The color Black

[yotetrapper]

Ok.... I'm still very confused on this. I'm wanting to breed for shape on the Lavender Orpington project birds.

Now, I know I could use a black bird from a line of black orpingtons, but why couldn't I use a black bird from a line of B/B/S orpingtons? Blue, is dominant over black, correct? So in a blue to blue mating of b/b/s orpingtons, the results would be 50% blue and 25% each of black and splash.

Now, I believe, the genotype of these birds would be this........ splash bl/bl....... blue Bl/bl........and black BL/BL. Since any blue gene would turn black into blue, any resulting black birds would be pure black, without any chance of recessive blue genes in them, right?

So is there any reason why a bird that appears black, (which should, I believe carry two black genes) NOT be bred into a lavender line of birds?

 

[blackdotte]

No.
There is no such thing as recessive Blue. Blue is dominant.
A Black bird from a Blue X Blue breeding is just that a Black bird.
Mating Black to Black can not produce a Blue. Having said that some
Blues are so dark as to appear Black at a cursory glance.
David

 

[Henk69]

A black from a blue line should not give you anymore blues, so that is not the problem.
The difference between a black line black and a blue line black is the amount of melanizers.
In the blue line there was a selection towards the right tint of blue. This is affected by the amount of melanizers (black enhancers).
When a blue becomes too light, you can cross with a black to add melanizers. But it is of no use to use a black from your own line, because these have a similar amount of melanizers as their blue sibblings.

So to keep your lavender uniform in color it is best to breed with black line black.
On the other hand, a blue line black could match a black line black. If the rooster is all black, good sheen, why not.

And then I suspect that black liners have better type...