Question about Isabell Orpington

[TheChickenFanatic]

Hi! I have a question about Isabella Orpingtons. I have a flock of English Lavender hens, and am about to purchase a English Isabell Rooster. If I bred the hens to the rooster, what would I get? Would I get Isabell chicks? How do the genetics work? Thank you in advance!

 

[TheChickenFanatic]

@The Moonshiner

 

[Amer]

You would get lavender chicks with straw colored leakage. This is because lavender is genetically the Lavender gene + Extended Black base while isabel (in Orpingtons) is the Lavender gene + Partridge base. Extended Black is mostly dominant over partridge so the chicks will be lavender.

 

[TheChickenFanatic]

You would get lavender chicks with straw colored leakage. This is because lavender is genetically the Lavender gene + Extended Black base while isabel (in Orpingtons) is the Lavender gene + Partridge base. Extended Black is mostly dominant over partridge so the chicks will be lavender.

Thank you! This is so helpful! So, I need to breed a Lavender to a Partridge, right? Would it take a few generations to dilute the coloring to get the Isabell color?

 

[Amer]

Thank you! This is so helpful! So, I need to breed a Lavender to a Partridge, right? Would it take a few generations to dilute the coloring to get the Isabell color?

The word for that isn't dilute.
You can do that, but if you have an Isabel rooster available to you, there is no reason to.
To get more isabels the best thing to do is breed isabel to isabel.
The next best thing would be to either breed isabel to lavender or partridge to isabel.
If you get an isabel rooster and breed him to your lavender hens you will get lavender chicks with straw colored leakage. If you breed his daughters back to him you will get some isabel offspring.