i am considering breeding hamburgs as a new hobby. i have access to 3 varieties from a breeder in my area, black, silver penciled, and gold penciled. my questuonj is, what colors jive. do i need blacks to breed to silvers to keep good black, would i dare cross silvers and golds. i know crossing black and white silkies does no damage but buff and black makes muddy buffs. any opinions.
Don't cross the silvers and golds. That was just discussed on the Rare Poultry Breeders list. It messes up the colors because of the sex-linked gold and silver genes involved. You can do it if you have to, but it gets kind of complicated sorting it out and the gold can keep coming up in your lines for a long time because its recessive. I think you can cross the blacks and silvers with better luck than the blacks and golds, but I'm not positive about that. You might want to check with some of the other breeders on the rare breeders list. Its at Rare Poultry Breeders Home Page or you can subscribe by sending a blank email to Subscribe to Rare Poultry Breeders
When you are just starting out, I would not advise crossing color varieties.
rok and anon. thankyou for your comments.i took a pair of black hamburgs to begin.the breeder i bought from had similar advice.he has kept blacks for 36 years,a real wealth of info.
By Anonymous on Friday, December 7, 2001 - 11:07 pm:
Good luck.
By Rokimoto on Saturday, December 8, 2001 - 01:28 pm:
Breeders prefer to outcross blacks to gold varieties if they have to. The belief is that it improves the beetle green sheen.
You should not have to cross color varieties to raise show birds. You can expect your best results if you start with good bird. Starting with bad stock and crossing in other lines will most often result in bad things, and if you don't know what you are breeding for you can just make things worse.
By Robbpa on Sunday, December 9, 2001 - 02:54 pm: