Anyone working on Birchens?

[Guest]

Is anyone working on Birchens? I have a few questions about the variety and would like to discuss them with someone. (I have seen photos of show entires in the newsletter-like Curtis Beck- but misplaced my issue with contact info.)
Thank you for your time...
Rose

[bantamhill]

You may find the contact information for Curtis at the following link:

http://www.ameraucana.org/DnLd/BreedersDirectory.pdf

A birchen is a brown red with the silver gene instead of the gold gene.

Michael

[grisaboy]

Hello Rose,

I have some Birchen Bantams.  Only a couple.  I am using them as part of my breeding program for improving Silver Bantams.  Right now I have one nice hen and a not very good rooster.  I had another birchen rooster that had an unfortunate encounter with a raccoon.  (The raccoon had an unfortunate incident with my dog).   The hope is that if I use a good Birchen male over silver females I can get rid of the red and yellow feathers in the shoulders of the silver males while keeping the good leg and eye color.  My birchens came from crossing a silver male over black and/or brown red females.  I expect that I will hatch a few more Birchens this year as the Birchen color is dominant over the Silver.

Curtis

[grisaboy]

I also kept one other male that could possibly be called a silver blue, or blue birchen.  He came out of a white male crossed to a black female.  He does not really have the true birchen pattern and probably does not have the true birchen genetics.  But he has a lot of white in his hackle and back, (and no yellow or straw color) and he has pretty good Ameraucana type,  and he came from a really nice blue egg.
I will put him over the birchen hen and hatch a few eggs to see what I get from him.  I might put him over a silver hen too.  (I have a hard time keeping from dabbling in these color matings, I sure don\'t need any other colors.  This mating could give silver blues and blue silvers.  At least they can go in the same pens as the silvers and birchens.)

Curtis

[John]

Curtis, I\'ve mentioned before that my bantam silvers were mixed with birchen for years.  It has just been over the past couple years that I\'ve bred out the birchen and believe my silvers are pure wildtype (e+/e+) at the E-locus as they should be.  I didn\'t cross with birchen on purpose as you are doing.  Hopefully the cross will clean up the silver color as you want.  The two silver males that I\'m using this year have no red in them, but do have clear legs.  All the pullets have slate legs.  Hopefully this will be the last year that I have to bred from clear legged males.  
Below are some photos of cockerels.  The first two are of the same bird from 2004.  I believe he is silver(wildtype - e+)/birchen(E^R) cross.  Note the white (silvery) lacing in his breast that would indicate E^R and a hint of white in his wingbays indicating e+.  The second two photos are of a bird in 2006.  Note the black breast and prominent white in the wingbays as a silver (e+) should have.  

[grisaboy]

The best silver cockerel I kept has white legs also.  He has really excellent color, but a bit of an OE tail.  I will see if I can get a picture this weekend.  He should be split for slate color legs,  so when mated to silver females with slate legs,  half the males should have slate legs.  I just hope I get one or two with his top color and the slate legs.

Curtis

[John]

a bit of an OE tail

That is a something that I will continue to try to improve also.  Both LF and bantam silver type is not quite the same as say black bantams and LF, which I think is closer to the standard.  
The bantam silvers that I bought about 20 years ago weren\'t as nice as what we have today.  Even the few that I saw in a show way back, in Mason City, Iowa, looked very Old English.
LF and bantam silvers have most varieties beat when it comes to the proper blue eggs color, but are also the least docile.  
It is interesting that often the same variety in bantam and LF will have many of the same faults and attributes.

[grisaboy]

Here is a picture of my birchen pullet. - Curtis

[grisaboy]

Here is my silver cockerel with white legs and OE tail.  -- Curtis

[grisaboy]

I have the birchen pullet in with the silver cockerel but I haven\'t set any eggs yet.  She lays a nice color egg,  only slightly green.

Curtis