These are cool lavenders..pdf file link
http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/10E02A04.pdf
THREE VARIETIES OF BLUE
By Dusty Miller
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I have been interested in blue varieties of poultry for several years. I have raised Blue Cochin bantams and friends raised Blue Rosecombs and White Crested Blue Polish. The APA and ABA standards call for blue to be a medium blue laced with darker blue or black. I tried to achieve good lacing in my breeding program, sometimes with good results, usually results were poor. Good lacing seems extremely difficult to achieve. This blue is said to be heterozygous, that is, it does not breed true. The results of breeding blue x blue are 25% black, 50% blue, and 25% blue splash.
While developing my strain of White Dutch, I had some off color chicks. One was a lovely blue pullet, slightly laced with darker blue. At about one year old she also developed a bit of white hackle lacing. This pullet was useful in my breeding of Birchen and Blue Dutch. As to the blue breeding, I bred this pullet to a Black Dutch male. Three chicks were all pullets, but they were a plain pigeon blue without any lacing. The next year I bred these three pullets to Black Dutch again, this time getting some blue and some black chicks. The following year I bred both blue x black, and blue x blue. Of the chicks this year the ratio is 100% plain pigeon blue males and 65%-75% plain pigeon blue females. The remaining 25%-35% of the females were a slightly darker blue, with darker blue or black lacing.
My blues certainly did not follow the Standards here in the U.S., so I began looking for information. In a letter to
Mrs. Anna Banning in Holland, among other items, I mentioned these blues and the lack of lacing. Mrs. Banning replied to my letter and said that the Holland Standard called for Blue Dutch to be the non-laced variety, and that other breeds also called for a non-laced blue variety. She did say that this non-laced blue was also heterozygous, it would breed black, blue, blue splash.
The Holland Standard is set up with the variety section having all common varieties listed by number. If a deviation of the variety standard exists in a certain breed, that deviation is listed under the breed. It most resembles the organization here of the ABA Standard.
# 70 in the Holland Standard is "Blauw (ongezoomed)" which translates to Blue (non-laced). It calls for a light colored blue without lacing.
# 71 in the Holland Standard is "Blauw (gezoomed)" which translates to Blue (laced). The description calls for medium light blue with dark blue black lacing.
# 72 in the Holland Standard is "parelgrijs" which literally translates to 'pearl gray' and corresponds to Self Blue in the U.S. and Lavender in other countries. It is a true breeding blue; light blue with silver tint, no lacing.
In the Holland Standard there are 19 breeds which list variety #70, non-laced blue; 20 breeds list #71, laced blue; and 6 breeds list #72 lavender. As a matter of fact, 5 breeds have listings for #70 and #71, non-laced blue and laced blue. And 3 breeds list all three blues #70, #71, and #72.
The British Poultry Standards, Fourth Edition, gives variety descriptions under the individual breed standards. A prerequisite to reading the British Standard is to define self color -"a uniform color, unmixed with any other." In Britain the self blue of the U.S. is called lavender and when they use the term "self color" it could be black, buff, blue, white or any other plain unmixed color. Blue is always listed as "The Blue" and only by reading the descriptions does one know whether it is laced or non-laced blue for that breed standard.
The British Standard has this description of Andalusian: "The breed owes it's name to the Province of Andalusia in Spain, and is one of the oldest of the Mediterranean breeds. It is a contemporary of the black Spanish with which, no doubt, it is closely related. The blue Andalusian, as we know it today, was developed from black and white stock imported from Andalusia about 1846, and blending of the two colors most probably created the blue. The earlier specimens were large, and game-like in carriage, with medium combs and lobes, and of a self color, although individual birds were selectively bred for lacing, by infusion of black Minorca blood."
"Color - Male and female plumage: Clear blue, edged with distinct black lacing, not too narrow, on each feather, excepting the males' sickles, which are dark (or even black), and his hackles, which are black with a rich gloss, while the female's neck hackle is a rich lustrous black, showing broad lacing on the tips of the feathers at the base of the neck. Under color to tone with surface color."
Other breeds calling for a laced blue variety in the British Standard similar to the Andalusian laced blue are: Australorp, d'Anvers, d'Uccles, Faverolles, Jersey Giant, Modern Langshan, Orpington and Naked Neck.
The Pekin Bantam (Cochin Bantam in U.S.) has a description for non-laced blue: "A rich pale blue (pigeon blue preferred) free from lacing, but with rich dark blue hackles, back and tail in the male." The description for Wyandotte non-laced is "One even shade of blue, light to dark, but medium preferred; a clear solid blue, free from mealiness, 'pepper', sandiness, or bronze, and quite clear of lacing; a 'self color' in fact. Other breeds in the British Standard calling for a similar version of non-laced blue are: Cochin, Frizzle, Japanese, Leghorn, Minorca, Old English Game, Poland, Rosecomb, and Silkie.
