Dr. Okimoto,
My best guess from the pictures is that they are non columbian wheaten birds. There seems to be variation in the cocks and possible segregation of recessive mottling. They are unusual in that they have single combs and a small crest. The red in the upper breast of the cock without noticible mottling indicates the presence of Mahgony. This is a dominant gene carried by American Partridge Rocks that enhances red color. The hackles of the cocks would be expected to be a cherry red instead of gold.
On the Rare Poultry Breeders list, Barry Koffler brought up the Pyncheon bantam in a discussion of truly rare breeds. He's got some pictures of it on his Feathersite at Pyncheons at Feathersite and it looks really interesting. I was wondering if you could tell anything about the genetics of the bird from the photos there? Mr. Koffler said that there is only one flock of them known in America, and that the owner had tried outcrossing them to OEG mille fleurs with little success (still has poor fertility and about half of the ones that hatch look like OEG instead of Pyncheons.
Could you make any suggestions on what to cross to them to increase the vitality, and anything else that might help in preserving and restoring the breed? Thanks.
By Rokimoto on Saturday, December 8, 2001 - 01:14 pm:
I say that they have wheaten because of the females.
You should not cross them to anything with columbian restriction like Belgiums with the milli fleur pattern.
The safest thing to cross them to would be wheaten Old English. Their body shape looks more like Dorking than OEGs so you will have to select for the proper body shape.
Crest is a dominant gene but you often have a problem seeing it on a single comb background. You have to select for the smaller comb and Crested birds will force the comb onto the front half of the skull
OEGs have white skin which is dominant, but you will recover the yellow skin in the first backcross to the Pyncheons.
The hybrids should have higher fertility than the pure stock. If you cross a Pyncheon male to a bunch of gold wheaten OEG females you should produce a wheaten un mottled bird. The hybrid female progeny should be fertile and you should be able to produce quite a number of them. Crossing Pyncheon males back to these hybrid females should allow you to produce a large population that you can select from for good type.
The fertility problem may still be with the males, but you can use many of them in the crosses.