The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Breeding
Shafting in silvers
John:
--- Quote ---you must mate F1 birds
--- End quote ---
Or...mate the sire over the F1 pullets and then start mating the F2 birds together. The F1 birds all look black, but you can start selecting for phenotype with the following cross. Yes, this way dilutes the traits brought in by the cross to black but I feel the benefits of being able to select for the best phenotype are worth it.
Don:
Silvers seem to be so complicated to me because we are trying to do so many things at one time with the color. Those that I have seen are generally darker than the standard. I guess I mean by that the stripping in the head, upper hackle and back should be greatly reduced to solid white or silver. The wings should have a solid white block while the breast in the males still needs to be solid black. It seems like adding black to reduce shafting would work against this need to add light to the top of the bird. I am sure that its not as simple as this.
Curtis, you mentioned that you added black to reduce the red in the wings, and that the birchen hens from these crosses help with this. I understand that the Birchen and Brown Red that you used in these crosses are related in the color patterns, but why does this not add to the red coloration. Are you finding lines of blacks that have NO autosomnal red in their background? Can you help me understand this better? Also, can you tell the birchen from silver at hatch? Are the birchen solid black similar to the brown red?
Jean:
Don, are you looking at the correct SOP description for silver ameraucanas which now refers to the silver dutch description?
Mike Gilbert:
--- Quote from: Don ---
I understand that the Birchen and Brown Red that you used in these crosses are related in the color patterns, but why does this not add to the red coloration. Are you finding lines of blacks that have NO autosomnal red in their background? Can you help me understand this better? Also, can you tell the birchen from silver at hatch? Are the birchen solid black similar to the brown red?
--- End quote ---
Don, I have brown red bantams with no autosomal red. I know this because I can use the females with birchen males, and the F-1\'s have no red. The males are lemony, but no red in shoulders or backs. So it is very possible there are lines out there with no Ar.
grisaboy:
I have not seen autosomal red from the blacks that I used. I think some strains could have but not the ones that I used. The silver males that i get from the black/birchen/silver matings are better type and better color. This hasn\'t resolved the shafting issue in the females though. This year I crossed Silvers with some nice type whites. The chicks are hatching all black and very vigorous. I suspect that these will look something like birchens when they feather out.
Curtis
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