Hello Zookeeper,
With genetics we all have to start somewhere, & lavender is a fun easy project with which to start.
Sounds like you've more or less got it. Just one or two bits--- In my opinion it is not a good plan to put lavender with blue (or splash). I think blue & lavender looks a horrid mess in the same bird. Also, for matters of convenience, it is more productive to use a lavender male onto several really nice typey black hens but this is not essential. lavender is what is known as an autosomal gene, that just means that the gene is not on a sex chromosome, so it really does not matter which way round one does the mix. Black on lav or lav on black.
It is certainly true that if one breeds a lavender with a black all the offspring will be black but carrying a lavender gene (this is called Heterozygous for lavender, from the Geek heter meaning differing, just means that the two genes for the trait are different, otherwise expressed as lav//Lav+). From this point, if the lavender bird was not a pure breed it is not the best way to go breeding the offspring back to the lavender parent. For the fastest improvement in type, breed the heterozygous offspring with each other. from this mating approx 25% of their offspring will be pure lavender (the word for this is homozygous from the Greek homo meaning same). This way, while one will undoubtedly get fewer actual lavender offspring te chances of improving type increases.
From this point it is just a matter of repeating the process using the closest to type of the latest lavenders with the typiest blacks available.
Hope this makes sense
With genetics we all have to start somewhere, & lavender is a fun easy project with which to start.
Sounds like you've more or less got it. Just one or two bits--- In my opinion it is not a good plan to put lavender with blue (or splash). I think blue & lavender looks a horrid mess in the same bird. Also, for matters of convenience, it is more productive to use a lavender male onto several really nice typey black hens but this is not essential. lavender is what is known as an autosomal gene, that just means that the gene is not on a sex chromosome, so it really does not matter which way round one does the mix. Black on lav or lav on black.
It is certainly true that if one breeds a lavender with a black all the offspring will be black but carrying a lavender gene (this is called Heterozygous for lavender, from the Geek heter meaning differing, just means that the two genes for the trait are different, otherwise expressed as lav//Lav+). From this point, if the lavender bird was not a pure breed it is not the best way to go breeding the offspring back to the lavender parent. For the fastest improvement in type, breed the heterozygous offspring with each other. from this mating approx 25% of their offspring will be pure lavender (the word for this is homozygous from the Greek homo meaning same). This way, while one will undoubtedly get fewer actual lavender offspring te chances of improving type increases.
From this point it is just a matter of repeating the process using the closest to type of the latest lavenders with the typiest blacks available.
Hope this makes sense
