All 'Blues' the same for breeding ratios? d'Uccles, too?

[Krys109uk]

I have both Blue Andalusians and Blue Orpingtons. The blue birds are much lighter blue than I have seen in pictures, and don't have very apparent lacing.

You could breed the Orps to a darker blue bird or a black. With blue Andalusians I think they're required to have very tidy black lacing in order to be good. If yours have next to no lacing, unless they've exceptional type, I'd probably start again with better quality stock.​

 

[tadkerson]

The problem with the English language is that the meanings of words over time can change because people attach different meanings to the words.

Self blue, as the word is used in the literature, refers to a solid blue bird with no patterns of any kind; it does not make any difference if the bird is blue because of the blue gene or the lavender gene.

Before the documentation of the lavender gene, fanciers knew their was a difference between the blue phenotype and the lavender phenotype. So they called the lavender phenotype self blue and they called the blue phenotype blue.

A judge, breeder or organization may say self blue only refers to a bird that is lavender. Now another meaning has been attached to the words self blue. If enough people use the new meaning over time, the word has an additional meaning attached to the word.


If you think nomenclature is difficult in chickens, you should try Biology. There are three different words (figuratively) for everything in biology. An organelle in the cell has three different names: Golgi bodies, Golgi complex and Golgi apparatus.

Tim

 

[wegotchickens]

English major here, so I totally understand about word transitions through the ages!

I'm trying to understand the genetics, though, because my 3 girls are very close in color but with some minor variations. Seems strange that 2 could be truly self-blue while the other is just blue.
I guess my next step is how to segregate them so I can see what hatches out of each of their eggs. The roo is the same color as the 2 lavender girls, not the slightly darker girl.

I'm so VERY glad they have started laying. As soon as we finish the shed-coop I will be allowed to start hatching again (silly DH doesn't like it when the garage smells like a petting zoo).

I'll take good notes and see what I get from the current quad, then modify my flock accordingly. How exciting! Especially since I'll be able to produce pure lavenders eventually.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Well, it might depend on whether you got them from the same source or not. And it is also possible that the one who is different carries BOTH lavender and blue genes.

 

[Krys109uk]

The problem with the English language is that the meanings of words over time can change because people attach different meanings to the words.

Totally off topic, but it is quite a fascinating subject in itself. The way languages evolve over time. For instance English is spoken all over the world but the language itself has evolved into different types of English. In just a few hundred years look how different the language has become from England to US. When I've looked into some differences they are older forms of English presumably brought over by the settlers; a few US English words are plainly German etc. When one starts looking at how the English language has evolved in certain Asian countries or say the Caribbean; they are hardly undertandable to me as an English English speaker.
Sorry it's so OT.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Krys, English and German are far more closely related languages than most realize. German is much easier for an English speaker to learn than Spanish, Italian, French--any of the "Romance" languages.

A few thousand years ago

when I was in college I took a couple of Old English language courses. Closer to German than to English, but the number of words that are still in the language without significant changes is amazing.

As modern technology changes the amount of access to language as used in different places I expect even more rapid changes and melding.

FWIW, every time I've been in London, it has been next to impossible for people to understand what I am saying; however, I believe it is my not-quite-Texan-any-more accent rather than the vocabulary or phrasing. For whatever reason, if I am outside London, it hasn't been an issue.

 

[Krys109uk]

Krys, English and German are far more closely related languages than most realize

Absolutely......from Saxon times. The name England come from the Angles. The Saxons did a good job of integrating into the erstwhile Celtic, sometime Roman influenced, peoples of the time, whereas the later Normans tended to stay within their own 'class'. Another of the Indo-Europen languages, English also has a lot of Latin, French, Norse, & classical Greek. Nowadays English has evolved to include various words from languages of the Indian sub-continent too.

Having lived in Germany for a bit I find I can often get by reading Dutch; it seems to have quite a few similarities with English & German.

Odd they don't understand you in Central London if they understand you in other parts. While fun, London is a busy, impersonal place. Perhap the impatient natives didn't try as hard as they might. I remember a girl from California visiting a friend. She could understand us one on one but could not follow our conversations because, she said, we spoke too fast. My accent is BBC, so it's not as if it is a heavy regional accent, but sometimes Americans cannot understand what I'm saying. It is so embarrassing because I can only say things the way I say them.

I need an interpreter.

 

[wegotchickens]

OK, new question:

Which is easier to breed back to: color or breed conformation?

If you had a choice between a porcelain with PERFECT d'Uccle form or a lavender with perfect color and bad body form, which would you choose?

 

[Krys109uk]

What is your goal with these birds?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Are you familiar with sailing? When the wind is blowing against you, you can't sail straight to your destination; you must tack to get there. Tacking is zigzagging; you make some headway, but you have to go back and forth in other directions to make headway against the wind.

-------------------- vs /\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/\\/

You will probably have to breed to perfect type, then to perfect colour, then for type, then for colour, etc. I wouldn't go too far towards one without breeding for the other, or you'll lose your original goal of bringing a new colour into the breed.

It doesn't directly answer the question, but you might want to ask youself which would suffer the most (type or colour) from each choice. And then take that opinion and look to see if that pairing brings you closer to your original goal, is merely running in place or is actually farther away.