Blue Laced Red Wyandotte THREAD!

[cuties]

How many of you try to get a good pic of your BLRW, and this is what they look like?

 

[cuties]

But here are a few that turned out a little better

 

[mrosspitt]

Hi all,

Can you tell the difference between a splash versus blue chicks right away, or is there a certain age that the final coloration is obvious? Thanks!

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

Hi all,

Can you tell the difference between a splash versus blue chicks right away, or is there a certain age that the final coloration is obvious? Thanks!

It can be tough to tell the blacks from the blues at hatch but the splash are so much lighter.

 

[mrosspitt]

I was choosing from a selection of one month olds that looked essentially the same. So this one should be blue? She's in bright lighting in this photo. Splash would be much lighter and black darker at this point(probably 5 weeks here)? She does have some white in her wings that you can't see here. Thanks.

 

[StarMeKritten]

I was choosing from a selection of one month olds that looked essentially the same. So this one should be blue? She's in bright lighting in this photo. Splash would be much lighter and black darker at this point(probably 5 weeks here)? She does have some white in her wings that you can't see here. Thanks.

She's splash.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

Yep...splash.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

The "blue" gene (which lightens black) is a "leaky gene" so beyond the basic math of splash having two copies, blue having one copy and black having zero copies there is a little more to it. Splash plus splash gives 100% splash but every generation will get lighter and eventually the grey will become almost white. If you cross blue to black you should get 50% blue (along with 50% black) but they should be darker than the 50% blue (the other 50% being splash) that you get from crossing blue to splash. People usually like their blue to be dark so they try to use a black every few generations. I find that the average backyard chicken owner likes the blue and splash better so I have a splash rooster now so I should only get blue and splash chicks...and the chicks from the two splash hens will probably be almost white (one pulley hasn't started laying yet and I think my older hen is taking a break). I think the next time I replace my flock I'll probably save a bunch of splash hens and try and find an unrelated black rooster to give me 100% blue. Personally I think I like a darker splash the best. The black look too much like gold lace...which is fairly common and not as pretty as the very common silver laced Wyandottes.

 

[kfelton0002]

New BLRW brood cock. Been wanting this breed for a while and they are beyond hard to find in my area. Have some eggs in the incubator as well. The lady I bought the rooster off of threw them in as a freebie since she didn't want to part with any of her hens. Fingers crossed one is a pullet! He may not be show quality but he is such a handsome boy. And such a gentleman to my laying hens. Just wanted to show him off a little and subscribe to this thread.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

He looks pretty good to me (but I'm not breeding show birds either). I just got a nice splash rooster too. Hopefully you will get a few black pullets and then your chicks will be 100% blue.