Understanding the lavender gene

[Krys109uk]

Poulet de Cajun wrote:

The lavender would have to be pure lavender, otherwise it wouldn't be lavender right? Since it takes two genes to make lavender?

Well yes, lavender would have to be pure (homozygous) lavender to show. But the gene at another locus called the e-locus might not be pure as you call it.

Thus what one might want for lavender would be E//E, lav//lav

But a bird would still appear lavender coloured if it were E//e+, lav//lav. If you see what I mean & then if the black also carried an e+, for example, the offspring would have a 25% chance of being e+//e+ (it could be similar with other e-allele other than E or ER)​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

A mess????
Well that's what I call mine

I guess that's what I called my boy, too

Okay mutt & mess are the duly recognised and proper terms.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Since silkies are supposedly e^b (although with all the new colour breeding, who knows?) How can you tell which E-allele you have when you are breeding say lavender or buff or ...?

I am slowly learning some distinctive characteristics to tell at least a partial genotype of my birds (for example I have a buff that I am pretty sure is PgpgMlml (and presumably CoCo)).

 

[Krys109uk]

Goodness .....silkies are eb blacks? I didn't know. I wonder why they did that?

With buff birds they're usually eWh but if they have dark under colour they are more likely to be eb. I'm sure there are other combinations & I haven't a clue about silkies & some of the others.

Your buff sounds very interesting. Can you tell she is PgMl//pg+ml+ (or a similar genotype) by eye or because of what you know to be in her background.....or both?

I've been meaning to start a thread asking about chick down colour. Which is a fascinating subject. Just not sure precisely what to ask LOL.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Which is a fascinating subject. Just not sure precisely what to ask

My problem exactly

I believe they are PgpgMlml becasue of their appearance--each (or at least many) feather has a tiny bit of black at the end. I'll try to find or take a photo--I know I took photos several months ago when the feathering was coming in. Anyways, it looks very much like the lacing chart at http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html (about 2/3rd of the way down the page). This bird doesn't have dark undercolour--she is very clear except for these black tips. Since she came from a pure buff breeding, I assume she inherited Pg from one parent and Ml from the other?

I asked a few questions about E versus E^R several months ago on a different website and was answered by all the genetic heavy weights that silkies are almost always e^b. Which helps account for partridge so frequently popping up in colour crosses.​

 

[Happy Chicken Mama]

Here is another question... what about breeding the lavender to a white?

http://www.silkiechickens.com/lavender_silkies.htm

These guys are doing it and obviously have had some great results.

Could someone explain the lavender to white... is it to improve color or type?

If so, would you need to breed the offspring back to a black (split with lav) or back to Lavender???

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Lavender to white was to improve type--I am pretty sure they are no longer breeding lavenders to whites. I think the ultimate goal is to breed lavenders to each other. Chris, you're more involved in this with Deb & Bren--what do they say?

 

[Happy Chicken Mama]

Oh Im sure this would be the ultimate goal.

I was just curious about the genetics of it and what it would produce.

After you go the better type then what would you breed it back to, etc.?

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
White WAS used to improve type, but no longer. The major intention now is Lav to Black in order to obtain a black base. So far its going really well. For comparison, the top photo is that of my newest black based cockeral. The second is the non-black based lavender... Can you tell the difference in the color?

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Oh... And "Mutt" is what we affectionately call the chicks that were originally hatched from lavender breedings but had the "stripes". Everything from those breedings was "pure" Silkie, just had a crossed color gene, as I've said I assume from the days when lav's were crossed with whites. However that was before my time, so I can't be for sure.