White large fowl hens

[DeWayne Edgin]

Wanted a White large fowl hen and a big Silver rooster.

[John]

big Silver rooster

I have 3 year old silver cocks that I can sell in a month.  "Big" can be a problem.  I think all the LF silvers I've ever seen were under standard weight, but think mine are as close to it as anyone's.  I'll weigh them when I get a chance.

[DeWayne Edgin]

Ok great. I am trying to get better size on my Silvers. My hens and rooster are really small. If i have to i will cross them with a Black male with Blue slate legs, but i would like to avoid this if i can.

[Jean]

John and I have both done this.  I think it is the best way to improve the variety.  My birds are pretty close to size, but I am still working on color now.

I've had quite a few promising chicks hatch the past month.

[DeWayne Edgin]

How long do you think it would take? Do you think it would take three or four years?

[Jean]

I would be further along, but I didn't get a good cockerel last year.  So I am repeating my third generation breeding this year.

Just continue to keep the larger pullets!!!! 

[DeWayne Edgin]

Ok thanks. My Black rooster with blue slate legs is only giving one fertile egg out of every 9 or 10.  I will try him with my biggest Silver hen and go from there.

[DeWayne Edgin]

By the way Jean. Do you think you will have a White hen for sale any time this year? I may even get more than one if you have them later. Shipping would probably be cheaper that way. I can go to boxes for birds and have a box shipped to your house also. Thanks.

[Jean]

I've got lots of whites hatching out this year, so that would definately be a possibility.

[DeWayne Edgin]

Ok great. I would raise day old chicks or older if you want to ship 10 or 15 or so. But it is up to you what you prefer. Thanks.

[John]

i will cross them with a Black male with Blue slate legs

You ultimately want to breed for e+/e+ birds and they will develop slate legs/shanks.  I'm not sure why you mention the leg color, but if the thought is that fewer melanizers may be involved than with a black shanked bird it may be a good idea.   

i will cross them with a Black male

I have made that cross this year, but normally advise breeders to go the other way and use a silver cock over the largest black hen available.  The pullets from that cross will all be pure for "silver" (as opposed to gold) and should then be bred to a silver cock the following year.  Cull the cockerels, since they may carry gold.  After that generation the offspring can be bred amongst themselves so you don't lose the increase in size that the original cross was intended for.
The reason I used a black cock over a silver hen this time is that the cock is huge and with silvers being so undersized the overcompensation can't hurt.  I haven't hatched any from this pair yet this year, but should have a few next week.

[Jean]

I did both crosses.  Black over silver and silver over black.

[DeWayne Edgin]

Thanks Jean and thanks John. I will try this and see what happens with my Silvers. Jean when you crossed Black and White and kept keeping the Whites to breed, do you still get a lot of Black chicks in later generations? I got eggs from a guy who did this and almost all of the chicks were Black and the ones that were White had Black spots on them. The original Black cross was supposed to have been done before, and the person i got them from said he hardly ever gets any with Black on them.

[Jean]

I toe punched all the chicks, so that I knew they were carrying white.  I crossed a blue cockerel on my white hens.  I got blue, black and splash chicks.  I only kept a splash and blue pullet.

And yes, this generation I am getting some blue and black chicks.  Unless you take the dark bird out of the white pen, you will continue to get b/b/s chicks carrying recessive white out of your white pen.

I don't recommend using white in the b/b/s pen.

What you are referring to doesn't make any sense to me and the whites may have been carrying something weird beneath the white.  With recessive white if both parent birds are white all the offspring should be white.  The only leakage I have ever seen on a recessive white is a bit of red or some feathers with peppering on them no spots.

[DeWayne Edgin]

Ok. I had a White hen that had a real bad cross beak and i did not want to breed her. I have two White roosters and no other White hens that i can use. I wanted to make a few White hens and was told to use a Black hen. I was told to keep culling all chicks with Black feathers on and only keep the best Whites. Then i was going to breed them pullets to my other White cock and back and fourth to get my white hens. I got eggs that was out of White hens that were made this way a long time ago and they all had Black on them. Some were fully Black. Will the hens that were made this way always throw back to Black chicks years from now to? Sorry i did not explain better, it is confusing they way i asked you. I can not say the person i got these from was fully honest with me so i thought you could tell me what to expect from doing this cross. Thanks.