About my light Polish chick...

[becky3086]

A short time ago I posted about hatching a very light blue Polish and I asked about color and was told splash. This chick was from my blue x splash Polish. Today I hatched another one of these light blue chicks and I still do not know what color the other one is. Are there different shades of blue in chickens? Is this one just a light blue?

Here is a picture of him with one of the blues that hatched with him.

 

[chickenzoo]

Hi, yes their are different shades of blue and as they get older that can change.. The light one looks like a pullet, other a little girly too, but hard to say....

 

[becky3086]

Yes, I usually can tell the gender now as soon as the crests of the hens start to round out. I just wondered about these light blues because I have never gotten any quite that light and I just think they are so pretty. I will be anxious to see how it develops.

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

They sure are pretty

 

[Crunchie]

It's blue...blue can vary in shade, but to be correct it shouldn't be that light. They should be darker, like your little roo in the first picture, and hens will get that nice dark edging around each feather.

I don't know what causes some birds to be this light, washed-out blue. I wish I did.

I've got a hen that looks quite a bit like your light blue chick--and I haven't had any luck getting correctly colored blue chicks from her. It is pretty, but I don't have any use for it in my breeding program...I'd like to know what causes it and why!

This is my light blue hen:

She hatched out a light, silvery blue color. Her color has changed very little as she's gotten older. I paired her with that black roo in the pic and hatched from her this past year, but the few blues I've gotten (I've gotten mostly blacks) were just as light as her.

I won't use her again next year.

 

[becky3086]

I have gotten these light blues, some very dark blues, like the one in the picture, and some regular colored blues. I would love to breed for this light blue color. Maybe your hen is lavender(is that possible?). I think she is beautiful.

 

[Crunchie]

Well, in my experience, it's been easy to get those light blues...I can't make it stop!

I imagine if you breed light to light or light to splash you'll get plenty of those light chicks. Keep in mind that they are probably that light because they are missing something genetically and you will be perpetuating that--and it might be hard to "fix" if you ever want to improve the color of the blue/bring it to standard. But it is pretty, and I'm sure you could have lots of fun with it (I love blue!).

It's not possible that my hen is lavender. That is self-blue, and a completely different gene altogether. It doesn't act like andalusian blue (blue/black/splash) and you can't there from here.

I wish I could get lavender Polish! That would be awesome. I think it exists somewhere, but I don't know of anyone that is working on them. It is hard to describe, but my lavenders (I have lavender Ameraucanas) look a different color than that light blue Polish.