Lavender is described in the British Standard under d'Anvers and d'Uccles: "Male and female plumage: This is a true breeding pale silvery blue, all the feathers being of one uniform shade." Under Pekin Bantams, lavender is further described as "The lavender is not a lighter shade of blue Pekin. It is different genetically and is of a lighter shade more silver tint without the darker shade associated with the normal blue. The silver tint is most obvious in the neck and saddle hackle feathers of the male." Besides the Belgian breeds and the Pekin, breeds listing lavender varieties include Araucana, Rumpless Araucana and Japanese.
In his book Bantam Chickens Fred Jeffrey lists this about the genetics of Blue: "Proposed geneotype - EE(extended black), ebonies (hypothetical), Blbl (blue), LgLg (lacing)." Under self blue (U.S. name for lavender) Jeffrey writes: "Proposed genotype - EE (extended black), ebonies (hypothetical), MlMl (melanotic), lavlav (lavender)." Jeffrey refers to Brumbaugh, Chatterjee, and Hollander (1972) in discussing the gene action of self blue (lavender): "The genetic basis and gene action of lavender (lav), a new, autosomal recessive pigment - diluting mutant of the fowl has been established. Black feathers become gray and red feathers become buff when influenced by this mutant."
J. Robert Smyth reports, "The genetic basis for the difference between Andalusian type of blue-black distribution and the self-colored blues has received little attention. Carefoot (1988) concluded that the laced pattern of the Andalusian Bantam was due to homozygosity for the eumelanin intensifier, melanotic (ml), the pattern gene (Pg), and the Columbian restrictor gene (Co), on an E/E Bl/Bl+background. Cote (1976) noted that blue was ineffective in modifying black melanin attributable to Ml and Lg, which suggests that the absence of these genes might result in a self-blue pattern."
Carefoot discusses lacing, "Moore and Smyth (1972a) successfully analyzed the genetic make up of the pattern of the Silver-Laced Wyandotte. They showed that the laced effect was the product of three separate genes on an e(b) ground. The first one was Columbian Co which cleared the back and breast of the e(b) bird to that of the Columbian Wyandotte. Then a combination of the black enhancing gene melanotic Ml and an ordering gene of which they denoted lacing Lg-added sufficient black pigment to the feather and arranged this pigment in an outer lace. It will be shown that this 'lacing' gene is in fact the pattern gene Pg."
Under the section on Blue, Carefoot comments, "The breeding of self blues, without lacing is akin to the breeding of buffs in that both are pastel shades and require minor modifiers to attain the ideal standard.
From all the information gathered, including the above, it would appear that a simplification of each of the three varieties of blue would be:
1. Lavender (self blue in U.S. only) is caused by the gene denoted lavender (lav). It is a true breeding, homozygous (breeding the same), pale silver tinted blue color. Lavender is the gene which when added to a mille fleur changes it to a porcelain. Any varieties which are part blue, such as Blue Red or Blue Wheaton cannot have the lavender gene because it dilutes all colors, not just black; it would also change the red to buff.
2. Blue (laced) is most common in the U.S., where the only standards for blue specify lacing. A medium blue is what most breeders strive for, but blue varies from almost black to the very palest blue color. Lacing is listed as being black or a darker blue. It appears from the literature that some experts say the lacing is caused by the lacing gene Lg, while some say it is a pattern gene Pg. Having no expertise about genes, it does appear that some separate entity or gene does exist that is responsible for lacing on a feather. Blue birds, either solid blue, or partly blue such as Blue Light Brown or Blue Golden, do not breed true; they are heterozygous. They breed black-blue-blue splash (in the case of Blue Light Brown x Blue Light Brown, breeding would yield 25% Light Brown, 50% Blue Light Brown, and 25% Blue Light Brown Splash). Most blue parts of the birds are supposed to be laced.
3. Blue (non-laced) - referred to as a self color in the British Standard. This blue is exactly the same as the above #2 laced blue except that the gene that causes the lacing is missing in this non-laced blue variety. The same is true in Holland: they have a non-laced blue variety. It is still heterozygous, breeding black-blue-splash and the blue color can still vary from almost black to the palest blue, with a medium or pigeon blue being preferred. These blue feathers are not laced. They are a self color to the edges.
References:
Bantam Chickens by F.P.Jeffrey. Second edition, 3rd printing.
British Poultry Standard, Fourth Edition, by the Poultry Club of Great Britain.
Creative Poultry Breeding by W. C. Carefoot, M.Sc.,Ph.D.
J. Robert Smyth, Chapter 5 of Poultry Breeding and Genetics, Dr. R.D. Crawford, 1993.
N.H.D.B. - Standard. Standard of Holland. Printed by the Poultry Association of Holland.
Mrs. A. C. Banning-Vopelpoel, personal communication, 1995.
