I finally had a chance to upload a couple pictures. I will agree that Blue, when referencing a chicken may not be the shade of Blue that a Jay displays or match the Blue from your basic set of Crayola crayons, but Blue in the case of an Andalusian when colored correctly is quite striking. The pullet in these photos is still putting in her adult feathers and her comb hasn't lopped yet, but she shows some good lacing, although a bit dark in the wing bay area. I didn't take any pictures of the males, and will later, but the lacing on the males is mainly visible on their breast feathers. I agree with the previous posts, that Blue as a color is very subjective. Just go to your local home improvement store and look at the color swatches in the paint department. The Standard of Perfection and the Bantam Standard define the blue plumage color in poultry and that's what we breed toward. There's no such thing as a perfect chicken, so that's what makes it interesting and keeps us going. Since they don't breed true and you get splash and black from Blue X Blue matings it makes it even more challenging and sometimes frustrating. My best typed pullet this year so far in the Blue Andalusians is Black. She will never see the show hall, but she will be part of one of next year's breeding pens.
