My Lilac experiment

[retlaw]

By accident I started this experiment.
Trying to make a right from a wrong.

I bought Blue Slates four years ago.
I saved two hens and a tom for breeding.
The hens were splash marked and the tom was black.

There was a contamination and I believe it was the tom.
The breeder had Ridley Bronze also and the tom had one feather in its fan that was brown. He was gorgeous.
All three birds that I kept were from different hens.

So after reading up on the genetics it looks like I might be close to a Lilac.

The tom died from blackhead last year so I chose a Lilac one.
Also kept some more hens from the original black tom..

This year my hen count is the two original Blue Slate hens from four years back.
With new hens from the black tom consisting of:
One black Blue Slate.
Two Lilac
Ridley Bronze.

So my poults are coming out mostly Lilac with a couple black and bronze.
The Lilac coloring vary.

Here are some of the new Lilac toms poults from this year.









Here is the new Lilac tom.



Just finished molting with new feathers growing out.



So are these Lilac's or do they need another name?

 

[poultryaspets]

Wow

 

[retlaw]

Here is a tail feather form the tom.
I guess I have to call them Splash Lilac.
The tom has a couple black splash's on his back.

 

[Porterturkeys]

That tail covert feather is from a red slate, lilacs are double slated so will not have the black specks, most of your poults have the red slate pattern, (darker ones), now you do have some very light colored ones which are the actual lilacs.
Take a look at my site for the patterns you want to be looking for.

http://www.porterturkeys.com/lilac.htm

 

[retlaw]

The photo copy of the feather seemed to turn out a little more red then in life.

My thinking hear was that I needed a Burden Red to get the Red Slate.
I didn't know you could get the red from a bronze.

I have looked at your site and enjoyed it very much.
Your Red Slate tom is very dark in colour.
I can see the splash's in him.
My tom looks more like you Lilac but with a couple splash's on its back.

And yes some of the poults I have this year are very light in colour .
Almost white.
And some are very red.
More on the red side.
It will be interesting in a few months.

 

[Porterturkeys]

The red slate actually does not carry a red gene, they are just bronze based with a single copy of slate, If you put a red gene in you will get a blue red bronze. http://www.porterturkeys.com/blueredbronze.htm

Red slate is actually a very misleading name as to what the actual genes in the bird are but hey, I'm not the one that named it.

The rusty colored feathers that come thru both on a red slate and lilac are just the bronze tones expressing thru the slate.

The reason your tom is lighter than my red slate tom is because yours carries the narragansett genes, which will dilute the rusty red tones to a lighter shade.

So your tom is a diluted version of a red slate. Some of the lilacs you get will be lighter in color as well Way more washed out.

 

[retlaw]

Narragansett genes eh?
Thank you for clarifying.
When the poults mature I will post pictures of the different colour combinations.