Lavender Sussex x ?

[Genetics Newb]

Hello Brains Trust, genetics newbie here and wanting to learn. Other than the online calculator that everyone uses are there any good, plain English books/online resources that I could nerd up on?
I have a beautiful lavender sussex rooster which I am planning on using with my lav and coro hens but I also have 2 amazing BLUE AUSTRALORP hens so I was wondering what I would get if I put him with them?

Thank you in advance for your info xx

 

[annageckos]

Lavender is recessive so a bird needs two copies of the gene(one from each parent) to be lavender. So offspring of that cross would be blue or black, lavender is black based.

 

[Genetics Newb]

Lavender is recessive so a bird needs two copies of the gene(one from each parent) to be lavender. So offspring of that cross would be blue or black, lavender is black based.

Thank you, with the Australorp the Black (BB) is diluted to Blue (Bb) and Splash (bb) so as my blues have one recessive already would the lavender come through as that is also recessive? Or would all offspring end up black split? Or would it throw all colours? I am such a newb ... I have so many different bits of info I have no idea where to start haha!

 

[annageckos]

Blue and lavender are two different genes that both affect black. I've heard it is best not to mix them, I think because they can be hard to tell apart. You can also have blue lavenders. Your birds would need two copies of lavender for it to show, I believe that the cross would be either black or blue split to lavender. But they will not show lavender.

 

[Amer]

A good book is Genetics of the Fowl, by F.B. Hutt. Here is an online resource: wordy, but plain English. http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html
https://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm#basisE
Kippenjungle is plain English, it just accommodates for other languages too, and the creator is Dutch. But that link should be purely English because it is automatically translated.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You shouldn't need a book for the blue and/or Lavender genetics. What's important to know is Blue genes stack. As in one copy of blue dilutes black to look blue, two copies of blue dilutes black to splash. Lavender gene is recessive and requires two copies to show. Lavender birds are also not laced like Blue varieties.

The Lav cock you think of as a black bird as the Lav gene has nothing to do with Blue. Crossing Black to the Blue Australorps begets 50% of the chicks being black and 50% of the chicks will be blue. All of them would be split (carry one copy) for Lavender. Back crossing the blue cockerels to the dams would result in 50% blue, 25% black and 25% splash. And statistical average of 25% of them still carrying a copy of Lav gene.

It would take some time to breed out the Lav gene if at all possible. Down the line grey birds without lacing you'd assume are Lavender and not breed them but that single copy of Lav will be in the gene pool for a long time and can throw lavender chicks when doubled up.

 

[Genetics Newb]

A good book is Genetics of the Fowl, by F.B. Hutt. Here is an online resource: wordy, but plain English. http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html
https://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm#basisE
Kippenjungle is plain English, it just accommodates for other languages too, and the creator is Dutch. But that link should be purely English because it is automatically translated.

Thank you for this, really helpful

 

[Genetics Newb]

You shouldn't need a book for the blue and/or Lavender genetics. What's important to know is Blue genes stack. As in one copy of blue dilutes black to look blue, two copies of blue dilutes black to splash. Lavender gene is recessive and requires two copies to show. Lavender birds are also not laced like Blue varieties.

The Lav cock you think of as a black bird as the Lav gene has nothing to do with Blue. Crossing Black to the Blue Australorps begets 50% of the chicks being black and 50% of the chicks will be blue. All of them would be split (carry one copy) for Lavender. Back crossing the blue cockerels to the dams would result in 50% blue, 25% black and 25% splash. And statistical average of 25% of them still carrying a copy of Lav gene.

It would take some time to breed out the Lav gene if at all possible. Down the line grey birds without lacing you'd assume are Lavender and not breed them but that single copy of Lav will be in the gene pool for a long time and can throw lavender chicks when doubled up.

Awesome info!!!! Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed to know .... and you explained it without my my brain getting all twisted