My weird colored orps

[BluegrassSeramas]

LOVE the colors!! Sell me some started birds like those next year please!!

I want a rainbow of chickens here on the farm and I dont have blue/buff one yet!

 

[ozark hen]

Thanks all. I am interested in having orps in all different colors with the birds I already have on the place. I have some young pullets coming up from four different excellent sources I purchased from the last two springs. So we will see what we will get from the three roos I have and the thirty-two hens I will have next spring. I will separate them then. these four were not from separate breeding pens but from hens that ran together. At first I was hesitant and wondered if I should cull them but after watching them decided I loved the colors and would keep them. Two of them are in Halloween colors. LOL I will post more pics as they grow.
Cyn, this is the blue roo that I used to call Miss Emily as a chick...little did I know. LOL I can look at his pics now and see the roo characteristics I was too inexperienced to see then. He really is gorgeous.
He is starting to molt right now.

 

[ozark hen]

Quote:
Next spring I will try to breed the lemon/blue pullet back to the blue roo and see what I get. I will let you know, should be interesting. Thanks for this roo as he is gorgeous.

 

[jafo]

From what I been told, a Blue Orp Roo can deliver all the colors of the Orpington spectrum. We have a blue,(roo) and for hens we have 2 buff, a black, a white, and a combo black / buff (she's very pretty). The woman we got our stock from says she wants to cull out to get just buff. (purity in the breed) If I had a choice, I'd shoot for the black / buff combo's.

 

[Krys109uk]

From what I been told, a Blue Orp Roo can deliver all the colors of the Orpington spectrum.

That's a bit ambiguous. If a blue's ancestors were crossed to other colours then, theoretically it could carry lots of things, depending upon what it was crossed to.

However, such a blue is unlikely to be good as a bird to use for breeding decent blues as it will have lost melanising genes & have gold or silver leakage which would be difficult to lose, especially in males.

These colours are exceedingly easy to make but cannot be stabilised as an actual variety because the effect is caused by "split" gene pairs. When bred together the genes will start segregating out.

If one breeds a bluff with a blue the result is usually one of these buff/blue coloured birds. Buff to black can often result in the orange & black birds.​

 

[ozark hen]

Well, I do not have a black roo on the place and like I said, it will be interesting to see what develops next spring and generations that follow.

 

[walkswithdog]

Lemon blue is a specific pattern and alelle group. It's gold birchen on a blue bird.

In the interest of not completely confusing everyone who's actually trying to learn genetics please, call them

Blue buffs, blue golds, something that doesn't actually indictate a specific defined alelle group.

While GORGEOUS, those are not Lemon Blue birds.

I have a spotted pit bull. That does not make him a dalmatian.

A little accuracy for the sake of those who are trying to learn really would help. And a little truth in advertising as well since selling lemon blue eggs would be completely inaccurate.

 

[Krys109uk]

Well, I do not have a black roo on the place and like I said, it will be interesting to see what develops next spring and generations that follow.

As you have discovered, it is not necessary to have a black male on the place to get birds with black markings (one can get much the same colour as the orange & black birds by breeding buff to black). When you cross blue to a bird which has the non mutant allele the birds will segregate out just as if you were breeding blue to black. i.e. in the region of 50% with blue markings & 50% with black markings.

If you'd like to post pics of the birds you are going to breed together, I expect some of us will be able to give you a pretty good idea of the various colours you will get in the offspring.

 

[speckledhen]

I think they are very pretty girls, especially the "lemony-blue" one.

 

[ozark hen]

In respect for the truists(sp?) among us, I like your words..."lemony blue", Cyn. Thanks for all the info added here.
I don't even pretend to know anything about genetics...I seem to be rather dense on the subject.