I am wondering what will happen if I cross a Light brahma male to a buff brahma female and vice versa.
This is about the safest color cross that you can make, but you will have to carefully select your males for even buff coloring in the backcross to your buff lines. Males have a tendency to be darker colored than the females and Buff breeders have spent a long time breeding in the modifiers that make it possible. The light Brahma will have more gold diluters than you will find in the Buffs so the shade of buff will vary.
Ron, Thanks for the info.
The opposite mating will result in all birds that you do not want (silver females and silver heterozygous males).
Ron,
Need some size in my buff !
By Rokimoto on Saturday, November 10, 2001 - 01:51 pm:
Some people like the uneven shade of buff that you will likely get in the males in the shoulder and saddle region, but the judges won't like it very much.
If you breed a Buff male to some large Light Brahma females you will produce a down sexable cross. The males will have silver down and the females will have the buff down of the Buff line. You can keep the buff female hybrids and cross them back into your Buff line, but keep the pen separate for a couple of generations until you are sure you haven't messed up the buff color too badly. You should get rid of the hybrid males because they have sex-linked silver that you don't want in your buff line and gold enhancers like mahagony that you do not want in the Light Brahma line.
By Anonymous on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 01:35 am:
What about the opposite mating Light male to buff hens.
will the chicks be down sexable also ?
By Rokimoto on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 01:37 pm:
Sex-linked crosses work when the female has the dominant allele and the male has the recessive allele. All hybrid males get the dominant allele from their mothers and the recessive allele from their fathers, so they look like their mother. All hybrid females get the W sex-chromosome from their mothers and the recessive allele from their fathers so they look like dad.
Do the gold male X the silver female or you won't get the gold hybrid females that you want.
By Anonymous on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 11:59 pm:
Thanks Again,
I appreciate the great info. this will make it easier for me to get what I want and not hurt a good thing thing that I have.
Gary