What color of Cochin Roo should I get if I want blue babies???

[bossynbella]

Hello,
I ordered 4 st. run cochins from mcmurry this spring and ended up with 5 YEAH! I ordered 2 blue and 2 silver laced. I ended up with 1 blue 2 black and 2 silver laced. All are HENS!!! This would normally be great but now I need a rooster.
I love the blue color and wondered if there is a certain color roo I should get that would make more of the babies likely to be blue?
Was wondering if White with black gets more blue? or if a blue rooster or black rooster would be better? Also what happens if you breed a silver laced with a solid colored roo? will I get really bad marked SL?
Sorry this is so long
Hope someone can help me!
Melissa

 

[goldensunriseranch]

White with black together would likely give you alot of off colored birds. You should take a splash rooster to your blacks and that will give you all blues. And the splash against the blue would give you blues and splashes also. Solid colors against laced birds would probably give you poorly laced birds or off colored birds also. But Blue/Black & Splash birds can all be bred together to get the same out of them, so long as it is regular blue and not self-blue (lavender).
Hope this helps!

 

[lockedhearts]

Yep! You need Splash, I bought A black pair, then a Splash Hen and a Splash Cockerel, will be putting the splashes with the blacks and going from there.

 

[Kanchii]

Black x Blue = 50% Black, 50% blue
Blue x Blue = 25% black, 50% blue, 25% splash
Blue x Splash = 50% blue, 50% splash
Black x Splash = 100% blue

Take your pick!

obviously if you want all blue offspring you'll have to breed black to splash.

 

[Chickndaddy]

You will get better lacing in the blues if you breed black to blue.

 

[bossynbella]

Okay this makes since. I do have one more question though.
What would I get if I breed a black Roo to the black hens (which I assume have the blue gene because I ordered blue and got them)
I really only have one Blue hen right now. and she is absolutly beautiful
Melissa

 

[Chickndaddy]

Black x Black = 100% Black

 

[goldensunriseranch]

Yes black x black equals all black, most hatcheries sell their blues as assorted and ship blue/black/splash however they are hatched if they have a blue program that produces all 3 colors. Basically black is the base, you need one blue gene for a bird to be blue, the hidden gene it carries would then be black. And two blue genes is what creates a splash.

 

[KKluckers]

I would go for blue or splash.

 

[tiki244]

Hands Down get a BLUE ROO. Then with the offspring you can breed a splash to your black ones if you want to.

Blue you will get blue, black, and splash with the blue genetics. If you mix a splash to a true black you may end up ewith some not so good results in the future. You can still breed blue to black, but they wont be of pure blue lines unless it is a black that comes from a blue to blue mating.


I hope that made some sense

eta: after your first mating then I would play around with the colors more if you want but be sure to id them so you know which is true blue and which is otherwise IMO