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Here is my lead male for 2018. As you can see, he is carrying a copy of the barring gene, which came from an outcross to a White Rock to improve type. He should produce plenty of solid blue offspring that will have proper Rock type and keep my project moving forward. As they say, "build the...

I ditched the Andalusian line. Put simply, I didn't have the right birds at the time I made the Andalusian cross, and wasn't going to be able to select past the number of flaws coming from both sides. I decided to continue focus on type in my original line for a few more years, before repeating...

This is going to sound harsh, but I hope not. The Blue Rock is nowhere near refined enough to be sold en masse as eggs or chicks. The variety needs more breeders, and breeders need breeder birds. The majority of "Blue Rocks" I see, including roughly 90% of those hatched here, need to be culled...

This blue male from 2014 is heading up my 2015 breeding pen. .

I realize that this pullet is not blue, but she came from blue parents and, based on her type, will be useful in my blue breeding program. She was hatched in September and raised in an unheated, uninsulated barn in northern Vermont. Weight was 2 ounces under 6 lb at 4 months of age. Her...

Slate with white skin. The Andalusian cross line is a long way from being show ready; I hesitated to even put this picture up. Challenging as it may be, there is no other way to achieve the proper color with the black lacing (not edging) that is described in the Standard. I have at least one...

Young pullet from my Andalusian line.

A promising cockerel from my original (non-Andalusian) Blue Rock line. Hatched in early May. Still has a lot of finishing to do.

Blue Rocks are not barred.

The hen of mine has no barring. In Findtex's bird below, I see barring not just in the hackle but throughout the body...it is probably most noticeable in the main tail and coverts. The barring gene is linked to yellow leg color (as opposed to dusky). Last year I mated a heterozygous (single...

Here is one of my 2013 pullets that I like pretty well. Excuse the condition; she has been with a male since March. I have done no selection for color so far with my Blue Rock project, just worked on breeding out the dominant white and barring.

I would agree that you have a lot to work on. In my mind, the first cock and 2nd pullet are the only 2 worth breeding from. Still, both appear to be barred, undercolor looks white, and the cockerel has white in his earlobes. Like you say, they appear to have a very Mediterranean body shape from...

This is an oversimplification...the male pictured appears not only to be lacking the needed (recessive) genes for yellow shanks/skin, but also the dermal melanin inhibitor Id (hence the duskiness) . Given that he is male AND is also showing signs of barring (both are known to be dermal melanin...

The only written history on the origin of the Blue Rock that I've been able to find was in "American Breeds of Poultry" by F. L. Platt (1921). In it, F. G . Hasselman (the originator) was described as using a Blue Andalusian x Barred Plymouth Rock cross to develop the Blue variety. I don't...

You are correct. My apologies; I was confused by your notation and missed the point you were trying to make. This exemplifies why correct notation and terminology are important, but I digress. The bigger picture here is that barring has no role in proper blue color. Yes it can be used to make...

It is completely correct. Both the sire and dam influence the barring of the male offspring, hence my use of the word 'also'. There are indeed many crosses that can result in a blue male with a single copy of barring, but none that you mention with a barred hen would allow the male to have the...

The brassiness is a combination of genetics and environment. Many times it does not appear until after the second year; I have never seen it get better with age. I suspect the dam of this male was a solid blue and that he has only a single copy of the barring gene. Barring is sex-linked...

Be very careful with the brassy color that is evident in the hackle and saddle feathers of that male.

Any time, Stan. I'm attaching a picture of true Andalusian lacing, which is a black edge on a blue feather: Most of the "blues" today are edged at best; edging is actually a reduction in the pigment along the outside edge that allows the feather below it to show through. This doubling effect...

Hey Stan, that's me. White can hide all sorts of colors, and in this case we found one that was covering blue barred instead of black barred. I bred out the white and barring over the last 2 years. Blue is never recessive, just hypostatic to white. If the blue is not laced with black, it is not...