The Clearbody
Kevin Eatwell BV.Sc.(hons) MRCVS
left: Ken & Sylvia Stalder's CC winning Clearbody cock. Photo by Mick Freakley,
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The Clearbody
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The Clearbodies are well established in the UK and the initial enthusiasm for them has now been reduced down to the more serious breeders of the variety.
There has been a great improvement in quality of this variety, but sadly many individuals are not making headway as quickly as they could. This mutation is sex-linked and recessive to the wild type, but has an unusual relationship to the Ino mutation to which it is dominant. Because of this many individuals are mating Clearbodies to Inos to increase their production of these birds. However this generates two types of Clearbody cocks, the pure bred (double factors) and the split inos (single factors). When paired together clearbodies breed like any other sex linked mutation.
| Pairings | Expectations |
|---|---|
| Clearbody cock × Clearbody hen | 50% Clearbody cocks 50% Clearbody hens |
| Clearbody cock × Normal hen | 50% Normal/split Clearbody cocks 50% Clearbody hens |
| Normal/split Clearbody cock × Clearbody hen | 25% Clearbody cocks 25% Normal/split Clearbody cocks 25% Clearbody hens 25% Normal hens |
| Normal/split Clearbody cock × Normal hen | 25% Normal/split Clearbody cocks 25" Normal cocks 25% Clearbody hens 25% Normal hens |
| Normal cock × Clearbody hen | 50% Normal/split Clearbody cocks 50% Normal hens |
| Normal cock × Normal hen | 50% Normal cocks 50% Normal hens |
| When paired to Inos, the split Ino cocks are visually identical to the pure Clearbody cocks |
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| Clearbody cock × Ino hen | 50% Clearbody/Ino cocks 50% Clearbody hens |
| Ino cock × Clearbody hen | 50% Clearbody/Ino cocks 50% Ino hens |
| Clearbody/Ino cock × Ino hen | 25% Clearbody/Ino cocks 25% Ino cocks 25% Clearbody hens 25% Ino hens |
| These Clearbody/Ino cocks are of grave importance when using them to any mutation other than Ino. This is clearly seen below: |
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| Clearbody/Ino cock × Clearbody hen | 25% Clearbody cocks 25% Clearbody/Ino cocks 25% Clearbody hens 25% Ino hens |
| Clearbody/Ino cock × Normal hen | 25% Normal/Clearbody cocks 25% Normal/Ino cocks 25% Ino hens 25% Clearbody hens |
In the first case it is impossible to tell which are pure Clearbody cocks and in the second case only half the cocks are split Clearbody despite being bred from a visual Clearbody. This results in a great number of birds of uncertain genetical make up and this limits the usefulness of pairing these birds out to normal varieties to increase the improvement of this mutation.
I feel the best method of improvement is to avoid the Ino mutation and just breed pure Clearbodies. Improvement can be rapid, not only because of improvement of the outcrosses used but also by using a different approach. When mating a Clearbody hen to a Normal cock all her sons will be split Clearbodies. These birds can be used to Clearbody hens which will generate a stock of Clearbodies, but the quality will only be marginally improved on the original hen.
A quicker way of development is to use a split cock to a Normal hen. This will generate only possible split sons which should be discarded, but half of the daughters will be Clearbody hens of a greater quality. These can be used to generate yet more split sons and the cycle can continue. Productivity of Clearbodies will remain low but sufficient birds for the next season should be bred. As a result the quality of the Clearbodies will increase quickly and once the quality is acceptable then the split cocks can be mated to Clearbody hens to raise the numbers of Clearbodies bred.