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me too, a proper lavender cuckoo in any breed is beautiful to me.
To the post with the not so obvious lavender cock, I had a lavender bantam phoenix like that. He only showed it in his hackle but all his off spring come out cuckoo. Some time those single factor birds just dont show the pattern well even though they carry it. Keep breeding him and he will keep throwing barred chicks, but him over some lavender girls and you'll have a flock of lavender cuckoos in no time. One way I check for the gene aside from the white head mark at hatch is to look at leg color. These barred birds regardless of breed will always have pale legs often with dark spots on them. In my case it's obvious because all my breeds of choice are slate legged, so when I see these pale dotted legs it's a dead give away
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Cool on the lavender cuckoo..so that really light almost undetectable barring is that the same thing as I've seen people using the term, "ghost barring"?
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I guess there will be not much contrast of color.. How about Chocolate Cuckoo?
No not a lot of contrast in the color, but it sure glows in person, very stand outish in person. No one walks by that pen without stopping.
here's the smae breed in dun, these came out the smokey color as a F1 breeding, hoping next spring to get some dark chocolates out of them. Also note in the males tail, there are a few solid colored feathers, this is what I was referring to in the earlier post about a single factored bird. http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/BoggyBottomBantams/Chickens/dAnver/IMG_0069.jpg
just for kicks, here they are in a blue cuckoo, they were very young here, but look awesome now that they are fully matured and threw their first adult molt
That was my thinking too. In these case, I had to start with a cuckoo over a dun quail, thus the gold leakage on the cockerels hackle and wing bows. I now have a line going of solid duns though, so they will get mixed into the gene pool too to help clear up the gold and help add another dose of dun to the mix and new blood lines as well for vigour.
Francois
If you mean how to get the dun cuckoos, they and the blue are easy. Breed a barred/cuckoo male over a solid blue or solid dun and 50% will be normal black barred birds and 50% will be blue or dun barred birds depending on the hen color of course. When bred to black, blue or dun based birds give you a 50/50 ratio and by using a barred cock birds all offspring will be barred.
I've gotta find a silver cuckoo male or create one lol.
So if the white orps are carrying the cuckoo gene (I don't know if mine are but have heard many do) if I cross them to a black male orp will it bring out the cuckoo in any of the white ones if they are carrying it? I only have black orp or a lavender orp male to use on the white orp hens.
Depending on what silvers you are talking about, They are out there. I have barred columbians in d'anver and barred silver duckwing (silver crele) in bantam phoenix. Both are very pretty. I love the barred pattern in all birds. I also have a couple barred white phoenix, but it is VERY hard to see, VERY hard, but it's there if you look close.
On those you mentioned if you use a male, that is suspect of being barred, yes he will pass it on.
Look at adult leg color as I mentioned go back and look at all the pic here of the barred birds. Notice how they all have pale or pinkish legs . And on chicks look for a white dot on top of the head. On your black boy, if he has it, it should be obvious in at least some of his feathering. The lavenders can be tricky depending on how much of it shows.
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Cool on the lavender cuckoo..so that really light almost undetectable barring is that the same thing as I've seen people using the term, "ghost barring"?
That is a term I am not familiar with. It does sound like it would fit his description. IF I hadn't hatched out the Blue Cuckoo, I would have never known the Lav Cock had any Cuckoo in him.
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Cool on the lavender cuckoo..so that really light almost undetectable barring is that the same thing as I've seen people using the term, "ghost barring"?
That is a term I am not familiar with. It does sound like it would fit his description. IF I hadn't hatched out the Blue Cuckoo, I would have never known the Lav Cock had any Cuckoo in him.
flgardengirl: Thank you for the link and insight. It seems like you may have hit on what is going on with my only Lav.
NOW if we can figure out where my Silver Duckwings are coming from? lolol I know it is all happening in this pen. I have not changed a thing. And have 5 Silver Duckwing pullets growing out.