What is this? Came out of my buff pen! Lavender like coloring!!!

[TXmom]

I have an EE with that coloring...Blue and Buff...I think she's the prettiest bird I've ever seen! I don't know anything about genetics, and mine is a hatchery bird so who knows what genes she has, but I just love love love that color.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

THanks, Wilds. Part of the misunderstanding is that porcelain silkies do not yet have mottling. And another part is the e-allele that the parent birds are bred from. The outcome seems to be largely dependant on that as much as on the clarity of colouring of the parents.

 

[TK Poultry]

You should definatly keep it to see what it looks like i have a rooster from george that is all buff but a few of its tail feathers they are that color

 

[NoZolbitty]

Is there any books on color genetics for chickens?

 

[tadkerson]

Looks like an E locus issue to me. The under color should be buff. Buffs are usually wheaten at the E locus. The wheaten locus does not produce much black pigment on the body of females therefore it is used in making buff birds. The black pigments in the wings is most likely due to the bird being split (heterozygous) for one of the genes that cause the buff color plus the E locus and you get the black color. The buff color is produced through the combination of several genes and if one of the genes is heterozygous it tends to add black to gold females.

I have been working with the genes that produce buff for about 4 years now. My birds are birchen at the E locus or wheaten. I have just started working with extended black and only have a few birds. Buff also contain some undocumented genes (came from Rhode Island Red) that I am attempting to isolate in some of my stock.

I do not know why a breeder would want to use lavender in a buff breed unless they were trying to tone down a mahogany red color. If the breeder had mahogany reds and was trying to make buffs- I could see the use of lavender.

Buff birds may contain dominant white and I can see that being found in the buff variety but that is not the case here..

Blue color is not always due to the lavender gene or the blue gene. I have seen a blue color in some of my female birds due to the interaction of the birchen gene, the dark brown gene and the silver gene but it shows mostly on the breast.

I believe others may have stated the following. Excuse me if you have. The only real way to determine what is causing the blue/lavender is to out cross to a black bird that is extended black at the E locus. If you get some chicks that express blue down with white or buff faces, it is blue. If you only produce black chicks with white or red/buff faces- it is lavender or some combination of genes causing the blue color. You may also produce chicks with dark brown down- then the color is lavender. Reddish blue down will be chicks that carry blue.

Tim

 

[nicalandia]

most self buff birds carry blue(Bl/bl) you just dont see it because they are mostly buff, but if you cross that buff to a all black brid you will have blue looking chicks..