Lavender Split to lace question

[Acitygirlandherfarm]

I have a lavender rooster who is split to lace. Does the lacing gene require two copies to be expressed? If not which % would be laced? I don’t want the lacing to be expressed in my upcoming mottled project which is why I am inquiring. Thank you

 

[The cheek coop]

Thread 'Lavender lacing?'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/lavender-lacing.1556143/

 

[NatJ]

I have a lavender rooster who is split to lace. Does the lacing gene require two copies to be expressed? If not which % would be laced? I don’t want the lacing to be expressed in my upcoming mottled project which is why I am inquiring. Thank you

Lacing requires several genes working together.

If your chicken has the genes to be all-black, then no lacing will show. If you get your flock breeding true for that gene, you will never see any laced chicks, regardless of whether they carry any of the other genes that would be involved in lacing.

When a chicken is "lavender" all over, it is genetically an all-black chicken, with the lavender dilution gene turning the black into lavender.

Depending on what you are crossing him to, you might get just lavender or black chicks. Or you might get chicks that have various other colors and patterns. You are unlikely to get chicks that have nice lacing, unless you are breeding him to laced hens.

Have you tried playing with the chicken calculator? It might help model this in a way that is easier to understand.
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html
At the very top, you can select breeds from a dropdown list. Choose "Sebright" for the sire, because they are a good example of a laced chicken. Click the button to put it in the calculator.

Now you see a picture of a nicely laced Sebright rooster.
Under the picture, there are lots of dropdown boxes. The first one has E^R/E^R
Change that one to E/E
The little picture of the laced rooster turns black.
Genetically, that is all you need, to be sure you never see any laced chicks. Just have every chicken breeding true for that gene.

To turn that black chicken into a lavender one, look down the dropdown list to find Lav+/Lav+
Change that to lav/lav
You just added the recessive lavender gene, and the chicken turned lavender.

For mottling, you would change Mo+/Mo+ to mo/mo
If you do that with a black chicken you get a picture, but the calculator doesn't seem to have an image for lavender mottled. (It works in real life, just isn't illustrated in the calculator.)

The calculator can be used to figure what chicks will result from certain parents. But I find it more useful the way I just described: change things and see what happens to the chicken in the picture.

There are a few other versions of the calculator. This exact one is a bit confusing because things are labeled in several languages, but I think it's the only one with the list of breeds (which is easier than manually selecting all the right genes to make a laced bird.)

 

[Acitygirlandherfarm]

That was an amazing explanation. I really appreciate you taking the time to go in such depth. I believe I have it down. I also appreciate the calculator.

Sounds like I use my lavender split to lace rooster X mottled hen to create black chicks that are split to lav and split to mottled and the lacing wouldn’t show.

Then if I take an F1 female from the pen above X my mottled rooster that is split to Lavender that I’ll get my first generation of Lavender mottled. And since it is a black chicken and the lavender is diluted black, the lacing shouldn’t express.

This makes my day if so. I’m going to try to find a good book. I really want to better understand the genetics in general.

 

[NatJ]

That was an amazing explanation. I really appreciate you taking the time to go in such depth. I believe I have it down. I also appreciate the calculator.

Sounds like I use my lavender split to lace rooster X mottled hen to create black chicks that are split to lav and split to mottled and the lacing wouldn’t show.

Then if I take an F1 female from the pen above X my mottled rooster that is split to Lavender that I’ll get my first generation of Lavender mottled. And since it is a black chicken and the lavender is diluted black, the lacing shouldn’t express.

This makes my day if so. I’m going to try to find a good book. I really want to better understand the genetics in general.

Yes, it sounds like you have it figured out, and I think that breeding plan will work

I assume you realize that your "first generation of Lavender mottled" will include plenty of other-color chicks too (lavender without showing mottling, mottled without showing lavender, black without showing lavender or mottling, etc.) But yes, you should be able to get some chicks that show both lavender & mottling in that generation.

 

[Acitygirlandherfarm]

Yes, it will take a few generations and hopefully the contrast will be enough to be appreciated. I’m brand new to breeding and finally have my breeders ready to be paired. I’m excited to get started! Thanks again