The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Exhibiting & Promoting
Size in LF
Schroeder:
Jerry, can you get real basic for me? If I put a LF WA over my LF SA\'s, I will have all splits. Then when I breed the splits to each other what percentage of each will I get, and will it be difficult to identify the pure Silvers from the undesirables?
Christie Rhae:
Maybe I need to get my husband\'s fish scale and a sling and weigh my pullets. I have one blue wheaten pullet that I hatched from Denise\'s eggs (Paradise Found Farms). She dwarfs my other pullets of similar age. It makes me think my others are small. Maybe they are average and my BW is just a big girl...
Very nice egg color too.
Mike Gilbert:
--- Quote from: Schroeder ---Jerry, can you get real basic for me? If I put a LF WA over my LF SA\'s, I will have all splits. Then when I breed the splits to each other what percentage of each will I get, and will it be difficult to identify the pure Silvers from the undesirables?
--- End quote ---
That\'s easy. You will have easter eggers - a total mess. Your silvers will likely pick up autosomal red from the wheatens, and your wheatens will pick up worse hackle striping from the silvers. The only way that works is to breed the F-1\'s back to pure silvers and pure wheatens, and you will still get mostly color culls.
John:
--- Quote ---Your silvers will likely pick up autosomal red from the wheatens
--- End quote ---
That\'s what Curtis warned me about when we were at Indy and I told him I was planning a cross of bantam wheatens and silvers to make some improvement to silvers.
grisaboy:
You can improve size by crossing to other varieties. Some of the blacks are getting some good size and these could be used for an outcross. You would still have to breed the F1\'s back and then the F2\'s back again to get to your original color.
There has been a lot of discussion lately with some other breeds that are improving size just through selection. Buckeyes are what I have read the most about. Hatch a lot of birds weigh each of them at twenty weeks and keep the biggest males and the biggest females as your breeders and get rid of the rest. Use the front section of the APA Standard as your selection guide. Select not just for weight but back width, abdomen depth etc. You should see improvements within a couple of generations. Probably as quick as you would by outcrossing and then breeding back to the variety standard.
One thing I would suggest when doing this, Cull for weight, width depth FIRST. Then cut the remaining birds in half again culling for breed type and color.
Only plan on keeping about 10% of what you hatch.
If you cull for color and breed type first, it will take you longer to get the size you want.
Curtis
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