Coloring on Modern Games - Hmmmm????Help

[tiffanyh]

So I consider myself a fairly bright person as a university instructor in chemistry...far from the brightest...but smart enough to get by...

....but I can not seem to grasp the "color schemes" of the modern game bantams.

It started when the breeder sold me some birchen modern game bantams and I said, well I would like to get all the same coloring so I can hatch some pures out. A fairly naive statement apparently because her response was "well, no matter since you will get a mix of colors".

Now, in my head, normally you breed a buff orpington with a buff orpington you get a buff orpington. You breed a blue orp to blue orp you get your splash variety. I understand genetics overall, but I am confused about color production and types within this breed. Right now, from the info I have found, I have no idea how you anticipate what type of chick you get when you breed these bird--not that I havent spent time searching and searching!

Anyone can point me in a direction of a good read or an overall statement so I can get a grip on this concept, I would appreciate it, then I can stop searching the net and go to sleep!!

 

[acid_chipmunk]

You should get birchen when you breed two birchen together, if they are pure birchen. You can also breed silver blue with the birchen, but you won't get all birchen. We didn't have MGB's very long, but that is what we were told when we got them. We sold them before they started laying, so we never got to find out.

 

[tiffanyh]

So mixing breeds doesnt mix colors, is gives offsprings of both colors or a recessive line within that color? I guess these would not be "pure" birchens then if she is anticipating me having "mixed" offspring.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

Right. If they are pure birchen, that came from birchen, you should only get birchen. However, it sounds like either she isn't sure what their lineage is or knows there is something else back there.

 

[Pyncheon guy]

your Birchens may have another color of Modern in their genetic background.....but Birchen to Birchen should give you all Birchens....Birchen to Silver Blue will give you 50/50.....if these birds are "pure" for their color.....

 

[tiffanyh]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking but she is an older women who has been a breeder for years with show birds that "place" all over, even best of shows....

I have no intention of breeding for anything but pets, but now my curiosity is spiked.

 

[tiffanyh]

So 50/50 birchen to blue, then they may carry the other line also if breed in the future but look like classic blues or birchen to the "naked eye"?

So you can have a birchen that look like a birchen but carries genes for another color. Can you show birds like this?

I got 3 birchen (including a roo) and a lemon blue hen. The birchen hens I got have darker heads as I was picking them for what I liked and not for standard breed types.

Thanks so much for your answers.

 

[acid_chipmunk]

You wouldn't know that the birchen was carrying something else unless you knew the lineage or you bred them to see what you get. It is kind of like lavender in chickens. You need 2 copies to show it, so if your bird only has one copy, it will be, say black in color, but carry the lav gene. You wouldn't know this until you bred it or knew it's parents.

 

[Pyncheon guy]

Judges only judge what they can see in the show cages.....they have no way of knowing if the bird(s) carry any hidden genetic differences. The best thing one can do is to purchase a standard and study your breed and the color varieties that you are interested in. Each different variety can differ slightly within that color....more silver or more black.....etc.... Lemon blues should be bred to Lemon blues or to Brown Reds.... Lemon Blues are Brown reds with the Blue color added.... Lemon Blues are to Brown Reds...what Silver Blues are to Birchens.....does this help?

 

[tiffanyh]

It does help, so silver blue would be breed with a birchen to help get more or less of specific traits within the breed, same with the reds and lemons.


Ill have to look and see the connections between the other colors.


So if I breed a lemon to a birchen, I just get a good old modern mutt since neither of them lend proper coloring to each other??


Your explanations really do help guys! Thanks!

And how do black moderns play in?? I have a black hen.