Understanding the lavender gene

[Maransman]

I'm new here and stumbled upon this thread pertaining to Lavender Orpingtons while looking for Marans.
Does anyone here know where the gene was introduced? I have heard "through the grapvine", that the gene was brought over here from England but lost, due to some unfortunate legal circumstances. Presuming for the moment, that these lavenders are somehow associated with that line, (since I've heard of no other introductions of Lavender), would there be risks involved in buying them?
I'm no attorney, but just wondered, as I'd like to get some to use in a Marans project I'm working on.

Maransman
Helena, MT.

 

[daisychick]

If I want to have lavender ameracaunas...would it be easier to first get a lavender bird and then breed my own from there? I am assuming that getting a lavender bird from ones own line of blacks may take lots of breeding to by chance get a lavender that is if I am understanding it right.

I guess my main question is this....How did the first lavenders come about? By chance of breeding blacks that had the recessive gene??

 

[wilds of pa]

Almost all the answer to your question are on BYC.. Do a search and you will find most of your answers here...

Charlie

 

[Solsken Farm]

Quote:
Daisychick, there are folks working on Lavender Ameraucanas. Shaffer here on BYC is selling some. If you go to the Ameraucana Breeders Club site, folks are breeding them there. Your best bet would be to work from their stock. That is what I am doing. Edited to add, that these birds are not yet considered Ameraucanas, but rather project birds and are not yet recognized by the APA. And many here know a heck of a lot more than I do.

Maransman, I know of several people working on Lavender Marans. Getting a brown egg gened bird with a single comb from Hinkjc or Wilds of Pa, would be a great way to start. You'll need black Marans or perhaps black coppers, but you probably already know that. Good luck! The egg color is the tricky part, I think, as that dark color is the hallmark of the breed, but you probably know that too. Good luck.

 

[daisychick]

Quote:
Yes it does sound like that would be a lot easier to do. I am waiting on a batch of blacks and blues to hatch right now. But I would sure love to have a lavender some day to breed with these. I am sure I will get a few in the near future and have already checked out a few on the A.B.C. Thanks for the response.

I have searched on here a number of times and can't find the answer to how those breeders actually got the lavenders that they have. I am just curious how the lavender gets its start.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Daisychick, that is something I do not know the answer to. You probably already know to only breed black with lav, don't mix the blue with lav. Good luck. Harry Shaffer had eggs on here a few days ago in the BST section. PM him and add some to your bator.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

WHere does lavender get its start? It must be introduced from another breed that already has the gene. Ideally you want the breed chosen to have an many similarities and as few difficult to breed out traits as possible.

 

[hinkjc]

You have to find a source of lavender to breed into the breed you're working on. For example, lavender ameraucana were originally developed using self blue D'anvers and OEGB. Similarly, other breeds are developed using cochins and old english large fowl. It's a matter of identifying a self blue gene and working with it. For our lav araucana project, we are using a lav ameraucana, pea comb, clean faced cull.

 

[daisychick]

I think I will stick to the easy way out and wait to see how many good blacks I get out of this batch and then find a good lavender and then follow the handy dandy diagrams given earlier and make lavenders the easy way!

Probably save me a whole lot of headaches from thinking too hard!

 

[daisychick]

Quote:
Thanks you so much for posting that. That is all I was wondering is how they got their start! Great info!

And I am thankful to you and the others who do all the hard work so people like me can try to have lavenders someday too! I think they are the most beautiful of all the chickens.