Splash and White Varieties with Lighter Eyes

[rodriguezpoultry]

Hello,

I have been wondering lately if everyone has issues with lighter colored birds also having lighter colored eyes.

For example, two blues have dark chocolate eyes, their resulting offspring are blues with dark chocolate eyes and splash with lighter/marbled eyes. Same said for any recessive white offspring form this pairing. All recessive white offspring have marbled/lighter colored eyes than their parents and siblings. Is this a constant problem to be on the lookout for the recessive white and splash varieties specifically?

Just decided to ask in the open forum as opposed to in The Langshan Thread as I thought this would get more views and hopefully more answers.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Any answers? Since there's been no replies on it maybe I should try inside another thread frequented a bit more?

 

[hiwasseenursery]

I believe this is a good question I have asked myself. Trying to post a photo here to show what I think is what's going on with this langshan. He is a splash or possibly recessive white from a blue x blue pairing. Hard to see the eye color but definitely lighter brown than my other langshan. I also have another splash/recessive? Pullet that is his sister. But she has dark eyes. That's her behind him. Wish I had a better photo but that's just what I have on my phone right now

 

[hiwasseenursery]

This is another photo of him. I don't have a black langshan to cross with him to know for sure if he is actually recessive yet.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Your bird does appear to be a white. All of the Langshans are recessive white. I wonder why the light colors have lighter eyes? They are "sports" from the blacks originally so you would think they would maintain the dark eye color. Unless the lighter eyes are recessive so show up because of that pairing of alleles?

 

[hiwasseenursery]

Have you bred any birds with the lighter eyes? If so, did the offspring have dark or light colored eyes? I would imagine if bred to a dark bird the eyes would be dark. But would be afraid that it might start popping up later. This would suggest that it is recessive. Maybe like an albino trait where eyes are typically red in mice. Wish someone else would chime in here with some insight possibly even with another breed.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Part of the problem is that all the dark eyed birds are another variety. So, I would have to breed a white bird to a black or blue bird and then breed another generation to get any whites. It's been working, but overall the eye color is still a bit lighter than what I want on my breeders. It's a long road. They all came from the same breeding pens, so seems odd that the lighter color birds would wind up with the lighter colored eyes. That's why I was wondering if others had this issue.

When bred to a darker eyed bird, the eyes come out anywhere from marbled (mixed dark and lighter in the eye), darker or as light as the original bird.