do you consider a bird/breed to be pure if?

[mario2girls]

if you have same breed but different colors in a pen, do you consider these to be pure or mix?

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

well if your not hatching the eggs then yes they are pure. I had a mixed color pen of silkies and they where pure

edited to add. Are they pure colors or mixed colored?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

They are pure but will likely hatch out non-standard colored offspring, if you're hatching eggs.

 

[ksacres]

I consider them to be mixed. The hallmark of a "purebred" is that it breeds true. Your mixed color birds will not breed true, and it will take many generations (in most cases) to get them back to where they will breed true.

 

[mario2girls]

thank you,,,,that is what i needed to know,

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
Good point!

 

[Kev]

So any Blue chickens are not pure?

 

[speckledhen]

The hallmark of a "purebred" is that it breeds true

Weeelll, not exactly. Maybe it's just semantics, but a blue bird will not breed blues every time. You breed a blue Orp to a Blue Orp or any other blue (except self-blue/lavender) and you can get blue OR black OR splash. They are still purebreds, but wont necessarily produce blues like they are every time.

Kev, we were posting at the same time. Same thoughts.​

 

[mario2girls]

ok, so if i offer the eggs at a swap i should then list them as mixed...
even if there is a blue parent??? lol i assume

 

[Kev]

Yes. The hobby is FULL of little quirks. Another example are some breeds with standards that actually call for very separate breeding for male and females. What works for the males makes females that don't even qualify for show and vice versa..

Mario, IMO you could say they are purebred BUT mixed for color. As for birds from blue breeding, you can either say the blacks are well, blacks. Blue as blue. Splash as splash and that will cover it allright. Speckledhen and I were just pointing out using color as a strict breed guide isn't quite that neat as a rule.

Ok here's another example in another species.. German shepherds, most know of them as black and tan in color, right? They come in solid white also.. they still are German shepherds. Not a completely different breed. A cross of black and tan with a white still gives "pure" German shepherds, as a breed.. however as for color the pups will look black and tan except they have the gene for white. By the definition some use in this thread, those very same pups would be considered "mixed" or "mutts".

Except with chickens there can be many different genes involved in making a single color so in their case the crosses and mixes can be wildly variable in color (and for this reason like someone said, it can be a challenge to make birds pure breeding for a COLOR out of the mix)