We keep our Bredas in an unheated coop with an attached run. The run is roofed, so it stays pretty dry. The cold doesn't seem to phase them in the least. (Though I suppose the true test comes in the next few days with wind chills up to -30) However, I have noticed they hate snow. Our Bredas refuse to walk in the stuff, even if it means skipping food or water. This seemed to pose a bigger threat to the birds in a free-range situation. My father lost both of the Bredas I gave him, as they refused to walk across the snow and go to the coop at night.
Nice looking cockerel Gary! Nice to hear that Breda's are hitting the show room.I lost a 5 week old Breda last March on a freezing night but I am guessing it would have been fine if I had done a bed check and moved it under the heat source with the group rather than its perch away from the heat were it spent the night alone.
I took a Blue Breda Cockerel to the Blue Bonnet Classic Poultry Show yesterday. One person asked me if I dubbed its comb.Another man was at the cage when I come to check on my cockerel and was saying, "I have seen every bird at this show and this is the one that really stick out to me. I have never heard of this breed before." It was fun to have such a good looking cockerel at the show for everyone to talk about. He had broken foot feathers which was a really shame and his tail was not in really good show condition either but at least he was at the show so people could see what a Breda is.
No they are different. A chicken that inherits the "Blue" gene from one of its parents with have all the black plumage on its body diluted to blue.
A chicken that inherits the "Blue" gene from both of its parents with have all the black plumage on its body "double diluted" and come out almost white with some traces of blue called splash.
Below are some of my Breda from this year. A Blue Breda is at the top right and moving to the left is a black and then a splash Breda.
The molting gene will not turn black plumage to blue or splash. it only effect the tips of the body feathers turning them white. So if you have a black bird it ends up looking black with white spots. This gene come up in other colors too where you can have red and other color birds with white spots.
Post #20 of this thread (see below) shows what a black molted Breda looks like.
Crossing White Breda with Black Breda would produce all Black Breda if the whites were created with recessive white and would produce all white breda if the white were created with dominate white with no other color modifiers.
