another black and blue question

[shelleyd2008]

Why does this have to be so confusing?

I have a young black dutch cockerel from a blue splash roo and a black mama. Does he have the blue gene? Like if I bred him to other black dutch pullets I have (from the same mix), would all the chicks be black?

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
This only Andalusian Blue, not Self Blue.

 

[shelleyd2008]

He might be real dark blue. He looked blue when he was real little, but now he is very dark. I have a pic somewhere, let me see if I can find it.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Ok, here he is at about 6 weeks

And here he is now...

 

[Blisschick]

Hmm...he looks black to me. I would say that the original roo was probably blue, not splash, so that would account for your bird being black. Blue can express itself in different shades, so sometimes it can be hard to distinguish blue from splash because the blue can be light, or the splash can be dark. I had this same exact confusion with one of blue Jersey Giant roos. What I thought was splash actually turned out to be a light blue, given that he was producing black chicks and shouldn't have been as a splash.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Here is a pic of his papa. Not a very good pic, but looks blue splash to me!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Just wanted to add that every chick from this cross has been this color, but every chick from this roo and my blue splash hen have been blue splash.

 

[ksacres]

Can you get a closer picture of him, maybe with brighter lighting? The really dark blue is very hard to distinguish from black. It almost looks like I can see lacing. Blacks don't have lacing. In that last pic, there is definitely a blue in the back row.

 

[Kev]

Think I answered this one before.

The chick does look black. The rooster also looks like he is probably a blue, not a true splash(pure for the blue gene)

I have a longtail hen just like him- pale blue all over with flecks of black/dark blue however she is defnitely a single gene blue as her mother was not blue nor splash.

I'd say the evidence probably adds up to the roo being a blue not splash despite how he looks.

The proof would come if you bred him to a black again and produced more than 10 chicks total, and the results were more blacks and obvious blues.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Unfortunately that's not an option. He was taken by a predator a few weeks ago. But almost all of his chicks were blue, except this one and another one or two. Plus the splash chicks. I have a splash dutch and a splash OEGB hen that had nothing but splash chicks from him. Most of his chicks that are blue are very dark blue. I will get a better pic of the cockerel tomorrow. And I do believe the cockerel does have lacing, although it blends in pretty well.