Hoping Someone Can Explain

[Blue Eager]

Can someone explain what occurred here with regards to my Blue Ameraucanas? I currently have only one Splash rooster, two Splash hens & one Blue hen. Photo’s number’s 2 & 3 makes perfect sense in that Splash x Blue= 50/50 & Splash x Splash= 100% Splash. My question is why is #1 so much darker than #2? It almost appears #2 has Black qualities. The other question I have is; are the white flight feather tips on #1 normal with respect to the above breeding combinations?

In addition; Does it matter what mix is bread within the Blue Ameraucana breed? Or do certain combination disqualify it from APA standards?

 

[redranger209]

I’m not 100%, but I don’t think blue breeds true. There could be black, blue, or splash children.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Chickens can be really dark blue or really pale blue.

vs.

And it's perfectly normal for black chicks (and blue chicks are just black chicks with a mutated color gene) to have white wing tips. They'll almost certainly grow out of them, probably within the first moult.

Not certain about the APA thing, but I don't think they care.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I’m not 100%, but I don’t think blue breeds true. There could be black, blue, or splash children.

Black chicks can only occur if there are two copies of the black gene (bl) to be passed onto the chicks. (bl/bl) is black.

Since her only rooster is splash (Bl/Bl), he can only pass on splash (Bl) genes. That means his chicks have to have at least one (Bl) gene, so they'll be either blue (Bl/bl) or splash (Bl/Bl), depending on whether they get (Bl) of (bl) from their mothers.

 

[Blue Eager]

Ah ha…my blue hen is the culprit. Thanks to all of you! For a moment there I thought Casanova jumped the fence.

In all honesty this really sets my mind at ease. I was really concerned about the white tipped feathers.

A sincere thank you to all of you.

 

[redranger209]

So is it black that doesn’t breed true?

Black chicks can only occur if there are two copies of the black gene (bl) to be passed onto the chicks. (bl/bl) is black.

Since her only rooster is splash (Bl/Bl), he can only pass on splash (Bl) genes. That means his chicks have to have at least one (Bl) gene, so they'll be either blue (Bl/bl) or splash (Bl/Bl), depending on whether they get (Bl) of (bl) from their mothers.

 

[Blue Eager]

This is the chart I use for reference;

 

[sylviethecochin]

So is it black that doesn’t breed true?

No, black breeds true.
If your rooster is black (bl/bl) and your hens are black (bl/bl), your chicks will all be black (bl/bl) because (bl) is the only gene they can inherit.

Blue is composed of two different alleles of the same gene. It's (Bl/bl) and the chicks can inherit Bl or bl from a blue parent. Two blue parents:

But her rooster isn't blue; he's splash, and so his offspring must inherit a splash gene.
A blue hen will pass a splash gene to half of her offspring, and a black gene to the other half.

The chicks must inherit a Bl gene from their father. They can inherit Bl or bl from their mother. Bl and Bl is splash, while Bl and bl is blue. So splash x blue is 50% blue chicks, 50% splash chicks

Summary:

Hope this helps.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I'll leave the "breeding" to the experts

 

[Sydney Acres]

One thing to consider is that using a Splash rooster over a splash hen will give you 100% splash offspring, but the contrast of the "splashing" will be lighter in 50% of the offspring. To get the best contrast within your splash coloring, use a dark blue X splash, or dark blue X dark blue.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/5448875/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL