Blue mottled orpingtons

[karint]

I meant to include the word mottled but forgot.

Thanks so much.

I meant to include the word mottled but forgot.

thanks so much. How bad will it mess things up if I keep splash orpingtons in with blue mottled if I get enough blue mottled?

 

[Slothinc]

Did she sell these as eggs or chicks? Sounds like the breeder doesn’t know very much about chicken color genetics if she told you that blue breeds true. And if she sold you the splash mottled chicks thinking they were blue mottled - she can’t even recognize blue mottled chicks?

But it won’t hurt your breeding program to have splash mottled. In fact, if you want 100% blue mottled chicks, the only way to do that would be to breed black mottled to splash mottled. Then every chick would be blue mottled. But if you wanted to just keep your splash mottled in with blue mottled, the splash mottled crossed with blue mottled would yield 50% blue mottled and 50% splash mottled. As Amer said above if you have only blue mottled they won’t breed true either and you’ll get 50% blue mottled, 25% black mottled and 25% splash mottled.

 

[karint]

Did she sell these as eggs or chicks? Sounds like the breeder doesn’t know very much about chicken color genetics if she told you that blue breeds true. And if she sold you the splash mottled chicks thinking they were blue mottled - she can’t even recognize blue mottled chicks?

But it won’t hurt your breeding program to have splash mottled. In fact, if you want 100% blue mottled chicks, the only way to do that would be to breed black mottled to splash mottled. Then every chick would be blue mottled. But if you wanted to just keep your splash mottled in with blue mottled, the splash mottled crossed with blue mottled would yield 50% blue mottled and 50% splash mottled. As Amer said above if you have only blue mottled they won’t breed true either and you’ll get 50% blue mottled, 25% black mottled and 25% splash mottled.

They were eggs and were sold to me as blue mottled. I asked her if they breed true and she said she gets about 10% splash in her program. The pictures of her breeding pen all look like blue mottled no black in it but you never know.

So for breeding does it matter if the roo is the black mottled and the hens are splash mottled or vice versa?

Thanks so much for all this information. It is so helpful moving forward. I ended up with 6 chicks hatching so we will see what colours I get in the end. Either way I’m excited for some pretty orpingtons but moving forward feel like if I do breed I have more knowledge to be honest with customers about how this works which I super appreciate

 

[karint]

Did she sell these as eggs or chicks? Sounds like the breeder doesn’t know very much about chicken color genetics if she told you that blue breeds true. And if she sold you the splash mottled chicks thinking they were blue mottled - she can’t even recognize blue mottled chicks?

But it won’t hurt your breeding program to have splash mottled. In fact, if you want 100% blue mottled chicks, the only way to do that would be to breed black mottled to splash mottled. Then every chick would be blue mottled. But if you wanted to just keep your splash mottled in with blue mottled, the splash mottled crossed with blue mottled would yield 50% blue mottled and 50% splash mottled. As Amer said above if you have only blue mottled they won’t breed true either and you’ll get 50% blue mottled, 25% black mottled and 25% splash mottled.

Sorry one more question. Can I tell as fay olds I’d they are black mottled Orpington’s blue mottled orpingtons? I’m assuming the light ones will be splash but the three in the incubator are darker.

 

[Slothinc]

Most people keep blue, black and splash birds together and call their pen BBS. It is very common practice and will not hurt to do this if you want to keep them all together in the future.

Here is an explanation of each possible cross and the expected offspring. It does not matter which bird is the hen or roo, it will turn out the same. You may want to save this info for future reference. Im sure you could also search for BBS breeding charts as well if you want more of a picture to look at.

Black x black = 100% black

Black x blue = 50% black 50% blue

Blue x blue = 25% black 50% blue and 25% splash

Blue x splash = 50% blue 50% splash

Splash x splash = 100% splash

Black x splash = 100% blue

As for your chicks, if you can get some pictures of them in good lighting, we may be able to ID them as being blue or black. Some blues are darker and hard to tell for sure but a lot of the time you can tell from hatch.

 

[karint]

Most people keep blue, black and splash birds together and call their pen BBS. It is very common practice and will not hurt to do this if you want to keep them all together in the future.

Here is an explanation of each possible cross and the expected offspring. It does not matter which bird is the hen or roo, it will turn out the same. You may want to save this info for future reference. Im sure you could also search for BBS breeding charts as well if you want more of a picture to look at.

Black x black = 100% black

Black x blue = 50% black 50% blue

Blue x blue = 25% black 50% blue and 25% splash

Blue x splash = 50% blue 50% splash

Splash x splash = 100% splash

Black x splash = 100% blue

As for your chicks, if you can get some pictures of them in good lighting, we may be able to ID them as being blue or black. Some blues are darker and hard to tell for sure but a lot of the time you can tell from hatch.

I didn’t realize these genetics would work if you added mottled to it. Had I known that I would have realized what I was buying. My mistake. I’ll add pictures of the dry ones right away. Thanks for your help

 

[karint]

I didn’t realize these genetics would work if you added mottled to it. Had I known that I would have realized what I was buying. My mistake. I’ll add pictures of the dry ones right away. Thanks for your help

 

[Slothinc]

Numbers 1 and 2 are definitely splash mottled. Number 3 is blue mottled. And number 4 I *think* is blue mottled but could possibly be black. Hard to say for sure on that one just from that pic.

 

[karint]

Numbers 1 and 2 are definitely splash mottled. Number 3 is blue mottled. And number 4 I *think* is blue mottled but could possibly be black. Hard to say for sure on that one just from that pic.

Thanks so much. Once the other two dry I’ll post pictures. But honestly I’m just excited that something hatched from the shipped eggs.

 

[Slothinc]

Thanks so much. Once the other two dry I’ll post pictures. But honestly I’m just excited that something hatched from the shipped eggs.

It is very exciting, and 6 chicks from shipped eggs is awesome!!