which cockerel to keep for future breeding ? splash or white?

AstraChick

Songster
Oct 11, 2019
124
517
177
Victoria Australia
I currently have pure breed Australorps, regular size. I'm trying to decide which cockerel to keep as i cant keep them all cause that's just asking for trouble and i don't want to have separate pens.
I currently have 5 white and 2 splash cockerels
and 3 white, 1 black and 1 blue pullet.
I would like to hatch my own eggs next summer :fl i do get a broody or i'll have to pull out the incubator again :lau
I would like to expand the number of all colours if possible.
With only having a small number of girls, keeping 2 cockerels would not be feasible and i don't think it would be fair on the girls.

My question is....
Does anybody here know what colours i would get if i kept the white cockerel for breeding over the black and blue pullets ?
or the other option of keeping the splash cockerel over the white, black and blue pullets ?

I did find this... Black x Splash = 100% Blue
Blue x Splash = 50% blue and 50% splash
But... i can't find anything on breeding the white over the black and blue pullets.

any information will be greatly appreciated :love
 
I currently have pure breed Australorps, regular size. I'm trying to decide which cockerel to keep as i cant keep them all cause that's just asking for trouble and i don't want to have separate pens.
I currently have 5 white and 2 splash cockerels
and 3 white, 1 black and 1 blue pullet.
I would like to hatch my own eggs next summer :fl i do get a broody or i'll have to pull out the incubator again :lau
I would like to expand the number of all colours if possible.
With only having a small number of girls, keeping 2 cockerels would not be feasible and i don't think it would be fair on the girls.

My question is....
Does anybody here know what colours i would get if i kept the white cockerel for breeding over the black and blue pullets ?
or the other option of keeping the splash cockerel over the white, black and blue pullets ?

I did find this... Black x Splash = 100% Blue
Blue x Splash = 50% blue and 50% splash
But... i can't find anything on breeding the white over the black and blue pullets.

any information will be greatly appreciated :love
I'm sorry, not too sure about color. Have you ever kept a roo before?

Color would be my last concern when considering a cockerel. His treatment of the girls and how he behaves toward humans would be the deciding factors. A sweet cockerel who eats from your hand now could be a huge problem later when the hormones rage, or not. Also, the one who is sweet to you and subordinate to another cockerel could have a whole different attitude if you remove the dominant boy.

I'm sure others will be along to help with color. Just in case, @BlueBaby might know the answer to your question.
 
I would save a splash myself.
Here's what white roo over black hen gives...
Screenshot_20200121-080947_Opera.jpg


Here's white roo over blue hen...
Screenshot_20200121-081011_Opera.jpg


Here's splash roo over white hen...
Screenshot_20200121-081153_Opera.jpg


I agree with @igorsMistress though, and would consider other factors before colors. A mean rooster can be as beautiful as a nice rooster, but a serious pita to deal with.
 
Thank you for the info @igorsMistress i have been keeping chickens for 5 years now but there's always more to learn.
Yes i did have a rooster before but we are in the process of rebuilding due to a gum tree dropping a limb on our chicken run and losing the last few chickens i had.
So currently our chooks are not at laying age and 8 are only 13 weeks old and 4 are 4 weeks old. Yes my main concern will be his treatment towards the girls.
 
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Thank you @Trimurtisan so by keeping a white roo will give me a recessive white gene down the line? causing the blues to lighten in colour? i'm not really good with this gene stuff
I don't think it would actually lighten the color. To the best of my understanding, if you took a breeding pair of black birds with recessive white, a portion of the offspring would be black while some would be white. Blue in general is a dilution of black already, but I do not think the recessive white would further dilute it. I'm still trying to learn, that's why I posted the pics instead of trying to just explain it. :oops: :D
 
Thanks @Trimurtisan was hard and i nearly gave up but i had chicks in the brooder so they kept me going:)

my main concern is i don't want to change/dilute the blue
so maybe it might be better to keep the splash as you mentioned
my main goal is to increase the blue and black but i would really love a splash girl

This is what i found on colour ratios
roo x hen
Black x Black =100% black
Blue x Blue = 50% blue, 25% black and 25% splash
Splash x Splash = 100% Splash
Black x Blue = 50% black and 50% blue
Black x Splash = 100% blue
Blue x Splash = 50% blue and 50% splash

all the gene stuff goes way deeper then i can get my head around lol
 
I currently have pure breed Australorps, regular size. I'm trying to decide which cockerel to keep as i cant keep them all cause that's just asking for trouble and i don't want to have separate pens.
I currently have 5 white and 2 splash cockerels
and 3 white, 1 black and 1 blue pullet.
I would like to hatch my own eggs next summer :fl i do get a broody or i'll have to pull out the incubator again :lau
I would like to expand the number of all colours if possible.
With only having a small number of girls, keeping 2 cockerels would not be feasible and i don't think it would be fair on the girls.

My question is....
Does anybody here know what colours i would get if i kept the white cockerel for breeding over the black and blue pullets ?
or the other option of keeping the splash cockerel over the white, black and blue pullets ?

I did find this... Black x Splash = 100% Blue
Blue x Splash = 50% blue and 50% splash
But... i can't find anything on breeding the white over the black and blue pullets.

any information will be greatly appreciated :love

I was working with the B/B/S Australorp's before, and with what you have there for your cockerel's to pick from if you are trying to follow that way, I would choose one of the Splash boy's. Pick the best acting one between the 2 of those.

Most likely if you were to keep the white one to go over the black, you would most likely get a color somewhere in between, as a black cannot make white, and a white cannot make black.
 

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