Tips on Breeding for the Cuckoo color

[gayle]

pekinclub.backyardpoultry.com/index.php?page=articlecuckoo.html

Hints on Breeding Cuckoo Pekin Bantams


by PHILLIP PICKLES (Victoria Australia)
Phillip Pickles 2006

Many people start off with Cuckoos but within a few seasons they have given up or are showing birds half as good as they started with. Many breeders will say to you that they dont like breeding Cuckoos because they are afraid that they will get the cuckoo blood mixed up with their other colours (my answer to them is to buy themselves a good toe punch) or that they cant keep the nice barring or colour in their cuckoos so they give up on this beautiful colour.
The cuckoo colour is easy to maintain if you first take the time to understand a few basic rules on colour breeding. Also you will find cuckoos are one of the easiest colours to improve the type on by crossing them with top quality blacks. First you must understand the genetics of the cuckoo gene
If you put a Cuckoo male over a Cuckoo female you will get 100% cuckoos but some of the males will be a washed out cuckoo colour and will be overlooked on the show bench, most of the female will be of a good colour. There is the off chance that the occasional solid black may come from this mating particularly if large volumes are hatched If you put a Black male over a Cuckoo female, almost all the males will be Cuckoos and these males I find are the best coloured males you will breed and it is these males I try to breed with. But all the females will be Black, in over twenty years of breeding Cuckoo Pekins I have never breed a Cuckoo female this way.
If you put a Cuckoo male over a Black female (similar to the female at left, who was the winning black Pullet at the 2005 PBC show @ Maitland) of the males 75% to 85% will be Cuckoos the rest will be black, of the females 40% to 60% will be cuckoos the rest black. This cross is my preferred way of breeding top quality Cuckoos in both male and female because I am a great believe in that the male gives you the colour and the female give you the type. Many breeders like to use a light coloured Cuckoo male when crossing with Blacks as this tends to give you more cuckoo females this way but I have found that if you breed from these female you will get a lot of washed out chickens. I only use light coloured male if both parents are of a dark colour and barred to the skin and only if my top colour is getting a little Smokey. I have seen some very good type Cuckoos breed out of Whites but a lot of them were very poorly barred in the undercolour. This is not a cross I have done because of this problem. I have also seen Cuckoos breed out of Blues but they lacked the type of the Black or White crosses and their colour was a little too Smokey for me (some people believe it makes the barring more defined) I didnt see it that way.
Things to remember when breeding Cuckoos.

The more light coloured cuckoos you use the more light coloured chickens you will get.
Never breed from a light coloured female.
Never breed from a two toned or unevenly barred Cuckoo.
Never breed from a Cuckoo showing brassiness.
Try not to breed from Cuckoos that are not barred to the skin.
Only breed Cuckoo to Cuckoo once then breed back to the Black.
Most Cuckoo females improve in colour in the second or third year but males usually stop the same colour.
Try to use cockerel breeding Blacks to improve both type and undercolour.
When selecting a breeding male make sure he is barred in the wings and on the entire body and of good type of course.
Remember the barring on a cuckoo is NOT the same as the barring of a Barred Plymouth Rock, a Cuckoo has irregular barring and the two colours are less distinct and tend to run into each other where as a Barred Plymouth Rock or Pekin has very regular barring which dont run into each

A Cuckoo Breeding Chart Which I Try To Breed

As you can see I seldom breed Cuckoo to Cuckoo. In a nut shell I put a Black male over a Cuckoo female to breed me a Cuckoo male to put over a Black female which with a little (lot of) luck breeds me the champion Cuckoos Im after, because I believe the offspring will inherit the good colour from the BM x CF father and the type from its Black mother.

