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If you are trying to combine two autosomal recessive colors (bronze, opal, midnight, charcoal, jade, taupe), you will need to have the gene in each parent in order to have a chance at having offspring that are visual for both. If you have only one, you won't have visuals in the next generation.
So are you saying that if you breed a bronze to an opal, all the chicks may not be split to both bronze and opal?
We are in the unique situation of having one mature opal cock and one mature bronze hen. The rest of our breeding age birds are either IB, IB BS, or white. Next year will be our first year putting them in separate pens, so the plan was to pen the opal and the bronze together and hatch out all their eggs, and make a lot of IB split to opal and bronze. Then breed them back to the parents in two years, in order to get more opal and bronze. We do have some unrelated bronze and opal chicks this year who will be ready for breeding in two years or so to add to the mix. I have always wondered if bronze to opal could possibly create something new.
No, I'm not saying that...if you breed Bronze X Opal, ALL the chicks will be IB split to Bronze and Opal.
What I'm saying is that if you want to get a chick with two copies of each gene, it will have to get one from each parent -- you need to have "Bronze" and "Opal" on both sides of the "X", either as visual or as split. Right now, you have one bird that is IB split Bronze and Opal. To hatch a Bronze Opal from him, you need to pair him to a female that is either (with percentage of offspring being Bronze Opal in parentheses):
Bronze Opal (25%)
Bronze split Opal (12.5%)
Opal split Bronze (12.5%)
IB split Bronze Opal (6.25%)
Since this is the first time you're making the cross, and you don't have any birds that are of the four options listed above, you'll have to breed a sister for him next year from your Bronze X Opal pairing, and use her when the birds are mature.
If you are trying to combine two autosomal recessive colors (bronze, opal, midnight, charcoal, jade, taupe), you will need to have the gene in each parent in order to have a chance at having offspring that are visual for both. If you have only one, you won't have visuals in the next generation.
So are you saying that if you breed a bronze to an opal, all the chicks may not be split to both bronze and opal?
We are in the unique situation of having one mature opal cock and one mature bronze hen. The rest of our breeding age birds are either IB, IB BS, or white. Next year will be our first year putting them in separate pens, so the plan was to pen the opal and the bronze together and hatch out all their eggs, and make a lot of IB split to opal and bronze. Then breed them back to the parents in two years, in order to get more opal and bronze. We do have some unrelated bronze and opal chicks this year who will be ready for breeding in two years or so to add to the mix. I have always wondered if bronze to opal could possibly create something new.
No, I'm not saying that...if you breed Bronze X Opal, ALL the chicks will be IB split to Bronze and Opal.
What I'm saying is that if you want to get a chick with two copies of each gene, it will have to get one from each parent -- you need to have "Bronze" and "Opal" on both sides of the "X", either as visual or as split. Right now, you have one bird that is IB split Bronze and Opal. To hatch a Bronze Opal from him, you need to pair him to a female that is either (with percentage of offspring being Bronze Opal in parentheses):
Bronze Opal (25%)
Bronze split Opal (12.5%)
Opal split Bronze (12.5%)
IB split Bronze Opal (6.25%)
Since this is the first time you're making the cross, and you don't have any birds that are of the four options listed above, you'll have to breed a sister for him next year from your Bronze X Opal pairing, and use her when the birds are mature.
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