Splash Ameraucana Roo x Splash Marans/Buff Orpington color outcomes?

[MauiHen]

Aloha all,
I have 2 sister hens that are half splash marans - half buff Orpington. They both have a buff head and a blue body/tail. I currently have a splash ameraucana roo. I'm considering breeding them because they have a nice light brown eggs, are great mothers, and lay a lot. I know they would create a green egg in the first generation. But what I'm curious about is, would their offspring be splash or buff/blue? Or would there be the chance of having buff/splash as well? I don't fully understand how the buff(diluted red) is passed on like the blue.
Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Rose the Legbar]

@NatJ

 

[NatJ]

Aloha all,
I have 2 sister hens that are half splash marans - half buff Orpington. They both have a buff head and a blue body/tail. I currently have a splash ameraucana roo. I'm considering breeding them because they have a nice light brown eggs, are great mothers, and lay a lot. I know they would create a green egg in the first generation. But what I'm curious about is, would their offspring be splash or buff/blue? Or would there be the chance of having buff/splash as well? I don't fully understand how the buff(diluted red) is passed on like the blue.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Taking just the blue gene, you should get 50% of chicks showing blue and 50% showing splash.

Considering just the buff part, I would expect the chicks to show some buff but less than what their mothers have.

But the rooster (splash Ameraucana) might have the Silver gene, which turns buff (gold) into silver (white). If that is the case, all chicks would show white instead of buff. If he is splash all over, he isn't showing whether he is genetically gold or silver or both, even though he must have the genes for one or another of those.

So depending on what genes the rooster has for silver/gold, you might get:
Half of chicks buff & splash, the other half buff & blue.
or
Half of chicks white & splash, the half white & blue.
or
One quarter of chicks buff & splash, one quarter buff & blue, one quarter white & splash, one quarter white & blue.

I don't fully understand how the buff(diluted red) is passed on like the blue.

Blue and splash affect black, so this is really a matter of where the chicken's genes are telling it to be black, and where they are letting some other color show.

A splash chicken (splash all over) has the genes to be black all over. A Buff Orpington has genes to limit the amount of black that is visible, all the way down to having no black at all. Mixing them gives "black all over" plus a bunch of genes that try to limit the black. That gives the result you see, some black and some buff (buff where the black is not.)

The buff/blue hens that you have, because they are mixes, can give their chicks any combination of genes that make more black (from their splash parent) or less black (from their buff parent), while the splash rooster will give the genes for black all over (one major gene and some others that help it work better.)

 

[MauiHen]

Taking just the blue gene, you should get 50% of chicks showing blue and 50% showing splash.

Considering just the buff part, I would expect the chicks to show some buff but less than what their mothers have.

But the rooster (splash Ameraucana) might have the Silver gene, which turns buff (gold) into silver (white). If that is the case, all chicks would show white instead of buff. If he is splash all over, he isn't showing whether he is genetically gold or silver or both, even though he must have the genes for one or another of those.

So depending on what genes the rooster has for silver/gold, you might get:
Half of chicks buff & splash, the other half buff & blue.
or
Half of chicks white & splash, the half white & blue.
or
One quarter of chicks buff & splash, one quarter buff & blue, one quarter white & splash, one quarter white & blue.


Blue and splash affect black, so this is really a matter of where the chicken's genes are telling it to be black, and where they are letting some other color show.

A splash chicken (splash all over) has the genes to be black all over. A Buff Orpington has genes to limit the amount of black that is visible, all the way down to having no black at all. Mixing them gives "black all over" plus a bunch of genes that try to limit the black. That gives the result you see, some black and some buff (buff where the black is not.)

The buff/blue hens that you have, because they are mixes, can give their chicks any combination of genes that make more black (from their splash parent) or less black (from their buff parent), while the splash rooster will give the genes for black all over (one major gene and some others that help it work better.)

Wow thank you so much!! This answers all my questions! Also they sound like they will be so pretty in all those combinations!