Blue rocks

[Brookhavens]

My girls are finally out of molt. Now if I can just get them to start laying again:

 

[tigercreek]

The only pullet I have left from last spring

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Hi everyone! I got my first Blue Rocks this year in a dozen hatching eggs from Brookhavens. Hatched 8 chicks from them - 1 died as a young chick to a strange throat/breathing problem - ended up with 3 girls and 4 boys out of the other 7. You can see their hatching story and pics of them as young growing chicks HERE if you are interested.

I kept the 3 pullets (of course!) and after MUCH deliberation, decided to keep the light Blue Barred cockerel and sent a solid Black and solid Blue cockerel down to DMRippy in Tennessee, and sold the other Barred boy locally.

So far only one of the 3 pullets is laying, a pretty Blue Barred girl I named Brooke. Here are some recent pictures of her at about 6 1/2 months old.





The other two pullets are solid Blues. The beautiful "Midnight" Blue...





And her sister Blue "Moon"...






And then there is the cockerel - "Bradford" ...









As you can see from the pictures Bradford is quite a stocky fellow, and he actually weighed in at 8 pounds at just over 6 months old!

While I am not currently planning to nor do I have the setup for an intensive breeding program, I do welcome any comments, tips and critiques on these birds as I do hope to hatch out some chicks from them in the spring.

 

[DMRippy]

I posted pics of your boys on the Plymouth rock thread! I finally set them up with some girls!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Hi Donna! Just went over and saw your pics of the Blue & Black boys - They look nice! It is funny seeing them all filled out and grown up like that when they were still just big chicks when I sent them to you!

 

[DMRippy]

they still have some growing to do I am sure. the black roo does not have as many tail feathers for some reason so hoping that will fill out more after a molt maybe. he is a little smaller than the blue but has the BIGGEST legs for his size lol. I really like them both but type wise the blue is better so far.

 

[emenheiser]

While I am not currently planning to nor do I have the setup for an intensive breeding program, I do welcome any comments, tips and critiques on these birds as I do hope to hatch out some chicks from them in the spring.

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

 

[JoyfulPromise]

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

Yeah, I was wondering about that - if it was just sun brassing, or actual color, but because of how young he is, I am afraid it might be the latter.

I was also wondering - would you call Bradford a Blue Barred? He has obvious barring in his neck and saddle feathers, and a bit on his tail, but his chest and lower feathers are just light blue with a tiny bit of edging. Does this mean he only has one barred gene? What are the chances of him passing barring on to his offspring if crossed with one of the dark blue pullets?

 

[emenheiser]

Yeah, I was wondering about that - if it was just sun brassing, or actual color, but because of how young he is, I am afraid it might be the latter.

I was also wondering - would you call Bradford a Blue Barred? He has obvious barring in his neck and saddle feathers, and a bit on his tail, but his chest and lower feathers are just light blue with a tiny bit of edging. Does this mean he only has one barred gene? What are the chances of him passing barring on to his offspring if crossed with one of the dark blue pullets?

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: Males can have 0,1, or 2 copies, and females can have 0 or 1.

The expectation is that half of this male's daughters will be solid colored and the other half will be barred.

Whether his sons have barring will also depend on their dams.

Barring expresses very differently in blues, depending on what other genes are present. Sometimes it is almost non-detectable, except for some faint ghost barring in the hackle feathers.

Because barring is also responsible for good yellow leg color, it is something to be very suspect of in yellow-legged birds with barred ancestry.


.

 

[DMRippy]

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: Males can have 0,1, or 2 copies, and females can have 0 or 1.

The expectation is that half of this male's daughters will be solid colored and the other half will be barred.

Whether his sons have barring will also depend on their dams.

Barring expresses very differently in blues, depending on what other genes are present. Sometimes it is almost non-detectable, except for some faint ghost barring in the hackle feathers.

Because barring is also responsible for good yellow leg color, it is something to be very suspect of in yellow-legged birds with barred ancestry.


.

That is not quite right..... almost but not quite.

Barring is YES a sex link trait meaning it is attached to the Z chromosomes. Males have 2 and females have 1. So barring in males in not SOLELY from the hen it also comes from the Cock too.....

A normal Barred Pattern is this (Z is the male chromosomes top and YZ if Female side) Both are properly barred

Z, B​

Z, B​

Y, b

YZbB (Barred female)​

YZbB (Barred female)​

Z, B

ZZBB (Double barred Male)​

ZZBB (Double Barred Male)​

NOW with a single barred male he will only pass that off to HALF his off spring (Gender is not a factor) hen is still barred here

​

Z, b​

Z, B
Y, b​

ZY bb (solid female)​

ZYbB (barred female)
Z, B​

ZZ Bb (single barred Male)​

ZZ BB (Double barred Male)​

NOW the same as above but change out for a non barred hen..... changes only the bottom row.

Z, b​

ZZbb (solid Males)​

ZZ bB (Single barred Males)​

I could keep going as I had to learn all this the hard way..... single barred males can be very helpful at times.

You are correct in your comment but it is kinda incomplete and someone new to this would presume some info.


AND it could have been a barred hen covered by Splash or Blue Roo with no barring would have also produced a single barred male. OR could have been a Single barred roo over solid hens. ........ I have personally used several of these combos to make what I wanted and it comes in handy that it is sex linked too.


CLEAR AS MUD NOW?????