over the Smith splits.
I\'ll keep everyone posted.
Honestly, John, Paul, Jean and others who ship chicks, I don\'t know how you can afford to do it for the very reasonable prices that you do. You are to be commended.
crystalcreek:
My dogs are going to get real tired of eating Ameraucana :D
Beth C:
--- Quote from: crystalcreek ---My dogs are going to get real tired of eating Ameraucana
--- End quote ---
I butcher a few, but it kills my back. The ones I cull as chicks go to the wildlife rehab to feed the raptors (yeah, I know, just what I want to encourage local birds of prey to eat :p). The bigger ones go to the sale. They have a minimum bid and everything sells, so I\'m assuming there must be a buyer(s) for a processor. I took a load of cockerels last month & got $108, less fees. At an average of $4/bird it\'s no where near what I\'d put into feed, but at least it\'s something.
I\'m honestly on the fence with the lavenders. I\'ve gotten out of blacks, except for these 2 cocks, and there are so many challenges with the buffs, and a lot of things to work on in the wheatens, too, that I\'m thinking my dance card might be full...
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