New Mille Fleur Bantam Cochin Chick.

[WestKnollAmy]

She's a beauty! She does look lavender.

Here is the baby ...........

 

[La Unica Farms]

Nadine. Thanks for sharing another pic. I honestly don't know if my girl is blue, blue splash, or lavander. I have looked everywhere for signs of splash and I can't find any. I would love more opinions on that. IF she is lavander, how would that gene react with the MF? What could it mean for my little chick??

 

[georgialee]

Well... the chicken calculator shows that a lavender x mf would be all black chicks spit to lavender and mottled. Obviously that's not what your chick is. Even if your hen is MO/mo+ (has one copy of the mottling gene) the chicks should still only be black or black mottled split to lavender. So... that makes me think your roo may have something funky going on with his recessive genes. Any chance he's split to lavender?

Another option is if your hen is blue Mo/mo+ you could get blue mottled chicks. She could just be a very light blue and passed that trait down to her chick.

I really have no idea! I'm very curious to see what his feathers look like in a couple weeks.

 

[La Unica Farms]

Thank you so much for the post Georgialee. I still have so much to learn about chicken color genetics. It has taken me a long time to get a handle on the genetics behind reptile and equine color and now after all of that hard work, I find myself diving into another completely different genetic world.
Right off the bat, I do have one color question. Purhaps I should have found a definite answer to this question before I purchased several breeding groups of MF Cochins but I digress. I distinctly remember reading somewhere that MF has a 50% chance of producing MF when bred to a non MF mate. From what I am hearing from you guys, it sounds like that statement was pure rubbish. Is that statement accurate only if the other parent is mottled? I have read that somewhere too. With the mottled parent, it said the offspring come out much darker but it is the best way to breed in type. There is so much information out there, its hard to know what is correct.
So, lets say my hen is a blue who carries one mottled gene. The only possability then for my chick would be that it is a blue mottled? Am I correct on that assessment or are there other possabilities?? I don't know of anything that could be hiding in the roo's background. My Roo hatched out of eggs that I got from Lynne. If I remember right, she purchased one MF roo and crossed it onto buff columbian hens. I have never heard her mention anything about blues/lavenders to me but I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I will have to email her and ask her.
For the fun of it. Lets say my hen is Lavender and my roo is MF and has a hidden lavender gene, what could that mean for my chick. Is it possible to get a lavender based MF? There is something like that in D'uccles right?
On the flip side, what if my hen is indeed splash, would that change things up a bit? Like I said before, I have looked all over for any signs of darker color and I haven't found any. In certain light, her head does seem like it might be one shade or so darker then her body, in other light, she looks completely uniform in color. I don't know. I adore her either way. She is one of the sweetest birds I own.

I have tried to take pictures of the new feathers coming in on my mystery chick but I can't seem to get a decent shot of them. I guess I will have to wait until the chick gets a little older. I have another batch of eggs coming off the turner in a few days and I can hardly contain myself. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get another chick like this one.

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded. I really really appreciate it. I will get new pictures up as soon as the feathers start coming in better.

 

[georgialee]

Unfortunately, what you were told about mf being produced 50% of the time when bred to different colored/patterned chicken is false. It's actually the exact opposite. The only way you can get mf is if you breed to another chicken that is mottled or MO/mo+ and has the gold/buff coloring.

mf x splash = all unicolor blue chicks

mf split to lavender x lavender split to mottling = black split to lavender/mottling, black mottled split to lavender, lavender split to mottling, lavender mottled

mf x blue split to mottling = blue split to mottling, blue mottled, black split to mottling, black mottled

All of this still doesn't explain your chicks coloring, though - lol! Maybe it's a little miracle chick.

In order to get the lavender mille fleur (called porcelain) you need to breed mf to lavender and then breed the offspring together. Your chances to get a porcelain from the cross increase if you use a mottled lavender (but I don't think they're available...at least I haven't seen one.)

http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator - here's the calculator. It's fun to play around with.

 

[La Unica Farms]

Georgialee - thank you so much for all of the wonderful information. I have looked at that calculator before ( and it is now saved to my favorites ) but I must confess, I usually leave that page more confused then before I went there.
It is a very cut and dry calculator and doesn't allow for additional information to be added regarding recessive genes that the birds may have. Plus, I don't understand some of the colors they have listed to begin with.
They have Partridge, Light Brown listed and Yellow Partridge. I have a pair of what I consider standard partridge ( the dark brown/reddish based partridge ) and then I have a trio of buff partridge. I'm not sure which catagory the buff partridge would fall under. I had the buff partridge roo in with three of my MF hens. According to the calculator, they should have produced gold columbian offspring. I can't even find a picture of a gold columbian. I can find buff all day long. Are they the same color?
I did hatch out two chicks that were born blue/black with gold colored faces. They are starting to get wing feathers now and they are bright gold color with a little bit of black pattern, would those be gold columbian?
I have hatched a lot of normal colored partridges too.
I just can't help but think that the recessive genes of each bird would have a lot to do with potential chick colors. For example, that buff partridge roo was over three MF hens, one red partridge based MF ( she looks similar to a partridge but has even white feathering throughout ), and two columbian based MF ( light columbian colored hens with black and white feathers throughout ). I would think that would have an effect on chick color.
All of my breeding groups are split up now so all of my MF hens are under MF roo's. The only non MF I still have in with a MF roo is that blue hen.
I plan to purchase some Lavenders ( I purchased a dozen eggs last year but only two hatched and they died soon after ) to work into my program.
So if I understand you correctly. My best plan of attack would be to take those lavenders and breed them to mottleds. Then I would take those offspring and breed them together? or back to lavender?
So after that I would even up with Lavender mottleds and I would take those birds and breed them into my MF program and create Porcelian. Am I understanding all of that correctly. Wow.
Is there anyone out there that has lavender mottleds?

Thank you so much for sharing all of your information.

 

[georgialee]

It looks like we'll be working on the same project! Maybe we can trade some eggs sometime. I have mf, lavender and LF partridge cochin eggs in the incubator right now. I'll probaby try to get some mottled cochin eggs or chicks in the next couple of months as well. Getting a porcelain out of a mottled lavender x mf breeding is 1 in 100 something. When it's just a regular lavender x mf the chance is 1 in 500 something. So, since that calculator is somewhat confusing here is the breakdown of what you would have to do to get a porcelain:

lavender x black mottled = all black split to lavender/mottled

breed black split to lavender/mottled chicks together to get 1/8 chance to get a mottled lavender (either roo or pullet)

mottled lavender x mille fleur = all black mottled split to lavender

breed black mottled split to lavender chicks together to get 1/128 chance to get a porcelain pullet or a 3/128 change to get a porcelain roo. You will also get a bunch of other colors including isabel which is another gorgeous color and would be creating another breeding pen for

You will also get some incomplete mille fleurs but I still don't quite understand what that means. Once you get porcelains though they breed true so it won't be s much of a headache.

As far as I know no one has lavender mottleds (it would make it soooo much easier). Or if they do they aren't sharing, lol!

 

[sharron]

what is a lavander mottled? i have a little lemon blue hen, well she came with the lemon blue rooster and shes what i call a blue mottled, pretty little thing regardless of what she is.

 

[LeBlackbird]

Quote:
Lavender Millie fluer~ Is called Porcelain
Lavender Mottled~ Is called Pearl

 

[sharron]

if i could figure out how to include a picture of her i would, but kinda stupid when it comes to coping and pasteing