Creating my own chicken breed - Steinahons

[Steinagarden]

I am not sure I have put this thread in the right forum, admin please move it if it's the wrong place!

I wanted to share my journey as I try to create my own chicken breed. This is not something I take as a light or easy task... I know it's a lot of work and there is much patience in making it a success. I hope to be able to get input as my project develops, and that is excites other people who is eager to learn some genetics along the way. But first, some background; why make a new chicken breed when there is so much to choose from?

All of 2023 and parts of 2024 I hatched and I kept many different breeds to find out what I really like. To mention some of them; black copper marans, silkies, brahmas, sultans, paduans, amrocks... Today I have a selection of Ayam Cemani, Icelandic Chickens, Silverudds Blue, Cream Legbar and Bielefelder. I have not found a breed that gives me all the factors/qualities I want in a chickenbreed... There just is no such breed. And the worst part is that many of the pure bred chickens today is not bred to be fit and healthy. Some of them barely lay any eggs, or take long breaks in-between laying. Many of them also have really poor health.

This is my starting point; I love several of the breeds I have today, but none of them have all the qualities I am looking for. This is my main reason for starting a chicken breed project.

My future breed is called "Steinahøns". "Høns" is the norwegian word for "chickens". "Steina" is the history/original name of our farm from the 1600's. So the name is very norwegian much like the norwegian Jaerhons (Jærhøns in norwegian). And Eksjøhøns (Eksjohons) like the swedish breed.

When making a new chicken breed you need mainly three things;
- A good plan/a goal - you need to know where you're going to get there
- A understanding of what time, effort and knowledge it takes to be able to make it through
- Enough space and enough chickens to be able to breed a strong and big enough genpool for the long term aspect

That said my main goal is not to get in approved in the standard. Maybe in time if it really is a breed that people like, I will consider this, even though that's an even longer road to take. But first of all I do this for myself.

So! Now that I have that sorted out, I want to give you the breed standard as I have so far written it.

- A medium, elegant bird. Hen: 1, 5 - 2, 3 kgs. Rooster: 2-3 kgs.
- Dark brown eggs preferable with speckles
- Barred (auto-sexed)
- Buff/cream colored
- Dark melanistic skin and legs
- Single combed, fairly small/not too much comb
- Crest, not too big or enabling the chicken to see
- Overall good health, good hatching ratio, very rarely loosing chickens in early ages
- Egg laying capability of about 200-250 eggs per year
- Egg size of about 55-65 grams (preferably 60 grams)
- They could be broody, but not all the time
- I want curious outgoing chickens with enough spunk to not be very skittish, but at the same time not too much aggression in the roosters. There is a good balance in this, I have had both in different parts of the scale...I want an easy going chicken that is not too tough with other breeds as well. The mentality of animals is very much inherited, so I will definitely choose good chicken attitudes in my breeding program.

I would show you a photo of what I am thinking, if it existed. But it doesnt, so here is what inspires me, please just look at the feather color and not the type, none of them are what my end results are supposed to look like in type, but they give a good idea of the main base of my color ideas. The two last photos shows a good idea of the type and skin, and the colour is beautful, even though I might want it a little bit more gold. I also really want an even base colour without any much leakage of black.

I will keep posting about my hatchings and pairings of parents... I have a list of breeds that are planned for this. Very open for ideas and critics, I am no expert at all!! Just very very excited to try this by myself! I use kippenjungle calculator alot, I thought it would be fun to see if the calculator is pretty accurate in my breeding, or how much diversity I will get combining the different breeds I have planned to use in making this breed.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

What a cool idea! I can't wait!

 

[The Moonshiner]

- Barred (auto-sexed)
- Buff/cream colored

Do you know what these would look like when hatched?
I don't think the color/pattern would lend well for auto-sexing.

 

[Steinagarden]

Do you know what these would look like when hatched?
I don't think the color/pattern would lend well for auto-sexing.

Very good point! And I have already thought of this. Chicks based on only eWh would not be very easily sexed as they are too light in chick down to see the head spot or difference in the chick down, they would look too similar.

Thats why I need to breed on ebe+ or ebeb I think, could also maybe work with eWhe+!

Then it would be okay to see the difference in chick down (males lighter than females) and the head spot on males. I know the head spot also can be on females, but this I can select for in my breeding. I have both Bielefelders and Cream Legbars were the females have no head spots even though they are barred. I also know of breeding lines were females of these breedes have a head spot.

 

[Steinagarden]

So... Here are some more info about my plan forward!

