Red blue and black

[graphicali]

This is probably a dumb question but here goes anyway. I am getting a blue red auracana cockerel, a blue red araucana hen and a black araucana pullet. What colour combinations will I get from chicks hatched from their eggs?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It sounds like you are in Great Britain or Australia. We don’t recognize the Blue Red over here.

I’m not exactly sure of the Blue/Red genetic makeup. I’m pretty sure that blue comes from the Blue/Black/Splash gene and not something else. The B/B/S gene only affects feathers that would normally be black or black parts of pattern feathers. White, red, and other colors are not affected.

When a chicken has two copies of the B/B/S gene, you get Splash. That’s basically white with black splotches. If there is only one copy of that gene you get Blue. If there are no copies you get Black. If your Blue/Red’s are actually blue, then they will each have only one copy of that gene. About half their offspring will get the blue gene, the other half would not get it and default to black.

If you cross two Blue/Red’s, you should get about ¼ Splash, ½ Blue, and ¼ Black. The red or salmon color will not be affected, just the normal black.

If you cross the Blue/Red rooster with a Black hen you should get about ½ solid Blue and ½ solid Black. The Black in the hen should dominate the Red in the male.

This is theory. In real live you often get some strange things happen, like leakage of some colors that should not be there. You may find a few scattered reddish feathers in the blacks for example, especially the males. They tend to be more prone to leakage.

 

[graphicali]

Thank you for that explanation, most helpful. I am indeed in the UK. I was worried that I might just end up with a mess of colours!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If those chickens are not pure for the genetics they should have, especially the Black hen, you could indeed wind up with a mess of colours. There is theory in what you should see when you breed chickens and then there is reality. Those are not always the same thing.

I have a broody hen hatching right now. One of her chicks is yellow. With the genetics of their parents there is no way I should be getting a yellow chick, they should be either red or black. There is obviously something hiding in there that I’m not aware of, but to me that is part of the fun of hatching, especially crosses. You never know what you will actually get.

 

[graphicali]

I will keep my fingers crossed. I am not too worried about imperfections, I will not be showing the birds, however I want to make a reasonable job of it. Would I be better to keep the black one out of the equation?

Mind you the black one was from a breeder who won prizes with that line. That probably means not a lot though!