Lavender Marans

[heritagehabitatfarms]

thought i would post a pic of my breeding Lav Marans Rooster... he is a F2 50% black Marans and 50% Lav Orp... he is a little yellow but i believe this is from the sun as this only showed up after i put him out side at about 5 months old... but I'm not 100% sure of that lol i guess time will tell... he does have feathers on his feet tho it is mostly stubs and hard to see in this pic...

 

[bigshawn]

Very interesting, I will follow your progress, good luck with these.......

 

[Treebird]

OK, I'm a little curious about the lavender genetics in chickens. Is there a separate lavender gene from the blue, which is a diluted black? I was wondering because I breed lilac turkeys and use the blue genes for developing these birds. Some one once wrote on here that the hackle and tail feathers on the Coronation Sussex are not a diluted black or blue gene, but they were a specific lavender gene. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks

 

[pinkchick]

OK, I'm a little curious about the lavender genetics in chickens. Is there a separate lavender gene from the blue, which is a diluted black? I was wondering because I breed lilac turkeys and use the blue genes for developing these birds. Some one once wrote on here that the hackle and tail feathers on the Coronation Sussex are not a diluted black or blue gene, but they were a specific lavender gene. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks

Yes, the Lavender (aka...self blue) gene differs from the blue of BBS (blue, black, splash), also I believe the Coronation Sussex does use the Lavender.

 

[Treebird]

So the lavender isn't just a double blue gened bird? In the turkey world, If you have a bird with a single blue gene it is considered a blue slate. If you have two recessive blue genes, It is called a lavender or self blue. It is not a separate color from blue though.

 

[Treebird]

So how is lavender brought about and where did it originate?

 

[pinkchick]

So the lavender isn't just a double blue gened bird? In the turkey world, If you have a bird with a single blue gene it is considered a blue slate. If you have two recessive blue genes, It is called a lavender or self blue. It is not a separate color from blue though.

Nope, Lavender is not just double dose of blue. The Lavender gene is a different gene.

Two copies of the blue gene in BBS genetics will produce a Splash bird. One copy of the blue gene will produce a blue bird. The blue gene only affects what would have normally been colored black and does not normally affect the secondary color patterns of a bird, if they have one, with the exception of the Splash bird. Two copies of the blue gene will dilute to splash but will allow leakage of blue and this 2 copies of blue does effect the secondary color pattern. In the female Splash Copper birds I rarely see copper, but in the male Splash Copper birds I always see copper and it is always where it would normally be if the bird where to be blue instead of splash. Hope that wasn't confusing.

Lavender will affect the secondary color pattern of the chicken and make it Lavender.

In the chicken world blue does not breed true.....when bred together will and can produce all three colors, black, blue and splash.

The Lavender color in the Lavender Marans project has been borrowed from another variety of chickens. Borrowing Lavender or breeding Lavender...I think works like this.....get a bird that is Lavender (or a bird that is split for Lavender, but I am unsure of the offspring percentages and how they work so someone else will have to jump in here) and breed to a black bird, this should produce all black chicks that are split chicks (which means they carry 1 copy of the lavender gene and 1 copy of the black) and the split chicks need to be bred back to the Lavender parent to produce 50% black offspring and 50% lavender offspring. Those Lavender offspring can then be bred back to the original Lavender parent and will produce 100% Lavender offspring.

Where Lavender originally came from and how it got into chickens I do not know.

Hope this helps....and also, if I have given incorrect information above I hope someone comes by and clarifies and corrects me. I don't want to give you the wrong info. I work with Blue Copper and Splash Copper Marans so I can really only be sure of what I say when talking about the blue gene.

 

[flgardengirl]

Lavender is recessive so each parent needs a lav gene to create a visual lavender. So this needs two generations.
My understanding of lav goes something like this: IF you don't have lavender in your breed it must be introduced from another desireable breed. Usually people only breed lav to black but some use other colors. I would only use black it makes it easier.

lav X lav = 100% lav
lav x black=100% black split (to lav)
lav X black split = 50% lav, 50% split
black split X black split = 50% split/ 25% lavs/ 25% blacks (can't visually tell the blacks, from the splits- they both appear to be black)
black split X black - 100% blacks <---(I think this is correct but not sure)

 

[Treebird]

OK, that seems very interesting. This would be why a woman I know had some lavender maran hens and bred them to a black and copper rooster and wound up with all lavender offspring. It didn't make sense to me at the time because I was looking at it in the light of blue genetics. Neat to know that lavender effects all colors not just black.

 

[Charm1704]

I also am doing this project...I am using my Wade Jeane C1 hens that show very little or no color on their hackles, they are also my darkest egg layers. I have Sir Winston in with them. my F1 chicks do have feathering on shanks.




you can see the hens behind him in the other pen. I will post pictures of the chicks soon.....fun project...these are their dark eggs.