Opal Old English Games on Eggbid, I have questions :)

[DTchickens]

Quote:
Great to see you on the forum Mr. Ron.. i've noticed the Opals are starting to come quite popular

-Daniel

 

[Henk69]

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You don't have to testcross against all known colors! If it is recessive to black you know enough. To make sure it is not lavender you should cross a lavender and an opal. If outcome black then opal is not the same as lavender. If outcome opal/lavender then it is the same.
Lavender is a simple recessive also. And similar.
Lavender would also dilute gold/red feathers, turning them into cream, isabel. Did that occur?

 

[opal oe]

Henk69 I went to your web page it is very nice loved looking at your chickens. So far I have not had the chance to aquire a pair of lavenders / self blues, I have been breeding to other colors for several reasons, 1, to continue or better OE type on the variety, 2, to find where in the ladder of domance Opal will reside, 3, to better understand what colors help to lighten or darken the expression of Opal as there is some varience. Question if Opal is homo and lavender is homo why would you ever get black from this mating as both are recessive to black as the order of domance indicates a recessive color cannot carry a more dominate color, So when I mate Opal to Lavender it will tell which is the more dominate of the two or modify as an incomplete dominate. Now if I mate the F1s together the F2s might tell more of the story. Thank You and I do appreciate your comments.

 

[Henk69]

Yes, it can...

If you cross a lavender to a black you get blacks split for lavender.
If you cross an opal to a black you get blacks split for opal.
So if you cross a lavender to an opal the crosslings have one lavender gene, one non lavender gene (from the opal parent), one opal gene and one non opal gene (from the lavender parent): the animals are non lavender and non opal so black, split for both lavender and opal.

Lavender "covers" black as does opal and recessive white if you have two copies of each gene. Do a cross and the genes are dominated by the non-mutant gene from the other parent, the color is restored to normal.

A recessive color can not hide a dominant gene from the same type as the one that causes the recessive color.
A black animal for instance can not hide a blue gene or a dominant white gene. Note that black is the recessive color here!
A recessive white animal however can hide a blue gene because all color is suppressed by the recessive white.

Last approach:
An opal animal can not hide the non opal gene needed for a black.
But the lavender animal has exactly that gene. Why is the lavender animal not black if it has the non opal gene?
Let's say that the black pigment (eumelanin) needs 20 steps to be made from it's precursors. The opal gene may block step 13. The lavender gene may block step 7. It means there would be 20 genes for black. Why isn't that mentioned anywhere? because it is the wildtype situation.

Now if opal is the same as lavender the outcome will be different...

If you get both genes homozygous then the color could be lavender or opal (how would you know?). That color would be epistatic over the other then. The colors could also be intermediate or both colors could add up to a paler color.

 

[Krys109uk]

I hope we can hear more about this colour. It would be interesting if we could hear the results of a cross with lavender. Please.

 

[opal oe]

I have been trying to get a Self Blue and have not been able to aquire adult birds but have eggs on the way so it will take a year to make this test mating.

 

[Henk69]

A testmating can be done with any lavender...

Good luck.

 

[opal oe]

Here is a pic of a Opal chick and a Self blue chick note the difference in beak and leg color and also the body coloration. I have raised 65 Opals this year, The Self Blues I got from having eggs sent to me I hatched 4 and will use on Opals next breeding season as I was not able to aquire any Self Blue adults this year and have finished all breeding for this year.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Well I am floored.

A color that finally makes me interested in OEGBs. Go figure!

 

[opal oe]

Henk69 I have hatched my first two chicks out of my Opal cock and a Self blue hen and they are black so what you said is true.

What do you think needs to be my next test mating?


Thank You

Ron Smith