Why cross black with lavender

[dheltzel]

This is what I want to know. I have 3 blue, 1 black and a white splash, about 8 months all purchased as blue. Then I have 4 lavender about 4 months. Should I cross them? And what would I get if I do?

The blue gene dilutes black also, but it's partially dominant, whereas the lavender (aka self-blue) is recessive. It's not recommended to breed self-blues to regular blues/splash, though I'm not sure why.

If you breed lavender to black, all offspring are black, but carry the lavender gene. A cross of those back to lavender, gives 50% lavender and 50% split (half look like each parent). If you cross lavender to blue, half will be black and half blue, but all carry the lavender gene, because as far as the blue gene is concerned, a lavender is black. If you cross splash to lavender, all the offspring will be blue, but carry the lavender gene.

All of those lavender carriers make the next generation more interesting. For ex. the last case, blue carrying lavender, will produce a whole lot of different colors if bred together. I could compute the genotypes, but I'm not sure what a blue or splash looks like when heterozygous for lavendar. Probably very light colored. Perhaps someone who's done it can tell us the results.

 

[Florida]

Very interesting and detailed reply. I will put it into a file to be able to follow what came so easily from your knowledge. I can see I have much to learn.

The black and the splash came in the blue set of eggs along with the 3 blues, all hens. The lavender from another location, 3 roos and maybe one is a hen. I also have two black hens who came to me grown. So maybe I will just let nature take the lead and see what happens.

I can always seperate them for the next go round. Since they free range that may be tricky to do.

I am planning on buying 6 more eggs from blue and 6 more from lavender, from new sources come spring. No more winter hatches for me.

Thanks for your help.

 

[dheltzel]

Very interesting and detailed reply. I will put it into a file to be able to follow what came so easily from your knowledge. I can see I have much to learn.

The black and the splash came in the blue set of eggs along with the 3 blues, all hens. The lavender from another location, 3 roos and maybe one is a hen. I also have two black hens who came to me grown. So maybe I will just let nature take the lead and see what happens.

I can always seperate them for the next go round. Since they free range that may be tricky to do.

I am planning on buying 6 more eggs from blue and 6 more from lavender, from new sources come spring. No more winter hatches for me.

Thanks for your help.

Glad to help. There is a lot of information about genetic inheritance out there, it all applies very nicely to chickens, the only thing you need to know is the the regular blue, often written as BBS (for Blue/Black/Splash) is partially dominant and the lavender is recessive. It is called "self-blue" because 2 lavender bred together (to the self-same color) will always produce all lavenders. That is not true all for the BBS, the only way to get 100% blues is to breed a black to a splash. When a BBS bird appears blue, it is because it has only 1 of it's genes contributing the "dilute" factor. If it has no "dilute blue" gene, it will be black. If it has 2 copies of the diluting blue gene, the black will be almost completely diluted and you have a splash. 2 blacks produce 100% blacks (since there are no dilute genes in either parent). 2 splash parents also breed true, with 100% splash offspring.

If you think about it as whether the chicks match the parents, in terms of percent colors, the following pairings all produce 50% that look like the mother and 50% that look like the father (in some cases the parents are the same color, but it still works that way too).
lavender x lavender
black x black (unless both parents are split to lavender, meaning they are hiding the lavender gene)
splash x splash
black x blue
splash x blue
lavender x black split to lavender

 

[keesmom]

black x black = 100% black
black x blue = 50% black, 50% blue
black x splash = 100% blue

blue x blue = 25% black, 50% blue, 25%splash
blue x splash = 50% blue, 50% splash

splash x splash = 100% splash

lavender x lavender = 100% lavender
lavender x lavender split (black bird with a lavender parent) = 50% lavender, 50% lavender split (visually black but carries lavender)
lavender split x lavender split = 25% lavender, 50% lavender split, 25% black (blacks and splits cannot be distinguished from one another)
lavender split x black = 50% lavender split, 50% black (all will be visually black)

Now birds can carry both blue and lavender but it is hard to tell which bird carries which diluter (or both) by visual inspection alone. That's why breeders prefer to breed to black. No other diluters get in the way and the above percentages hold true.

 

[Florida]

Put this all into my Chicken file, because I need all the help I can get.

 

[388chick]

This is all so very interesting!! And you have all done such an awesome job explaining!!

What happens when you breed Lavendar to white? Is white dominant like black and the babies all carry a Lavendar gene?