I am trying to breed some with blue

[crazy chook]

I have a cross breed roo who i would like to put with some of my girls to try to add some blue colour.

This little guy was completely blue when I got him at 6 weeks old, now he has alot of red through his feathers and is very pretty, (i think)

This photo was taken 4 weeks ago and he is quite a bit bigger now.

What colour girls should i put with him? and what colour do you guess the chicks will be? I have black and white frizzle girls that I would like to put with him.

 

[crazy chook]

Can anyone help?

Am I wasting my time with this roo?

 

[crazy chook]

Is anyone there?


6. No Spam. Spamming is posting the same thing several times. "Bumping" (posting to move a thread up on the forum list) and cross-posting (posting the same thread in several forums) are examples of spam.

 

[Kansaseq]

I'll give ya a bump

I have a cockerel similarly colored--started out mostly blue, and now is mostly red! Was wondering what color the chicks would be.

Tanqueray is Blue orpington and Easter Egger

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
You need to give someone more than an hour to answer, especially before 6 a.m. Plus, you may want to read the BYC rules again. Bumping your own post is considered spam.

 

[patandchickens]

Hey, I got a cockerel like that too

Mine is sort of the blued version of brown-red, I think.

It does not matter much what you breed him with, if all you are concerned with is having *some* blue on the offspring. Blue is an incomplete-dominance type gene, where birds with BB at the locus have black (in whatever parts of feathers other genes determine 'should' be black); birds who are Bb will be blue on the areas that would otherwise've been black; and birds who are bb will be splash in those areas (mixture of light grey and white feathers).

Your cockerel is evidently Bb, thus blue replaces what would otherwise have been black areas on his pattern. If you breed him to any other chicken carrying genes that lead to some black feathers, half the offspring will have blue replacing that black. (The other half will have the normal black feathers)

As regards WHICH feathers (how many and where) "want" to be black, modifiable to blue, that depends on a buncha other genes and is more complicated. If you are trying to breed for PURE blue (the dilute form of pure black), I suggest you repost in the "genetics" section of the BYC forum where people can suggest how feasible it is and what patterns/colors of hens you'd best breed to. (On the face of it, I would think your best bet would be to breed to solid black hens, e.g. Australorp or possibly black sexlinks? - but am not sure)

Remember that blue does not breed true -- the only way to get 100% offspring being blue is to breed black to splash (ie. neither of the *parents* are blue!

)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[MareeZoCool]

I would think that your black & white girls would be a good color match for brining out the blue coloring.

 

[crazy chook]

Quote:
Thanks Pat, I appreciate your advise.
Donna