Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

junebuggena said:

No such thing as 'blue' base color. Only options are gold or silver. He's silver, carrying red. Useless for me, but beautiful boy.

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The silver base would be out of the BBS genetics so that is why I added blue in parenthesis even though I call the hen silver. The red roosters looked like the Quechua father but he has some blue in his tail so maybe he carries blue genetics too.

Duck Drover said:

The silver base would be out of the BBS genetics so that is why I added blue in parenthesis even though I call the hen silver. The red roosters looked like the Quechua father but he has some blue in his tail so maybe he carries blue genetics too.

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Blue doesn't carry, it expresses. A single copy of the gene produces Blue patterning, two copies produce Splash patterning, and birds without the gene have black patterning. It only affects black pigment, and has no effect on base color.

Most blue birds are silver based if that helps.

So my egg with the troublesome aircell on the side has just pipped. I've had that thing braced since lockdown with aircell marked and up. Watching it now

Hinotori said:

So my egg with the troublesome aircell on the side has just pipped. I've had that thing braced since lockdown with aircell marked and up. Watching it now

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cool I have 5 pippy peeps active as all get out in the brooder having a ball
yes silver babies at birth what they turn into who knows these came from brown eggs
so my BR appears the olive pullet is laying more marans brown eggs one of the eggs
that hatched is from her. I did clarify the cockerel is not related to her......
4 more eggs have external pips eye tooth cuttings

I think the spot I put the incubator this time wasn't the best. I usually run it on the wood stove.

There are several pipped eggs in there.

junebuggena said:

Blue doesn't carry, it expresses. A single copy of the gene produces Blue patterning, two copies produce Splash patterning, and birds without the gene have black patterning. It only affects black pigment, and has no effect on base color. 

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My knowledge of color breeding does not extend very far beyond BBS and I know the blacks in BBS have a silver base while other blacks can have a gold base. I know that blue dilutes black to make blues but how two blue genes dilute black into a spotted pattern I don't fully understand except that it is different from paint or mottled patterns. I just stick with BBS and then I don't worry about color surprises.

I am still learning how harlequin genetics effects blue genetics in our ducks since I got some of those genetics in my Australian Spotted ducks, which Dave Holderread told me is desirable for producing the most striking colors. Now I can't tell which color my yellow down ducklings will end up as adults - I had assumed silverhead but now I have seen two drakes with white background color (one from my flock and one from a friend's flock, all from Holderreads) end up with green heads. My understanding is that bluehead (blue striped down, black head on drakes and blue spots on hens) is a dilute of greenhead (black striped down, green head on drakes and brown spots on hens) and silverhead (yellow down, silver head on drakes and silver spots on hens) is a dilute of bluehead just like in BBS breeding but I don't understand how the harlequin genetics produces a white background color with any head color. In general, the spot background color of the hens dilutes from brown on greenheads to tan on blueheads to beige on silverheads but I have hatched hens with white background color and dark spots that Dave said had harlequin genetics when I asked him. Since they have yellow down I assumed they were silverheads but now I have no idea what color they truly are since color is based on the head color in drakes and spot color in hens. We raised out all our yellow down ducklings thinking they were silverheads last year but this year we sold all our ducklings, including the ones with yellow down. The variations in color add to the appeal of the Spots but I would like to know how the color works - it looks like the Snowy color in Calls that comes from the wild type color so I wonder if it is the same color breeding in the Spots.

Anyway, back to chicken colors! Lol. I can only assume the silver hen has a silver base because her father was splash and she is what I call silver colored, though there may be a more accurate term for her color. I am assuming this rooster is out of her since all the rest were solid red with dark tails (I don't remember if they were black or blue since I took them to the auction instead of selling them). If he has a red base from his father and a silver base from his mother I don't know which would be dominate. I thought color crossed from mother to son and father to daughter (in sex linked colors anyway) but the boys clearly looked like their father except this one.

I should not be more attached to this rooster than the rest of the boys but I really like him and I was hoping he could live. I love the pullet colors so I am hoping they all give me blue eggs. If they are what I am hoping for I will hatch out more, otherwise I will be selling the Quechua rooster too.

All this talk of hatching makes me want to do some hatching but the eggs get too cold in this weather so we mostly eat them. I will do plenty of hatching this year but right now we need to think about downsizing rather than increasing our numbers!

Chicken calculator. Can pick out the colors. I think for Splash you have to pick blue then go down and click on the blue gene and change it to 2 copies. (it should say splash if you do that)


http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

Duck Drover said:

My knowledge of color breeding does not extend very far beyond BBS and I know the blacks in BBS have a silver base while other blacks can have a gold base. I know that blue dilutes black to make blues but how two blue genes dilute black into a spotted pattern I don't fully understand except that it is different from paint or mottled patterns. I just stick with BBS and then I don't worry about color surprises.

I am still learning how harlequin genetics effects blue genetics in our ducks since I got some of those genetics in my Australian Spotted ducks, which Dave Holderread told me is desirable for producing the most striking colors. Now I can't tell which color my yellow down ducklings will end up as adults - I had assumed silverhead but now I have seen two drakes with white background color (one from my flock and one from a friend's flock, all from Holderreads) end up with green heads. My understanding is that bluehead (blue striped down, black head on drakes and blue spots on hens) is a dilute of greenhead (black striped down, green head on drakes and brown spots on hens) and silverhead (yellow down, silver head on drakes and silver spots on hens) is a dilute of bluehead just like in BBS breeding but I don't understand how the harlequin genetics produces a white background color with any head color. In general, the spot background color of the hens dilutes from brown on greenheads to tan on blueheads to beige on silverheads but I have hatched hens with white background color and dark spots that Dave said had harlequin genetics when I asked him. Since they have yellow down I assumed they were silverheads but now I have no idea what color they truly are since color is based on the head color in drakes and spot color in hens. We raised out all our yellow down ducklings thinking they were silverheads last year but this year we sold all our ducklings, including the ones with yellow down. The variations in color add to the appeal of the Spots but I would like to know how the color works - it looks like the Snowy color in Calls that comes from the wild type color so I wonder if it is the same color breeding in the Spots.

Anyway, back to chicken colors! Lol. I can only assume the silver hen has a silver base because her father was splash and she is what I call silver colored, though there may be a more accurate term for her color. I am assuming this rooster is out of her since all the rest were solid red with dark tails (I don't remember if they were black or blue since I took them to the auction instead of selling them). If he has a red base from his father and a silver base from his mother I don't know which would be dominate. I thought color crossed from mother to son and father to daughter (in sex linked colors anyway) but the boys clearly looked like their father except this one.

I should not be more attached to this rooster than the rest of the boys but I really like him and I was hoping he could live. I love the pullet colors so I am hoping they all give me blue eggs. If they are what I am hoping for I will hatch out more, otherwise I will be selling the Quechua rooster too.

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He was likely the only boy produced by the silver hen, some of the gold pullets could be his sisters. Silver is dominant over gold, but if a male only has one silver gene and one gold gene, the gold will express as leakage through the wing/shoulder area.