BBS Americana Blue Question

[Jraba1315]

I’m new to breeding and back in November I hatched two different blue roosters from pure BBS hatching eggs. Why is one of them so light? Can the lighter one still be used for breeding or is he a mistake with BBS and should just stick to EE and OE breeding for him. Also what causes the extreme variation in the blue color? Thank you for any questions you can help me answer.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Blue is a dilute gene. You can certainly see various shades of blue it's just a matter of how much an individual bird got diluted. They are all fine to breed.
Show breeders have different ideas about which are best to use and which should be bred to what to create the best shade for showing.

 

[Amer]

Blue is a dilute gene. You can certainly see various shades of blue it's just a matter of how much an individual bird got diluted. They are all fine to breed.
Show breeders have different ideas about which are best to use and which should be bred to what to create the best shade for showing.

X2
Blue is a variable color, no two are alike. Many would pick the darker one because his darker color, but I would only pick it because of his type, which is more important in blue breeding.
Blue is a lot more random than it should be.
You may breed a really dark blue and a black together and get a really dark blue, or you could get a light blue. Or you could breed two light blues together and somehow get a dark blue. The more likely thing would be to get something that looks like it’s parents, but that doesn’t always happen.
The best thing to do is to just take the best blues you get when they come along and breed for type. Also remember that evenness of color and clarity of lacing is more important than the shade of color.
Another reason why I prefer the darker blue is while his lacing isn’t perfect, it’s more defined than the lighter blue, and his color is more even.

 

[Amer]

However, the light blue may actually be better, it’s hard to tell from the way he’s standing in the pictures. The dark boy could use more length.