has anyone ever tried to breed a PURPLE chicken

[patandchickens]

as in, a real live chicken that is acrually purplish (I am not talking about PurpleCHicken and his photoshop avatar pic

)

Just idly wondering. I was doing some very frustrating hole-digging and concrete-mixing this afternoon and found my mind wandering

to the fact that the SOP for an awful lot of breeds specifically stipulates that there should be no trace of purple (irridescence) in feathers.

Obviously GREEN irridescence (I know I'm spelling that wrong) can be successfully selected for to a considerable degree.

What about purple, then? The Victorians and flapper-era American chicken breeders may not have had much interest in the color purple but I'm wondering whether anyone's ever seen how far it could be pushed in that direction.

Anyone know?


Pat

 

[chickiebaby]

oooooh, Pat, you have totally piqued my interest! Anybody?

 

[Lanissa86]

I am sure it could possibly be done! Good idea! I am sorry I am not much help, but the two mixes I have had in the past few months had Purple Sheen in their feathers.. much like that Green sheen you are talking about.

They were Welummer X Cuckoo Marans


and the one I have right now has more welsummer coloring but on his dark feathers there is Definitely a purple sheen.. He is a Welsummer X Blue Ameraucana!

Hope some genetic Gurus comment on this.. I would like to know how the color purple can be made.. or IF it can..

 

[joerogrz]

Several of my BA's are showing purple in them, but one in particular is showing it a lot more. It's a roo that still hasn't quite got all of his feathers yet. Some of the feathers on his back are really purple. So much to the point to where there is blue in them.

I'm curious about this as well. It may not be appealing in the standards, but it would be pretty wild having an iridescent purple chicken running around. Or even blue.

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Isnt a lavender chicken close to purple?

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Lavender is a very light color... I think what they are referring to is a bright, shiny purple, similar to the bright, shiny green that is in a Rhode Island Red rooster's sickle feathers.

I'm interested. I think it would be beautiful.

 

[Wildsky]

 

[Guitartists]

I remember reading that purple in black is due to there being brown/red? somewhere in the bloodlines.... but how to keep them all black with no brown/red feathers poking through

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

If someone makes them I get first dibs on hatching eggs.

 

[sred98]

Oooh! I was just wondering the same thing the other day! I have a dark cornish female that has the purple iridescence around her head, and the green on her body. I much prefer the purple, and was wondering about breeding to get more purple, rather than the green. Purple is my favorite color, and I don't intend on showing, so I was really interested in this. Let us know if you get it going!

Shelly