Thanks for such a detailed reply. I agree with your analysis. One thing you didn't mention is these crossed birds will have excellent vigor. They can be bred back to BCW and improvement should follow. I think these crosses are not likely to improve color, but you should be able select back to...
The Silver laced x buff was different. Both boys and girls looked like silver laced do as chicks. I'm still scratching my head as to why the girls were darker in the BCW x buff.
I hope you have good luck with your chicks. I remember your concerns about the vault size being correlated to loses. My experience is different. I have never seen more loses from vaulted chicks. The causes of chick mortality are many. My guess is that it is associated with this strain of...
Info from .pdf files online.
I also considered buff Minorca. I used orpington bantams because I'm not a fan large chickens. I prefer small breeds. I also crossed with silver laced polish bantams because the BCWs crest are poor.
I did some reading. Carefoot published a study that states several observations about the down colors we are talking about. (ER, eb & ewh) And how Co & Db effect them. Simply stated ER-ER and ER-eb look the same, black. Add Db make them dark brown. If ewh is present with either ER or eb the...
I'm not saying anyone knows. I'm saying if it is knowable then let's know it. I think Co, Db and Ml surely effect down color. I'm not convinced any of these effect striping except shade or darkness. May even reverse them. Who knows.
I'm not sure what it means, but I read somewhere that ewh-ER may mimic eb-eb down. If so, the width ratio may be different. I think we need to be very observant of these details. I don't think e+ is in BCW but it is different for eb striping. Different genes have a different signature.
One thing I noticed about down color besides the light vs dark is the stripes on the back. And the width of the stripes or ratio of the widths tells something also. I think the lack of stripes and even faint striping is better than distinct striping.
Good news she is laying! BTW, Yesterday, on a different thread, ckidder posted in response to chickerella 2022 post about BCW. ckidder is the person who imported BCW in the 90s. I replied to that post. Apparently neither of them has notifications turned on. Is there a direct way to contact...