Polish Breeders Club

Official website of the Polish Breeders Club

White Crested Cuckoo Polish

Creating the White Crested Cuckoo

(As described by Glenn Cryer, the originator of the White Crested Cuckoo Bantams in the U.S.A.) 

In about 1980, I obtained a very good barred Plymouth rock cock bird from Mr.
Ed Cole of Birmingham Alabama.  I mated this rock to several of my white
crested black hens.  The first year I got several males that were barred and
had a small tassel.  I kept the best two of the males and crossed them back
over the white crested black hens.  The best males were retained and crossed
back over pure white crested black females.  The fifth generation off spring
were polish in type.  One of these males went to Al Westling and he started
his own strain of the cuckoos by crossing with his white crested blacks.  He
described his experience in the above mentioned article.

When I discussed the breeding with Mr. Fred Jeffrey, then Secretary of the
ABA, he told me that something in the barring gene would stop me from getting
the slate legs required for all polish at that time.  In about 1997 Al and I
discussed getting them into the ABA standard.  We had given up on getting the
slate legs.  I contacted Gus Venhage, chair of the ABA Standards Committee
and explained that we wanted to get them into the Standard and wanted a
qualifying meet in Columbus Ohio in November 1998.

Gus researched the Dutch and German Standards and noted that the leg color in
those standard were not slate.

The accepted standard is as follows:

COMB, FACE, AND WATTLES: Bright red.  CREST: White, a small cluster of cuckoo
feathers in front is allowable, the smaller amount preferred.  BEAK: horn.
EYES:  Reddish Bay.  EAR LOBES: White.  SHANKS AND TOES: Slaty white.
PLUMAGE:  Refer to barred as in cuckoo for all sections except crest.

Definition:  Slaty white - white to light slate in color with a preference
for light slate.

I hope this sheds some light on the color and standard.  Al's article noted
above had the genetics of the crossings with the cuckoos and white crested
blacks.  I recommend it as reading material for all interested in cuckoo.

Glen

White Crested Cuckoo Breeding

as described by Terry Beebe of England. 
White Crested Cuckoo, in both large and bantam, are better created by the use of White Crested Black. This keeps the colour to standard. If bred constantly, cuckoo to cuckoo, it creates what we call a silver cuckoo (too pale).

The cuckoo leg colour also differs from the other White Crested because the black/blue carry black/dark legs.  The cuckoo are pale almost flesh coloured. If you use a cuckoo cock across a black hen you pass on the  pale leg colour.

Both large and bantam are now available in frizzle. 


The same breeding methods are used for the self cuckoo.

 

 When breeding cuckoos, you will get some white crested blues (this is actually a dilution of the barring which makes it look like solid blue)  with barring on their hackel and saddle feathers.  Breed these birds back onto white crested blacks.

 

A DISCUSSION ON HOW TO ARRIVE AT A LARGE FOWL CUCKOO BIRD WITH THE ORIGINAL BEING BANTAM AS TAKEN FROM THE MESSAGE BOARD OF ONAGADORI AND RON OKIMOTO
 
The key is to get all the modifiers that come from the bantam out of the new made large fowl you are attempting. I think that you are looking at four generations or more. The thing to do is to take an f1 cuckoo male and breed him to a wcb lf hen. Then, again select a cuckoo male and take back to the wcb lf hens, repeating the process several times.
When you get the size and type of the lf wcb with some rudimentary cuckoo, then you can start breeding the cuckoos together and selecting for the heaviest cuckoo. The other option is to do as above, but to make a third generational step by breeding the f1 cuckoos, and selecting the largest with the best barring, then go on to the back cross to the large fowl hen with f2- 50% cuckoo cockerel.
The barring is not a simple dominant and must have several modifying genes or factors, as it begins to "dilute" each generation that you breed it back to black; first in tail, then in wings primaries and then in breast, with the hackle and saddle retaining the barring the longest.
One way or the other, you will need a few generations back into the wcb lf and then a few generations of cleaning up the barring and bringing all the modifiers back into play. You can do this as one process, or you can do one thing then the other. It usually makes more sense and makes a better outcome to take the three step method rather than the other. It is a bit slower, but gives you a better final outcome.
Brian


From: wcbpolishSent: 4/15/2003 6:16 PM
is gender extremely important (other than to make sure the cuckoo gene is passed along)? why the f1 male to large black female?  why not f1 females to a large balck male?  i understand that using a larger hen would mean larger eggs and therefore larger chicks, but i don't have all that many black hens to put the f1 males on.  but other than that is the gender that important? 

 
From: onagadoriSent: 4/15/2003 10:08 PM
Yes, it is important. The barred gene is sex-linked. Barred male x black female = dark barred males and barred females (males can have two doses of barring and can be dark or light, while hens can only have one dose, so are all dark barred, as this gene is on the z chromosome, the sex-chromosome, of which roosters have two and hens have one, always). Black male x barred female = dark barred males and black females, so this breeding doesn't give you the males and females to breed together to bring the barring modifiers back up to a higher level when a large f2 is produced from the f1.
Brian

 

 

 

 

The blacks from the cuckoos are genetically pure white crested black, according to the genetic experts. 

 In my experience with the cuckoos (longer than anyone else in the US) I have had two birds be black for a couple of years, then revert to cuckoo later in life.  I have had one white crested black out of a cuckoo mating that as a four year old is a very good colored mottled. 

Sometimes these genetics play strange tricks on us. The cuckoos in the US are at least 7/8 white crested black.  The cuckoo color comes from barred Plymouth rocks. 

 

 

 The ABA standard reflects the leg colors from the European standards.  It should be white, mottled with slate.  Long ago, when I started on the Cuckoos, Mr. Fred Jeffrey, then the ABA Secretary told me that the slate leg color on the cuckoo Polish would not be possible.  I tried to put the slate leg color on the birds for about 20 years before I gave up and accepted the mottled color.  That is when we put them into the standard.

Over the years, I have gotten a few with light slate legs, but they always throw mottled legs in the offspring.
 
In my experience, breeding two cuckoos together is the best way to get show birds.  You will get some light male birds (double barred gene) which are the best to breed over white crested black females.  I don't think you can ever improve the barring to what is desired by not using barXbar.
The color standard for the cuckoo male should be white crest with a small portion of barred feathers across the front.  Plumage should be bluish white, each feather barred across with irregular light and dark bars: the light and dark bars to be nearly equal in width and to extend throughout the length of the feathers and into all sections of the plumage; shade and depth of color to register the same throughout.  The bars should continue through the shaft of the feathers and into the underfluff and stop short of pure black or white.  Each feather should end in a narrow dark bar.
 
The female should be a darker shade than the male.
 
Glen Cryer
A mix of crele to black will produce a dark barred hen.  This hen mated to a black cock will give black pullets and dark barred males.These males mated to the barred hen will give all barred,but the males will be lighted as barred is sex linked
 
You could also breed her to a solid blue cock and get a variety of barred roos from light blue to dark.  It depends on what you want to do.  If I were breeding her I would breed her back to a cock that looks just like her and get all barred and not worry about crossing it up.

Welcome