[gayle]

More Info on breeding the Cuckoo Color

maransofamericaclub.com/cuckoomarans.php

Why do the cocks have a lighter colored plumage than the darker-coloured hens?
It should be understood that Cuckoo fowl are black birds (primarily E/E based) or perhaps (but rarely) Birchen (Silver Birchen, ER/ER based) in the Marans. The genotype is completed by the addition of the dominate Barring (B) factor, the "cuckoo gene" which superimposes an irregular barring on the black plumage by interrupting the deposit of black pigment in the feather, this irregularity is due to the rate black pigment is laid down in the feather, the faster the feather grows the more irregular the barring. Another dominate sex linked gene, called "Silver" (S) removes the gold/red pheomelanin and so intensifies the silver white colour in the plumage of the hackle, back, shoulders, lancets. Sex linked genes do nor give the same results in both sexes, the male and females differ. How is it that we have different plumage conditions an identical colour for the two sexes? In the male the cuckoo (B) colour factor is expressed on each of the two sex chromosomes present in the cock, (B/B). As B has a cumulative effect it is doubly expressed giving a lighter shade to the cock feathers. It is also intensified by the presence of the (S/S) silver characteristic that lightens the hackle and also the back, the shoulders and the lancets.
On the other hand, in the cuckoo hens, the (B) factor is present on only one sex chromosome, the second remaining unexpressed. The hen’s plumage can only be a darker cuckoo shade, as it is genetically hemizygous (B/-), rather than the cock’s (B/B
What lessons should be remembered from that?
It is normal that in the Silver-Cuckoo (and even in the Golden-Cuckoo) selection, the cocks
are lighter than the hens and we have at least three good reasons to require that:
They are auto-sexable and the differentiation must always remain sufficiently clear between the cocks and the hens. It is a supplementary appeal.
They are genetically coherent because it's really the light cocks, being homozygous for barring (B/B) and not the darker heterozygous (B/b+) birds. They are the pure subjects for the "Cuckoo factor"
They are nicer in this way (there's no account for tastes...!)
It is logical to select according to your personal taste in Cuckoo, foundation birds that are darker or lighter than the usual color, and even with the clearer and more contrasting bars such as is found on the "Plymouth Rock" and which has nothing to do with Cuckoo Marans. There is one and only one "natural Cuckoo" shade corresponding to the Cuckoo variety, apart from a slight variations in shade. Heterozygous B/b+ male birds will be darker than the Standard requires, resembling the colour of the hen.
The Silver-Cuckoo variety must be able to be revived at any time by use of the Black variety (as long as it still exists at the pure state) or by the Birchen (Silver-Black). The mating of a Silver Cuckoo (B/B) male to a Black hen will produce B/b+ darker males and B/- Silver Cuckoo hens. The reverse will produce opposite B/b+ darker males and Black (b+/-) pullets.
Thus, we begin to notice the appearance of the varieties that are genetically logical and natural.
Finally, and because everything in the logic holds together when we regenerate Cuckoo stock, which was selected as being too light, by crossing it with a black subject (E or ER), nature will always tend to restore the normal cuckoo colour… and it is all right in this way!

[gayle]

www.diyseattle.com/urban-chickens/barred-gene-use-in-chickens/
The Barring Gene in Chickens
by Mugumby Pickins and Jon Alden and DIYSeattle

This is all great information, but how does it work? Barred females carry only one copy of the barring gene. Barred males carry two copies of the gene, so the females can be only one color. The rooster has two genes so roosters can ether be like the hen or can have more color than the single gene. If this is confusing, read on.

A barred male that carries only one barred gene when crossed to a barred female will produce about 25% barred cockerels. Half of those barred cockerels will have a single barred gene. The other half of those will have the double barred gene. The remaining will be 25% barred females and 25% solid females.

Taking a barred male with one barring gene and crossing it to a solid colored femal will produce 25% barred males with one barring gene and 25% barred females. The remaining 50% of the birds will be of a solid color.

Now on to a barred male with two barred genes. If you take that double barred rooster and cross it to a barred female you will get about 50% barred males that will carry the double barring gene. The remaining 50% of hens will be barred.

To cross a barred male with two barring genes to a solid female you should plan on getting about 50% barred cockerels with one barring gene. The remaining half will be barred pullets. Breeding a double gene barring rooster to a solid hen will give you the result of having the most barred offspring. Using the finest stock you can obtain of both barred rooster and solid hen will give you the best results.

Last but not least the solid male crossed with a barred female will give you 50% barred males with one barring gene and half solid pullets.

Keeping careful notes and breeding from the best pure stock you can find will give the best results. Keeping notes will help greatly. If you keep good notes about the lineage of your birds you should be able to predict what you are going to produce.

A barred rooster that is carrying two genes for barring should be noted as (B,B). A barred rooster that is carrying one barred gene should be noted as being (B,b+). A pullet that is barred should be noted as having the barring gene as (B,-).