Improving silver spangled spitzhauben breeding questions.

[2Spitz1Hauben]

Over the past 2 years I've acquired/bred a few Silver spangled Spitzhaubens from various breeders two locally and one a 3 hour drive. I have them in a run with wyandotte hens to keep the boys distracted since I only have a few spitz hens. They are free ranged on 5 acres through out the week. I separate them and pair breed.

I'm looking to improve and build my line from these birds. The following issues I see. No males with proper blue legs. Hens with improper crest. I'll list what I have and my breeding plans to see if I'm on the right track and if there's something I'm over looking. New to selective breeding.


Roo 1 - good forward facing crest, pale legs, great body size.

Roo 2 - sibling to Hen 2, nice forward crest, clear spangled and white coloration, pale legs.

Hen 1- unrelated to all roos dark blue legs, wide almost fan crest. (Thinking polish or something else in there. She was from hatchery stock) she has been removed from breeding program but used to get numbers up.

Hen 2 - sibling to Roo 2 with a great forward facing crest and dark blue legs.

Hens 3&4 - off spring of Roo 1 X Hen 1. Selected for deep blue leg color and tighter more forward facing crest. *No roos of their line produced nice even crest or blue legs.

This year I'm pairing Roo 1 with Hen 2 to get a cross of "True" silver spangled spitz. In hopes of gaining true spitz Roo with darker blue legs. I will be keeping hens back from this pairing to add to the main flock. If I get a Roo with dark blue legs from this pair. I would then be removing Roo 1 from the group but keeping Hen 2 as main flock with her daughters.

Mean while crossing Roo 2 with Hens 2&3. I'll be looking for a blue leg Roo with most correct crest. Not keeping any hens back of this line. (This pairing would be "dirty" because their from the fan crested hen).

Currently on a wait list for a small number of chick's from a true line with roos showing darker blue legs. These are unrelated to any of my current stock. (As far as I know.)

If anyone followed all this. Is there enough genetic diversity here to keep continuing and selecting without bringing in new blood for a few generations? My goal in time to establish a group of two roos over 10 hens with a few wyandotte hens to keep the ratio balanced.

Below are pictures of actual birds. Hens 3&4 I have no photos of yet. You can see the crest on Hen 1 and why I suspect a mix of something with spitzhauben.

 

[Amer]

You do seem to have enough genetic diversity there, that is a large base.
Slate legs are caused by a recessive sex linked gene. In chickens, males are ZZ and females are ZW, opposite of how sex chromosomes are in mammals, so hens will only have one copy of a gene while males have two.
Your roosters may carry the gene for slate legs already which means some of their sons will have slate legs. But if they do not, they will definitely 100 percent carry the gene for slate legs so cross them back to their mother and you will get some slate legged male offspring.

 

[2Spitz1Hauben]

You do seem to have enough genetic diversity there, that is a large base.
Slate legs are caused by a recessive sex linked gene. In chickens, males are ZZ and females are ZW, opposite of how sex chromosomes are in mammals, so hens will only have one copy of a gene while males have two.
Your roosters may carry the gene for slate legs already which means some of their sons will have slate legs. But if they do not, they will definitely 100 percent carry the gene for slate legs so cross them back to their mother and you will get some slate legged male offspring.

Thank you!! I stumbled across this breed through a Craigslist ad selling a random funky looking rooster. He was the only surving member of his flock. His original homestead had heavy hawk pressure and some how he survived. $8 and an hour drive for him. And down the rabbit hole I went.