Breeding Rhode Island Blue Roo

[scooter16]

Has anyone bred a Rhode Island Blue Roo back to straight Rhode Island Red? What do you typically see color wise?
If I am correct the RIB comes from a RIR bred with an Australorp which throws RIBlue, RIR, or RIBlack??? I am a novice and
the dominant genetics throw me. Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Chickenlyn

 

[NatJ]

Has anyone bred a Rhode Island Blue Roo back to straight Rhode Island Red? What do you typically see color wise?
If I am correct the RIB comes from a RIR bred with an Australorp which throws RIBlue, RIR, or RIBlack???

Breeding that rooster back to a pure Rhode Island Red will probably give some black chicks, some blue chicks, some red chicks with black in their tails (like Rhode Island Reds have), and some red chicks with blue in their tails.

I would expect the chicks to be split fairly evenly between the four color possibilities.

The chicks will not be Rhode Islands, not even the red ones. They will just be mixes.

Crossing some other breed (like Australorp) with a Rhode Island Red gives a mix, no matter what the hatchery or store chooses to call it. Crossing that mix back to a purebred Rhode Island Red will still give mixed chicks, but with many of their traits being a bit closer to the traits of a Rhode Island Red.

I think Rhode Islands come in just two colors: Red and White. Developing another color could be done, but it would take a lot of work to get all the traits right (color you want, plus all other traits correct for the Rhode Island breed), and have them all breeding true (no production of off-color chicks or off-type chicks.) And after the chickens actually exist, if you wanted them officially recognized as a color variety of that breed, there would be other steps to take.

If what you want a pretty-colored chickens in a backyard flock, breeding that rooster to Rhode Island Red hens would probably work quite well. It will just make Rhode Island Mixes, not any purebred Rhode Island Reds or other color.

I am a novice and the dominant genetics throw me. Any help is appreciated.

I expect there are two main genetic things going on here:

Extended Black:
There is one gene that controls whether a chicken is black all over, or whether it can show some pattern of other colors. The "Rhode Island Blue" probably has the dominant form (called "Extended Black" because it extends the black to cover most of the chicken), inherited from the Australorp parent. He also carries a recessive form that allows lots of red to show, inherited from his Rhode Island Red parent.

When he is bred to a Rhode Island Red, all the chicks inherit the recessive trait from their Rhode Island Red mother. Half of the chicks inherit the recessive from their father too, so they show large amounts of red. The other half of the chicks inherit Extended Black from the father, so they show black all over.

Extended Black can be a bit leaky, so some amount of red may show in various places on the "black" chicks as they grow up.

Blue gene:
The Blue gene turns black into blue (a gray shade). It affects all black on the chicken, but not red/gold shades. If a chicken has two copies of the blue gene, all their black is turned into an even lighter color called Splash (it is usually a very pale gray, with bits of black or dark blue being "splashed" in random places.) For the rooster to be blue, he must have one copy of the blue gene, and one copy of the not-blue gene (inherited from his Rhode Island Red parent.)

When a blue rooster is bred with a hen that has no blue gene, half of the chicks inherit the blue gene from him, and the other half inherit the not-blue gene. They all inherit the not-blue gene from the Rhode Island Red mother. That means some chicks show blue (they have one blue gene) and some chicks show black. This black or blue is only on the areas that would be black: all over the chicks that got Extended Black, but for chickens that are mostly red they only show blue on their tails and maybe some hackle and wing feathers (places that would be black.)

A third gene that could possibly be involved is the Gold/Silver gene:
Red chickens (like Rhode Island Reds) have a gene called gold. It is recessive to a gene called Silver, that turns gold/red shades into white. There is a chance the "Rhode Island Blue" rooster may have inherited Silver from his australorp parent. If he did, then instead of half the chicks showing Extended Black and half showing large amounts of red, it will be half Extended Blac, one quarter with red, and one quarter with silver (white, but maybe a yellowish or dirty-looking white.)

The blue or not-blue part will not be changed by having silver, so they would also be split into black-tailed and blue-tailed.