Barred Jacobin Breeding Techniques

by Harry Alexander

The most obvious way to breed bars is a bar x bar mating, but this seldom gives substantial improvement over the original stock.  Since the Reds, Yellows, Blacks, and Whites have been considerably superior to the bars, a cross from any of these onto a bar will give a dark checker which can throw bars when mated onto a bar.  The dark checker is often an excellent bird, but when bred "down" to a bar again, the improvement gained from the original crossing is severely limited.

Bar pattern is recessive to checker so a bar is homozygous for bar.  A checker can be heterozygous with bar hidden by the checker pattern, or homozygous for checker.  The heterozygous checker can give barred young when properly mated.  Our standard Reds and Yellows are usually homozygous Checker T pattern (very dark checker, such that the checks do not show).  I suspect that the prevalence of  Kite (or Bronzing) in our birds greatly enhances the rich colour we get in Tpattern Red and Yellow, but that's another topic.  Bar x heterozygous Checker have given us the birds I've referred to earlier, but these birds are nowhere in a class of good Jacobins. Paul McNorgan observed that the checkers are often good enough to compete in the AOC class and contends that a heterozygous checker x heterozygous checker mating will give better, although fewer, bars on a percentage basis.  The theory is sound and brilliant-, it is just a lot tougher to do.  Norman and George Collie of Scotland suggest the same thing and claim good results.  If you are interested in better bars, you should think it over.

Another technique Paul McNorgan advanced is taking a good heterozygous checker and mating it back to a top quality Jacobin.  Some of the young will carry the bar pattern (heterozygous for bar) and can be used in matings to produce bars. The only problem is identifying the Checkers heterozygous for bar, but often these birds show a checking that is lighter than the usual homozygous T-pattern Jacobin. Using a homozygous checker Kite of either sex, onto a Blue or Silver, can give Blue Check young only.  A Kite or Dun bred Red Cock

The most obvious way to breed bars is a bar x bar mating, but this seldom gives substantial improvement over the original stock.  Since the Reds, Yellows, Blacks, and Whites have been considerably superior to the bars, a cross from any of these onto a bar will give a dark checker which can throw bars when mated onto a bar.  The dark checker is often an excellent bird, but when bred "down" to a bar again, the improvement gained from the original crossing is severely limited.

Bar pattern is recessive to checker so a bar is homozygous for bar.  A checker can be ~hetrozgous with bar hidden by the checker pattern, or homozygous for checker.  The ~heterozygous checker can give barred young when properly mated.  Our standard Reds and Yellows are usually homozygous Checker T pattern (very dark checker, such that the checks do not show).  I suspect that the prevalence of Kite (or Bronzing) in our birds greatly enhances the rich colour we get in T pattern Red and Yellow, but that's another topic.  Bar x heterozygous Checker have given us the birds I've referred to earlier, but these birds are nowhere in a class of good Jacobins. Paul McNorgan observed that the checkers are often good enough to compete in the AOC class and contends that a heterozygous checker x heterozygous checker mating will give better, although fewer, bars on a percentage basis.  The theory is sound and brilliant, it is just a lot tougher to do.  Norman and George Collie of Scotland suggest the same thing and claim good results.  If you are interested in better bars, you should think it over.

Another technique Paul McNorgan advanced is taking a good heterozygous checker and mating it back to a top quality Jacobin.  Some of the young will carry the bar pattern (heterozygous for bar) and can be used in matings to produce bars. The only problem is identifying the Checkers heterozygous for bar, but often these birds show a checking that is lighter than the usual homozygous T-pattern Jacobin.

Using a homozygous checker Kite of  either sex, onto a Blue or Silver, can give Blue Check young only.  A Kite or Dun bred Red cock mated to a Blue or Silver hen will give a good proportion of Dun or Blue check youngsters.  A Yellow or Red cock, homozygous for Red /Yellow, will give all Red and Yellow checker young of both sexes.  If your cross is a Red or Yellow hen (onto a Blue or Silver cock) you will get Blue or Dun checker hens and Red or Yellow checker cocks. An interesting question is-.  What about using a Black?  As with the Kite, you will avoid the Red and Yellow checkers, but some say that the patterns and colour of your Blue or Silver will suffer.  Louis Christener has told me that he has crossed Blacks and Blues with good results and there is no reason that otherwise should ever be the case.  If you start off with a good bar pattern, smutting and ticking on tile wing shield should not just miraculously "appear." There are a number of bar to checker patterns (good light colour with clear bar, very light checker, etc.) but they segregate out according to Mendelian principles, and if you use good colour, you should be able to maintain it.  'This is true of any colour cross you make.  Strive to use good clean colour, and maintain it in the immediate ancestry of your crosses.  If you use a bird homozygous for light checking, you will start fixing the darker smutty pattern in your stud.  However, a bird at least heterozygous for good colour makes possible good coloured young.

This leads us to the conclusion of our discussion, and a most interesting one it is.  For if you desire to breed good, soft coloured Barred Jacobins, heed these words:  "Paint an undercoat before you build your house!"