Opal genetics - help please

[Knix6468]

We have been buying eggs on Ebay. We have a mature Opal cock. We cant seem to get any regular opal eggs, we keep buying

opal split to opal black shoulder eggs

Opal white eyed eggs


would our Opal Male bread to those chicks result in what offspring?


We found a chart but we cant find/or figure out how the white eyes and the black shouldered opal would come into play, http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...AznSwO&sig=AHIEtbQGQLEfwO4E3p8gZsqBsTr1m9YniQ

 

[6littlechickies]

IF the eggs that you got are opal x opal split blackshoulder then you would get all opal chicks and some would be split to blackshoulder. IF it is a split opal split blackshoulder x split opal sploit blackshoulder then 1 in four will be opal and 1 in 4 will be blackshoulder. Opal WE is an opal color bird that displays some white in the eye feathers. Opal is a color and will breed true when bred opal x opal regardless of pattern. Opal x Opal WE will give opals with some WE.

 

[jimmythechicken]

who's on first again i am glad i have debbie to explain pea genetics to me.lol

 

[Knix6468]

THANKS

The more I thought about it i was starting to worry that the Black shoulder would part of the opal would equal india black shoulders split to opal

 

[deerman]

Yes opal to opal still all opals, remember you are working with a colors and patterns.So think of the colors first then patterns. blackshoulder both parents need to be BS or Split bs ,to get BS chicks. Now only one parent need to be white eye to get WE Chicks which is also a pattern.

 

[Fowler Hencock]

How does one get the pied gene into an opal bloodline? Does an India Blue pied or a Silver pied have to breed with an opal, or is pied just a genetic "malfunction" that can spontaneously occur in any color of peacock? Can opals carrying the white-eye gene develop into "true" pieds (and vise-versa) , or is that just a different genetic code altogether?

 

[deerman]

You have to breed to a pattern(no matter the colors) and a bird can be more than one pattern, like blackshoulder pied white eye that 3 patterns on one bird, and it could be any color...like peach blackshoulder pied white eye..yes i had a chick just like that.

 

[zazouse]

Quote:
Great chart thanks for posting it.

 

[Kev]

Quote:
Pied is a mutant gene of its own so you do need to breed with a pied bird to bring pied into whatever color you're working with.

However, breeding for pied isn't so simple, as the pied birds with the patches of white are genetically 'half pied half white'. Pure pied have very little white- usually confined to the flights/chin. Only when the White gene is involved do you get the pieds with big patches of white. That's why these kind of pieds cannot 'breed true'.

If you cross opal with pied or silver pied, the offspring are going to be half split pied(usually no white feathers at all) and half split white(usually some or even a lot of white in the flights).. keep the above in mind and don't discard the birds without any white- you need these also. The tricky part- opal is recessive so none of the birds will be opal, so you need to mate the cross birds together and hatch many chicks and hope you will hit on an opal pied/silver pied.

One other solution is to get a pied/silver pied opal and breed to your opals, because all of the chicks will be opal split pied and opal split white... mate the offspring back to the pied opal to get more pieds. Also, depending on the birds used, you probably will also get white birds, but they will be genetically opal too. In other words, those whites would be very useful for anybody working with pied opals.

As for white eyed, that is also a separate gene, but a bit easier to work with as it's a dominant gene.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Pied is a mutant gene of its own so you do need to breed with a pied bird to bring pied into whatever color you're working with.

However, breeding for pied isn't so simple, as the pied birds with the patches of white are genetically 'half pied half white'. Pure pied have very little white- usually confined to the flights/chin. Only when the White gene is involved do you get the pieds with big patches of white. That's why these kind of pieds cannot 'breed true'.

If you cross opal with pied or silver pied, the offspring are going to be half split pied(usually no white feathers at all) and half split white(usually some or even a lot of white in the flights).. keep the above in mind and don't discard the birds without any white- you need these also. The tricky part- opal is recessive so none of the birds will be opal, so you need to mate the cross birds together and hatch many chicks and hope you will hit on an opal pied/silver pied.

One other solution is to get a pied/silver pied opal and breed to your opals, because all of the chicks will be opal split pied and opal split white... mate the offspring back to the pied opal to get more pieds. Also, depending on the birds used, you probably will also get white birds, but they will be genetically opal too. In other words, those whites would be very useful for anybody working with pied opals.

As for white eyed, that is also a separate gene, but a bit easier to work with as it's a dominant gene.

Very good points ,on the split pied, lot of breeders, and even some big time peafowl breeders,get that wrong and only keep those with white flights, which are split white, those split pied can't see white, so you need to breed one without white flights, to one with the white flights =pieds