BLUE, BLACK, & SPLASH... OH MY! Check this out :)

[BuffBeck]

Greetings from BuffBeck, and thank you so much for looking at my question!

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I am SO excited about my new English Orpington Flock that I hatched out several months ago! They are such AMAZING birds!

However, now that they are fully feathered and off of the chick chow, I'm wondering how the black/blue/splash genetics work out. I know so far that you can get percentages of each variety when you breed a Blue and a Blue together, but that is about it.

I have to pick soon from two exceptional cockerels; one is Blue, and the other is Splash(also, the Splash guy is a little bit larger). I feel like I prefer the Black and Blue colorations to the Splash, and that is what I want to breed for....if that even has anything to do with foundation roo times foundation hen. I am an inexperienced breeder, so If anybody is an expert, I would

to hear from you!!

Thanks again,
- BuffBeck

 

[farmerChef]

Black x Black = 100% black
Black x Blue = 50% black, 50% blue
Black x Splash = 100% blue
Blue x Blue = 25% black, 25% splash, 50% blue
Blue x Splash = 50% blue, 50% splash
Splash x Splash = 100% splash
(this is based on hatching 100 chicks)

You can think of it this way, Black is BB, Blue is Bb (or bB), and Splash is bb. You can plug them into a punnet square

(from Feathersite.com)
There can be many shades of blue, and some will come out darker, and others lighter. Even though "Splash X Black" produces all blue fowls, you can only expect about 50% to show the desired blue colouring. Also, to achieve the above percentages you would need to hatch many chickens.

It is better to say, for example, that by crossing two blue fowls, there is a 50% chance that a blue chick will hatch. Why?? Following Mendel's law of inheritance, each chick recieves two genes, one from its mother and the other from its father. Blue (Bb) is made up of both black (BB) and splash (bb). Using basic probability we have 4 combinations from crossing Blue (Bb) over Blue (Bb) which are:
BB, Bb, bB, bb
This is because each chick recieves a single gene from each parent.

 

[BuffBeck]

Wow! You know so much about this.

So if I bred my Splash roo to a Blue hen, for instance, I'd ultimately end up with a fifty-fifty percentage of Blue and Splash chicks.
On the other hand, a Blue and a Blue gets you the three colors.... Wow! This is really amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge... I asked for an expert and I sure got one!
-BuffBeck

 

[farmerChef]

I dont know if Id call myself an expert, but I like to learn as much as I can. I like sharing what I know with other people, theres no reason to hoard knowledge.

If you only plan on having a few breeding birds , I would suggest a blue rooster, and then having all blue hens, or black and splash ones, so you get all 3 color chicks, unless you want a certain color chick

 

[BuffBeck]

I think that is exactly what I will do. Thank you again!!

Also, if anybody has some good examples of either Blue, Black, or Splash, feel free to post pictures of your chickens! I is really amazing; all the shades of the three colors you can get... and I think people would love to see them! Keep the thread going!

- BuffBeck