Blue, splash, chocolate, lavender

[Clare Skelton]

I know how the genetics work but other than blue and chocolate on the same bird not what the combinations of some of these colours is when on the same bird. Has anyone pictures of things like chocolate and lavender, splash and lavender, splash and chocolate etc.

 

[Ravynscroft]

If you search for mauve and mauve splash you should find better results... chocolate and blue is *usually* referred to as mauve and splash and chocolate as mauve splash...

 

[Clare Skelton]

The naming of mauve splash doesn't really work because if mauve is blue and chocolate (it really doesn't look mauve more a cafe au lait colour) saying mauve splash is like saying blue chocolate blue blue! Splashes are homoygous for the blue genes so it is more correctly chocolate-splash. I have bred various pale nearly white chicks this year and want to see if other people's pictures can help me identify which may be lavender.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Sorry the name doesn't work for you, but that's what breeders have been calling it... I have chocolate, mauve and mauve splash myself... I also breed lavender, but it's completely separate... generally, blue and lavender shouldn't be bred together as eventually the colors become indistinguishable from each other...

Blue should be laced, lavender evenly colored across the entire feather... hope that helps...

 

[Clare Skelton]

I know someone at the start calle them mauve but really the ones I breed have no mauve characteristics more milky coffee, milk chocolate colour, I feel frausulent cauling a shade of beige such an exotic name. I know all the theory of why these colours shouldn't be bred together, but it is inevitable mistake are made and I don't feel like culling a vigorous healthy flock of good type just because they have a recissive colour that occasionally pops up to produce a very pale chicken of uncertain genetics. Also as in the UK we don't breed blue laced we breed blue self Wyandottes which are evenly coloured across the the feather and whole bird so nothing is lost by breeding to other varieties, chocolate, lavender, black which aren't laced. So apart from getting hard to define pale ones there isn't a big issue with having these colours in the same line. I am interested to see what other people's birds look like with combination of dilutes.

 

[WVduckchick]

Lavender = self-blue (not BBS blue). I refer to it as lavender, when referring to orpingtons, which I breed. I also breed chocolate/mauve/splash/black orpingtons, but never mix them.

Lavender requires a copy of lav from both parents, so mixing it with chocolate is going to result in all splits, with none showing lavender at all, and I do not believe it will dilute the chocolate either. So chicks would all be either chocolate carrying lavender, or black carrying lavender, or black carrying chocolate and lavender? Chocolate and blue is confusing enough, so I'm not mixing my lavenders.





Now, mixing BBS blue with chocolate is how we get mauve. Maybe you like the term khaki better than mauve? Both are used here in the States, I believe, but I use "mauve". Chocolate with one dose of blue gives mauve, chocolate with 2 doses of blue gives mauve splash. I do agree chocolate splash would be a better term for that dilution.

Attached are a few pics.
Mauve cock


Mauve hen:


Mauve hen and mauve pullet:


Splash chick:


I've noticed that chicks start very light, then get darker as they start to grow out, but then lighten up again as they get their full colors going.
In this overhead pic, you can see varying shades, some are full chocolate, some are mauve.