# New to Breeding Almonds



## earlofwood

I am new to breeding almonds. I raise Birmingham Rollers. From what I have read, I think I have the needed traits in my stock (recessive red, t-pattern checks, spread, and kite, although my kites are not real vibrant in bronze). The information I have found so far is scattered and sketchy. Can you point me to a good reference to help me get started. Any pointers are welcome.


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## ThePigeonGene

One thing is for sure - do not breed homozygous almonds as it is a semi lethal gene


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## Chuck K

Do you have any almond birds right now? Kites are a good start to pair to the almond, and recessive red agates are also supposed to be good for breeding good quality almonds.

You say the kites are weak in expression so you should try doubling up some pairings of kite birds to get birds homozygous for kite. The expressions may get better and the results when paired to almond will get better.


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## earlofwood

I have two hens and a cock now. I have a recessive red hen that is blue t-pattern underneath. Would this be a good pairing?
Thanks for the reply,
[email protected]


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## lg5555

*adoption*

In the adoption section someone from Florida has a spotted almond for adoption.


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## Woodnative

The rec red with blue t-pattern underneath is good. One dose of recessive red, blue t-pattern, kite make the best "classic" almonds. Of course you can put almond on other colors and patterns.....it depends on you whether or not you like the look or if you are striving for classic almonds. Enjoy and post some pics!


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## almondman

earl - glad to see you're getting some great responses. Hope you find them helpful. As stated, pictures of you current, and future birds, will be greatly appreciated.


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## earlofwood

Thanks for all the advice. I'll post pictures of the progress of this little project.
[email protected]


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## earlofwood

*The Almond Project*

This is the almond cock I have chosen to start with:









And here is the recessive red hen I have chosen to mate him to. She is a blue t-pattern check underneath all that beautiful red.


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## Woodnative

Beautiful pair! They should give you nice almonds, recessive reds, kites, deroys etc.!!...


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## newday

*Kite color*

Here's the color type of a young kite roller out of almond that I use in my almond breeding.


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## earlofwood

Wow! Impressive color. I assume it is K//K. I don't have a bird anything like that one. I'll have to ask around and see if I can round up a good kite! Thanks for sharing!


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## tmaas

earlofwood said:


> Wow! Impressive color. I assume it is K//K. I don't have a bird anything like that one. I'll have to ask around and see if I can round up a good kite! Thanks for sharing!


Your "red" hen will do just fine. I suspect that she may be bronze rather than rec. red. I've seen bronze birds that look identical to your hen. Please post your results.


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## newday

*My almond rollers*

Here's some photos from today of a few of my almond rollers.


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## LUCKYT

I do not breed them any more, but I do like them!








Oriental Cock.


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## Chuck K

*New rollers*

I think you may have been taken. Have you seen them roll?

The reason I ask is because it is very unusual to see rollers in that deep a bronze almond color, but English Long Faced Clean legged tumblers commonly carry that deep bronze almond expression. The birds in the picture also have a shorter than usual bill for rollers and a rounder head. English Long Faced Tumblers have that round head, and an even shorter bill than the birds in the picture.

To be bluntly honest, I believe they are probably crosses of the two breeds, and someone has passed off their project birds they used to get that almond color into rollers to you.


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## Crazy Pete

Reds with all the black flecking are they all cocks or with rollers they could be either?
Dave


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## tmaas

Very striking group. They appear to be ash red almonds to me. Their heads do seem to be a bit wide for pure rollers.


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## Chuck K

Crazy Pete said:


> Reds with all the black flecking are they all cocks or with rollers they could be either?
> Dave


Dave,

They could all be cocks, but the black flecking is the almond gene at work. They will get more of it with every moult. The almond roller hens I have raised usually have less flecking than those birds.

With the spots and some of the flights showing black instead of blue, I would say these birds also carry spread. They are not ash reds. Almond washes out the tail like ash red. It will also wash out the shield on barred birds and don't carry a very expressive bronze factor. I believe the dark red in these birds is tumbler bronze. The first attached picture is an almond cock bird with bars instead of t-pattern like the ones in the picture. He carries a dose of roll bronze and I suspect one gene for recessive red. He is not a good classical almond even for a roller.

The next picture is his nest mate. He lacks the bronze and recessive red factor and he is either checker or t-pattern. He too will get a lot darker as he ages.

Both these cock birds have moulted in more dark feathers since this picture was taken.


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## earlofwood

An update for this project. I bred the pair pictured at the beginning of the thread and they produced this almond cock (not as pretty as his dad) and a nice Kite hen.


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## earlofwood

*Update*



Chuck K said:


> I think you may have been taken. Have you seen them roll?
> 
> The reason I ask is because it is very unusual to see rollers in that deep a bronze almond color, but English Long Faced Clean legged tumblers commonly carry that deep bronze almond expression. The birds in the picture also have a shorter than usual bill for rollers and a rounder head. English Long Faced Tumblers have that round head, and an even shorter bill than the birds in the picture.
> 
> To be bluntly honest, I believe they are probably crosses of the two breeds, and someone has passed off their project birds they used to get that almond color into rollers to you.


Chuck,
Thanks for the insight. I haven't flown the almond cock but he has produced some pretty good rollers. Not excellent but not bad either. I really am not concerned with the roll in these birds. This is an almond project with the objective of learning more about the genetics. It has been fun so far. [email protected]


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## earlofwood

More Update: For my F2 generation, I have mated the F1 almond cock above to a recessive yellow (a sister to the cock's mother). See below. I am not sure what to expect from this mating. Any ideas?


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## earlofwood

More Update: Again for the F2 generation, I have mated the Kite hen pictured above with a brown almond cock. See below. Any ideas on what to expect from that mating? I will keep you all posted. Thanks for the input. [email protected]


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