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

[Egghead_Jr]

What I was getting at is it would be odd to obtain two different varieties from the same breeder.

Splash is white with blue leakage. Poor coloration would look white but it's splash none the less.

Your choice of breeder should be based on body type and conformance to the Standard of Perfection. Color is secondary. The joy of Blue variety is you get three colors. Makes for a diverse looking flock though they are one variety- Blue. The hardship of Blue is to correct or maintain the slate blue (or pigeon blue) color. To do this you should always attempt to have at least one blue in the mating. Due to low populations and at times poor quality of birds it's not always an option to use one blue or the better pairing of two blue birds. It is however advised to do so once you get the numbers up and can choose select birds to breed in pairs or trios or even quads. If the quality of birds are equal except one is blue then always use the blue bird.

Lacing and correct color in blue are what you want to achieve or maintain. It is not advised to use a splash and black mating. Many do it to obtain 100% blue offspring but that is of no advantage or gain in your goal of correct color. Mating black and splash with beget a wide range of blue color. Mating two blues close to desired color, one slightly darker than standard color and other lighter will produce more blue birds of correct color. It's only by using blue in mating that you can visually see and manipulate the outcome.

Also, unless the line has excellent lacing you will only see the lacing in blue birds. It needs to be worked on for complete lacing and then maintained. You can't do this using black birds. Good lacing will show up in Splash. It's critical to use blue colored birds in future matings once you get your numbers and quality up.

Mating a lighter blue to black will darken blue color. Mating a splash to blue will lighten the color. It's a balancing act and not an easy variety to breed.

Good luck.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Post some photos of the blue and black pullets and of the two cockerels you are calling splash. I assume you call them that due to the blue leakage that the others lack. It's what you want, more blue leakage and some lacing showing in splash.

Get legs in the pics too if you can. Austral will have dark wash on legs but if you can clean it up some I'd go that route. You can see how that typical black leg is blue on the Splash bird you posted. You were calling it white- it's splash.

 

[AstraChick]

i'll post some better pics tomorrow of the splash
so your saying my white Australorps are splash ? but the 2 splash i have are like an off white colour which looks like blue leakage through out. hmmmm now i'm confused

i'm only breeding/hatching for my own use, not for sale or showing.

photo of the blue, splash on the left, splash & black bums on the right

Thank you @Egghead_Jr Great info, very interesting

 

[The Moonshiner]

OP stated they had two age groups. The numbers would match as the whites being one group and the BBS being the other. I didn't read anywhere they were or weren't from the same breeder. I assumed they were two seperate groups and the OP knows the difference in what they have and that the whites are indeed white.
It's not at all uncommon to have someone breeding more then one variety of the same breed if that breed comes in more then a variety or two if you go outside of the fanatic show breeders.
It's also not uncommon for someone to purchase more then one variety and source from more than one breeder.
Unsure why you're insisting the whites have to be splash.
Now we'll wait to see what OP has to say.
I thought they mentioned a goal of continuing all varieties. You described a detailed lay out if they intend to breed to show. If thats the case seems the only option is to use one of the splash.
If showing isn't the goal I would use the best white. Without keeping the white you won't continue producing whites. At least not for a couple generations and without replacing the rooster at some point.
I would use the white which would give the offspring a recessive white gene. Then in the future pull one of those cockerels as a breeder and then they can produce BBS and white from same pen.
The other option is to keep the splash and later pull some pullets and a cockerel from one or all the white hens offspring. It'll have the same result but include tracking which hens lay what so to make sure you have offspring from the white hens.
If showing is the goal at some point then mixing the BBS and whites would be seen as a tragic decision by show people that you might want to sell to in the future.

 

[AstraChick]

all from the same breeder, breeder told me they keep the whites in a separate pen to the others. no interest in showing birds in the future.
yes i hatched the whites first then decided to hatch a few more and purchased a mixed colour of b/b/s it was pot luck as to the colours that would hatch.

 

[AstraChick]

this is the splash and the older whites do have the same colour legs as this splash.

yes the black does have the black legs and seems to be alot slower on feathering out was also the last one to hatch, may even be a cockerel now looking at the comb but has the same feather pattern on the wings as the blue

4 little ones from the second hatch

Thank you so much for all the replies Lots of great information that i need to digest.