Final Hatch Analysis with Pics!!!

[Mrs MIA]

I'm kind of figuring that out with the BBS orpingtons, too... I have a pale blue (almost periwinkle) and dark blues. This is my first year with silkies, so I don't have anything but photos to compare them with. I thought when they were chicks that they were white, blue, and black, only to find out that the "blue" was a lavender

and the "blacks" were blues...

I'm just in love with the really poofy fuzzbutts in the photos on Hattrick Silkie's website... Oh my goodness....

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

So then, the ones that I was told were blue, are really black? I'm so confused!!!!!

In the pictures that you posted on the previous page, those birds are all BLUES. Not Self blues or lavenders, but Andalusian blues. By breeding your blues together, you will get blues or splashes, and possibly blacks.

Blacks are BLACK. No question about them.

Blues (Andalusian Blues) are anywhere from a solid light gray, to a steel blue/gray.

Self blues (Lavenders) are a LOT lighter and are a very soft, almost pastel bluish/purple color.

Splash are white with blue spots.

Grays are a partridge bird carrying the silver gene. They will appear just as dark as a normal partridge, but instead of gold in the hackles, there will be silver or "gray."​

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
The confusion is coming because there are two DIFFERENT blue genes.

Andalusian blue - can be bred with black, and appears from a solid grayish to a steel gray/blue color. This blue is the blue you can breed with blacks or splashes.

Lavender (or SELF blue) - appears as a very soft, pastel color. Completely different from the above. Its a class all of its own and DOES NOT intermingle with blacks or splashes.

Clear as mud? LOL

 

[SusanJoM]

Quote:
The confusion is coming because there are two DIFFERENT blue genes.

Andalusian blue - can be bred with black, and appears from a solid grayish to a steel gray/blue color. This blue is the blue you can breed with blacks or splashes.

Lavender (or SELF blue) - appears as a very soft, pastel color. Completely different from the above. Its a class all of its own and DOES NOT intermingle with blacks or splashes.

Clear as mud? LOL

Well, I'm glad you pointed that out, but I was actually referring to the differences that just the Andalusian Blue creates. I am glad you verified my thinking that all of that Mrs.A.K.B.'s birds are blues (Andalusian Blues), but I can see how a person might think that the colors are different enough that they might have different names.

Boy, I don't know if that says what I was trying to say, but I did try.


Susan

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
In the pictures that you posted on the previous page, those birds are all BLUES. Not Self blues or lavenders, but Andalusian blues. By breeding your blues together, you will get blues or splashes, and possibly blacks.

Blacks are BLACK. No question about them.

Blues (Andalusian Blues) are anywhere from a solid light gray, to a steel blue/gray.

Self blues (Lavenders) are a LOT lighter and are a very soft, almost pastel bluish/purple color.

Splash are white with blue spots.

Grays are a partridge bird carrying the silver gene. They will appear just as dark as a normal partridge, but instead of gold in the hackles, there will be silver or "gray."

Thank you ... the mud is getting clearer.

So I will note them as Andalusian blue. I didn't think I had any black. The cross between my boy Bronson (pictured above) and Elvis (my white hen) produced more dark blues, one of which has a rusty spot of feathers on his head...

This is my lavender, Stitch...

Here's my little Splash, Lisa... there's no mistaking a Splash!

Thanks for your help Christopher! I'm so glad I asked!!!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Stitch looks like a nicely colored lavender! If I had to guess I'd say he looks more like a black based bird. (Meaning black is the undercoat, under the lavender... whole nother nail appoitment, dont even pay attention to it! LOL)

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
OHHHH! I thought you were confusing the two blues... I should really try to read slower sometime! LOL

Yes the Andalusian blue does produce a LOT of varying degrees of blue.... took me forever to learn it. And still sometimes there are andalusian blues that are so dark you can mistake them for black... THATS when it really starts getting confusing! LOL

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
OHHHH! I thought you were confusing the two blues... I should really try to read slower sometime! LOL

Yes the Andalusian blue does produce a LOT of varying degrees of blue.... took me forever to learn it. And still sometimes there are andalusian blues that are so dark you can mistake them for black... THATS when it really starts getting confusing! LOL

I think that's what I did with Bronson, the boy I posted on the previous page... but the paler "highlights" kind of give him away.

Only problem with Stitch is that he doesn't have very much feathering on his legs, and he is a mutant... he only has 4 toes on each foot. I'm going to try breeding him once to see what he throws, but he may just be there for fun, since he's the only lavender. I only have the one blue, and 3 Andalusians (one roo, 2 pullets) so I think I need to get some blacks in the pen with the blues.

 

[silkieluver_07]

Your lavender splits are adorable. Hopefully next spring I will have pure lavender chicks when my lavender pullet starts laying. I have two lavender x partridge silkie splits in the incubator hatching now!


Here's my two boys and girl at 3 months old:

They were pecking on her, so dont mind the missing feathers on her head. Now Lavender is the meanest one in the flock!



And my partridge pullet: