Well Thanks Randy...but, I'm far from an expert, have just had lots and lots of fun experiementing with the blue. I can't get enough blue!
There are no perfect birds.
The Blue Wheaten is a later arrival on the scene.
There MAY be hidden genes still riding along from the original crosses. Thus the Blue Wheatens may be less perfect than the Wheatens. If that is the case, then crossing Blue Wheaten to Wheaten MAY create some less perfect Wheatens.
It is also my opinion that the Wheaten variety is a much more stable variety than is the Black Copper variety. We see lots of variation in the Black Coppers, too many genes to "keep in balance" you need just the right amount of this, and just the right amount of that. Any variation and it throws things off. In this years Black Coppers, I suddenly started to see side sprigs, where we had NONE before, we saw overly dark cockerels, and overly coppered cockerels. Hens seem to be improved, with "the right amount" of coppering.
I feel there is to much room for recessive genes to raise cane.
I believe this is true with all breeds.....we can breed, incubate, hatch and grow out thousands of chooks and we might only ever get one that even comes close to a standard or we may never get one at all, on other the hand we may hit the jackpot and accidentally stumble across something that works. Biological organisms will change and evolve over time, even though those changes may be incremental at best and try as we may to control it....it truly is out of our hands in the whole realm of things and chance playing the biggest part of all.
If we could think of DNA and genetics like this it may help, imagine standing in a room holding 60,000 little red bouncy balls and you toss them all out at once.....they bounce and bounce and eventually land, each little red bouncy ball plays an important roll in the DNA and genetic sequence and figures out how to be friendly neighbors with the balls next to it......now pick up those bouncy balls and toss them again......they will never land in the same place twice, but they will still figure out a way to co-habitat and function, thus every time creating something that is just a little different than the previous.
Even in breeds that "breed true" and we think that each bird produced is identical to the next, there is truly no one chicken alike....each bird will have subtle differences no matter what. It's kinda like two people having 27 children, even though the parent DNA is the same everytime....each child will share features and characteristics of their parents, but they are all different.
Just my 2 cents worth!
Need to know newbie here!
