I was just talking to a friend about this! He told me to cross a blue to a really nicely laced black bird. The black should have good green sheen, and very noticeable black lacing on the outer rim of the feather. He also said not to worry if the blue was too dark, that the black's lacing would take care of that.
a really nicely laced black bird. The black should have good green sheen, and very noticeable black lacing on the outer rim of the feather
This soulds like saying a bird with black feathers laced in black. How the heck would you see the lacing of such? Black lacing on another colour, or another colour of lacing on black; yes, you could see it, but black on black?
From my understanding if you breed a chicken with black lacing with a chicken with white lacing, you will get blue lacing. We have Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, so yeah.
This is a black laced (above)
And this is a blue laced:
Sorry, I don't have any pictures of my white laced on here.
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This soulds like saying a bird with black feathers laced in black. How the heck would you see the lacing of such? Black lacing on another colour, or another colour of lacing on black; yes, you could see it, but black on black?
I forgot what the term is called, but all black birds have a different colored black rim around the feathers were one of the pigments stops or something like that. You have to look closely on some birds, but it's there. I can try to grab a photo of my hen who has very distinct black lacing on black feathers if you like. Supposedly she's the kind of bird you want to breed to a blue, according to my friend who's raised blues for years. It's a little more distinct on black male fowl though.
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You can do that, but if you do that too often you'll get white in black birds and vice versa. And then you have to consider dominant white and recessive white and what's really happening? It's all so confusing. I've been told not to do that if I want to produce show quality birds.