I have bought and hatched several breeds into my flock for this project. I know that some of the road will shape itself as it develops, because even though I have a plan of making a spesific chicken by combining the correct genetics, it's not always so easy doing it nor does it goes exactly like planned (just making sure I know this for myself so I dont get too frustrated if I run into bumps on the road)

Mainly I am using Bielefelders, Ayam Cemani and Lohmann Brown into this, aaaand wait for it... Icelandic Chickens! Hold on before you tell me the last one is a baaad idea, because of the huge diversity in their genetics...

Bielefelders provide barring, good health and brown big eggs. At the same time they are way too big and chuncky, so I need to get the size down after pairing with these.

One of my Bielefelders hen. We have about 10 of them, 4 grown and the rest youngsters in different ages.

Ayam Cemani for the melanistic skin and legs, and their type is very beautiful! Their comb size is also good. They lay a bit small eggs and are bad layers overall, so thats the negative. Their personality are also a little bit too aggressive and pushy, I prefer them less direct. The rooster I have now did not grow up with me, and he has had a lot of human interactions when he was younger, I think this also contributes to making him too tough. When he sat in my rooster pen he just bossed everyone around (not fighting, just making sure everyone knew not to mess with him) and even became the master of my oldest rooster... His name is now Sauron because of that... Luckely he doesnt fight so I guess he is a good guy overall. I have also hatched about 8 AC (only 5 weeks old yet), hoping for some females as well.

The Lohmann Brown I am using for the brown, big eggs and the great laying capasity! I have F3 LB, so the colours differs from white to red with different e-allels showing in the chick down. But they are all s+ (gold). They are a bit heavy for my taste in type, but their personality is so far great, and I really need this breed for the eggs if I am to have great egg layers with the correct egg colour. They also start to lay eggs really early, thats a huge plus. Health wise we have lost some to marek's, but not many so far, fingers crossed. We dont vaccinate for marek's in Norway, but we breed for good immunity. The virus is everywhere, and the best way is to breed for healthy birds that can handle the virus themselves.

Here are some photos of my Lohmann Brown chicks, they are about 8 and 4 weeks now (I have 2 groups hatched at different times):

So... To the Icelandic chicken... WHY use this breed, when there is so much diversity and would maybe bring me alot of trouble hatching chicks in all different colours...? Well, the breed has everything we want accept for 2 things; brown eggs and a colour that breeds true for the next generation... Accept from that, they have
- Great health (the strongest and healthiest chicken breed I have experienced, very rarely we have sick Icelandic chickens).
- They hatch great and have a great virile percentage, normal to have 100% in our flock all year around.
- They can handle our Norwegian weather great!! They actually prefers the winter over summer, we get more eggs in winter months than in summer.
- They have a great type, size, crest and also melanistic skin in different degrees
- They start laying at about 16 to 20 weeks, and they lay very big eggs for their size
- Their temper is the best, they are very friendly, a bit cheeky and very curious. Even though I do not use any time making them used to humans, they are not scared of me, very intelligent in the way they understand that humans are friends. They are also friendly with other breeds!
- They manage to find alot of food outside on their own, and are great to avoid predators. They are good flyers and very mobile. And I have never had a aggressive rooster in this breed.


These are my arguments for using this breed into my project. But I can't just use all the birds, that will be a mess... So I have picked out the birds I think could give me a good direction for colour. And that is Buff Colombian. Which I have in my Icelandic flock! I have several chicks, and a beautiful hen, also a rooster that is Colombian Ss (so I will get S/Silver chicks, but I will just pick the gold s+ ones for further breeding). The best would be if my rooster also was s+, but he is the one that is available right now untill we have a gold rooster.

Photos of some of the birds:

I have gotten both black/buff colombian, black/silver colombian, blue/silver colombian and blue/buff colombian from this rooster, with all kind of different females in my flock (we have about 30 Icelandic Chickens).

Now that I have chosen the females that in theory will give me only colombian chicks, even though some of them will be Silver, I am trying to create a flock of hens that are a great starting point for the base colour of Steinahons.

And the Icelandic chickens carries alot of diluting genes as well. Making the tone of the buff very beautiful.

Maybe the diversity will be too big... I don't know until I try. But I will try

 

[Steinagarden]

I have now paired Ayam Cemani Rooster with my Creme Legbar and Bielefelder hens. The CL-pairing is for a different project.

Has anyone had this combination before and would like to share photos? Either with Cream legbars or Bielefelders? Are the roosters easy to spot at hatch?

They should be sex linked making the hens all black and roosters single barred. I am excited to see if the barring is strong enough to get through the melanistic skin!