Orpington Fans !!! Lavender Cuckoo/mottled/blue mottled etc..

[speckledhen]

She's very pretty, April. I like the self-blues and the blues both. Thank goodness, I'm not really a breeder trying to perfect anything! Seems pretty labor intensive and a long time till you achieve the results. I just like 'em! Wish my blues had more defined lacing like yours.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Quote:
Ok I did not want to takle this question till I got home and dug out some old text. But then I found the answer on line anyway!

In chickens, the "lavender" phenotype is due to an autosomal recessive mutation, LAV*L, at the LAV locus

from http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/93/1/73

You can think of it as a dilution of black laced blue, but you need to 'loose' the black lace on one side. If you loose it on both sides you have a homozygous bird who will be mostly brown like the one pictured on that site. So it's mutated blue basically.

Interesting as the hen I have has that colour on the leading edge of her wings.... thought that was a fault. That could be what the breeders meant when they talked about lavender fading out, they acheived homozygous by selective breeding.​

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Quote:
Thanks! But sadly she never laid an egg, died just as she came into lay, I don't think all was right inside her, 2 septic infections prior to that then internally laid I think.

 

[speckledhen]

That's too bad. You know, someone from Europe called my Blues "Self-blue", but he didn't mean lavender like we would think. He just meant that they didn't have defined lacing. The terms sure do vary depending on what side of the pond you're on sometimes.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

One way to find out is to breed them, if you have the mutation you can start to develope it.

If you want black lacing breed back to black and take the blues breeding them back to black again till your happy with the lacing. Avoid using Splash as breeding stock, that will loose you your lacing.

 

[jab91864]

Somehow this only depressed me more ........


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Exhibition-Qu...ryZ46292QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem



I've bought eggs on ebay, but ya know it's just not fair!!!


Julie

 

[speckledhen]

Those are gorgeous!
Thanks for the tip, April. After hatching this very light blue Orp chick, Julie told me to breed back to black to darken up the color again if I wanted that. All good things to know. Yes, I've heard that the results of breeding splashes will mess up the lacing.

 

[EweSheep]

I got a few blue laced black or black laced blues....not sure if they will maintain the color when they get into their matured years. These are only three months old going four in two weeks.

They are sure pretty tho!

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Looks to me like you have a really nice black laced blue there in the bottom picture directly in front of the black hen. Her lacing is strong. Breed back to black to intensify the lacing in the line, yes you will only get 25% blue but it's worth it. The 2 pullets to the right of her in that picture may be or have the Lavender mutation. You have options on them, and it's a bit of controversy what to do there. Line breed back to a parent with the same lack of black lacing and if you get 'self blue' as they call it you must have the mutation. If you don't try outcrossing to white then take any blues and line breed them back to a blue parent. If you still don't get Lavender results that line is likely not carrying the mutation. If you have a splash in that line with a fair bit of white in them that can work as your white as a test but finding an outstanding white in a total outcross will do more for your line in the long run.

If you don't want lavender (and it's considered a fault here in North America for now) drop them from your breeding program and just enjoy them for who they are. To get them back to black laced would be alot of work so concentrate on the ones who do have some black lacing. Finding a outcross black line that has outstanding body type is one thing I would do alot sooner if I had it all to do over again. Concentrating on colour in a line can loose you the rest of the breed type.

 

[tazcat70]

What about these?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEMON-CUCKOO-...ryZ46292QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Tonya