blue Japanese Bantam

[je]

Hi Everybody,

I was wondering if anyone has or has seen a blue Japanese bantam in the US. I found this picture of one on a UK site.

http://www.omlet.co.uk/breeds/breeds.php?breed_type=Chickens&breed=Japanese Bantam

I also found a site saying a US breeder was developing a red one, but could not find pictures.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Yes there are blue japs here in the US, here is a link for some on eggbid http://eggbid.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=1219216335

 

[je]

Cool! Thanks for the link.

 

[coffeemama]

and

fellow Oregonian!

 

[je]

Genetics question:

The blue Japanese Bantam pairs on eggbidder almost all consist of a blue cockeral and a black pullet. Does anybody know whether the blue gene is dominant or recessive?

Seems to me that the blue gene is probably recessive and if you buy the pair then all your chicks would end up black, unless the female is carrying the blue gene as well. The only way to get blue chicks would be to breed the first generation back to the cockeral or to mate brother and sister (both of which in my opinion are bad, bad, bad).

 

[dangerouschicken]

Oregonian

Sorry, I know nothing about genetics

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

When you mate two blues together you get 25% black, 25% splash, and 50% blue. Blue to black gives 50/50 of each color, black to splash gives all blue, and splash to blue gives 50/50 of each color.

If you were to get a blue cockerel from them and got some good blacks from another line and breed them together and get a good blue male then breed that back to the mother or other blacks, it would be easy to get great blues in a few generations.

 

[Shared Acres]

Jesus, that's some big tail feathers!