The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[JacinLarkwell]

So just curious, what would blueXlavender make? Just black?

 

[Willawong Hill]

Half blue, half black, all split for lavender I think.

 

[Amer]

I guess that makes sense. But people usually don’t show every bird they keep, do they? And splash x black gives you 100% blues. Though I guess that could negatively effect the shade/lacing of the blues?

No, but it's nice to have more show birds to pick from. And yeah, it negatively effects the blues. I am trying to improve my blues. I started by breeding some extremely dark blue hens with a splash male. I got extremely dark blues and splashes. So now I'm going to try to just breed blue to blue so I can select the lighter ones.

 

[RiverOtter]

Ok, Blue is basic, Mendelian square genetics. It is a simple dilute gene.
No copies of the dilution is black
One copy is blue
Two copies is splash.

So, if we use B to represent Blue and b to represent black, all Blue birds are Bb = the Blue modifier on a black bird. So when we breed 2 together, we get;
__| B | b
B | BB | Bb
b | Bb | bb

So, out of 4 hypothetical chicks, you would get one that had the B.lue-dilute gene passed on by both parents, BB or splash/double dilute
Two that each got one B.lue gene and one b.lack gene, making them Blue
And one that got a b.lack gene from each parent, resulting in a bird which is black, and doesn't carry a blue gene at all.

Better?

 

[Miami Leghorn]

So that's why I'm reading that not even Blue Andalusians breed true.

 

[Amer]

So that's why I'm reading that not even Blue Andalusians breed true.

Yeah

 

[RiverOtter]

So that's why I'm reading that not even Blue Andalusians breed true.

Yes, it's because it's not it's own color, it's just black with a modifier. Which is why, if you know your lines of black, it is perfectly acceptable to breed black to splash for 100%blue. The only thing the blue does is lighten the black enough for you to see the underlying patterns that the birds carry. The patterns are there whether the bird can visually show it or not - you can think of black like excess toner over a print, just like you can think of dominant white like throwing a sheet over something. Everything is still there underneath.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Sire was a Corythosaurus.

I died. I'm such a dinosaur nerd.

So just curious, what would blueXlavender make? Just black?

A hot mess when it comes to predicting what color offspring you get if you breed siblings and lose track of which birds are carrying Lavender. That's why it's not a good idea to cross Lavender into a Blue breeding program. Buyers that are wanting your birds specifically for breeding do not like surprises, generally speaking.

 

[ColtHandorf]

This was my view this morning...

Texas is beautiful in some places, but boy do I hate this flat, black land I’m on. It holds water like a sponge, the grass grows phenomenally fast, and when there’s standing water everywhere it can’t be mowed. The new geese pens were almost completely underwater when I left for work and we have more rain in the forecast.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I died. I'm such a dinosaur nerd.



A hot mess when it comes to predicting what color offspring you get if you breed siblings and lose track of which birds are carrying Lavender. That's why it's not a good idea to cross Lavender into a Blue breeding program. Buyers that are wanting your birds specifically for breeding do not like surprises, generally speaking.

Yeah, maybe I'll put my blue inns different pen. I'm getting blue frizzles for a sex link project and saw how pretty a female Frizzle can look so I debated keeping one of those too, but obviously she can't be bred to a male Frizzle either. But I'll figure out a place for her