Thought this was interesting banter from a UK site..borrowed it to help those who may be new to breeding blue..thou most of you know this and could add to it.
http://www.schwarz-orpington.de/schwarz_orpington/blaugesaeumt.html
, I did not know of this a few months back either until we had discussion about it on a German forum which made me go back over posts at The Coop. see
http://www.the-coop.org/cgi-bin/UBB/ult ... 328#000014 Also, one very good German breeder of Orpingtons has made this observation about the Blacks that should have been Blues. He says "The crossing of 1,0 splash with 0,1 black gives more than 90% blue chicks, while theoretically it should be 100%." (
http://www.schwarz-orpington.de/schwarz ... aeumt.html)
You are totally right about the White potentially carrying blue. A lot of white birds carry Blue and Silver and dominant white or recessive white or both. I don't know what the white Orpingtons carry , but that's a good thought. Another possibility for getting blue out of black and white.
makes fascinating reading. i do know that Priscilla made her mottled orps by putting a black over or under a jubilee and the black removed the brown from them and hence she got spangled. perhaps a little more to it and a lot of managing the correct type and markings etc, but I did not think that Mr Cook created the jubilee from a speckled sussex, as, please put me right on this factor, I did not think they hhad been created then, I thought jubilees came first, then the speckled sussex which then dominated the market being a more dual purpose bird with better laying power than the orp and that is why the jubilee faded into oblivion in the UK. It is only now we are aquing them from the continent to re establish the correct type, a sall our UK ones are too much like the speckled sussex and the colouring is all wrong. I thought Mr cook used a wyandotte or cochin, but I am but an amateur on the genetics front, and the amount I know could be written on the back of a postage stamp with room to write war and peace.
My German friend who has worked on Jubilees for 10 years informed me he did not use any sussex, but wyandotte, cochin, rhode Island red and one other I cannot remember and of course the buff orp.
Exerpt.. William cook
ay state at the start that Buff Orpington pullets were selected of a chocolate or reddish-brown ground colour, and these were mated to the old Red Dorking, the cocks showing the most black in them being used. Many good coloured specimens were thus obtained by the first mating, and by continuous and careful selection of the progeny, the fifth toe and long back of the Dorking was stamped out. Golden Spangled Hamburgh cocks were also used on to many of the above first-crossed pullets. and here again the difficulty of the white lobe and rose comb had to be bred out.
This boy is starting to bloom
