Lavender......?

[Kickingbird]

This question is to Dan or anyone else that may know the answer.

Check out this thread and look at the blue birds. This lady says that the light blues are her splashed birds but they are definetly not white. She says they breed true to these colors all the time. I'm wondering if they are lavender? It seems weird to me to have a blue bird where the pure blues are not almost completly white.

pub228.ezboard.com/fbackyardchickensfrm3.showMessage?topicID=814.topic

What do you think?

KB

[s1mon]

we have the lavender colour here in the uk, it is completely separate geneticaly from the blue colour. See here for moreinfo:
www.pekinbantams.com

[Kickingbird]

simon,
Great to have you here. I realy like the Pekin bantams site. I think that we have lavender here also in several types of birds but it is not bred as extensivly as it is in the UK. Selfblue I believe is what we call lavender.

The birds in this post confuse me though, they are said to be blue however they do not get white splashes, the birds this breeder calles splashes are quite blue still. My splashes are almost completely white. So I'm just wondering if they may be lavender and not blue.

KB

[Kristen]

You could call it a lavender color, but it is still a splash because of the genes (it is semidominant and still creates true blue when crossed to black). A lavender gene is recessive to black and will not create blue, unlike the lavenders you are speaking of. Just because two birds share a similar genotype, there are other factors affecting color as well. There seems to be a great variablility in the tint of splashes among different strains. Lavender is thought to have originated out of a mutation of the splash gene, but unless that mutation occurs causing splash to disappear completely (meaning no more true blues can be bred from a cross to black by any one light blue bird) then the gene cannot rightfully be called lavender.

Traditionally, the splash is supposed to be a blue splashed white bird, but consecutive breedings of blue to blue can actually darken the splash (as well as lighten the actual blue and lessen the lacing if not done correctly). Still, the genetics for a blue splashed white bird is there. There are simply variations in different flocks. Hope this helps.

Kristen

[Kickingbird]

Kristen,

Your post is interesting. I would like to pose some questions in reguard to some things though.

As far as the lavender gene is concerned, I would be surprised if it came from a mutation of the blue gene (Bl). The reason I would question this is that the blue gene (Bl) is a modifier of the true color gene in a black bird. It is more likely that lavender is a mutation of the black gene because lavender follows the pattern of inheritance of a true (base) color.

I'm interested also in the consecutive breeding of blue generations because I have two families of blue birds that do not exibit this type of breeding to darker blue (instead of splashed white).

As far as the ladys birds go, the reason I asked the question is that she stated that her birds always breed true to blue. The blue gene does not function in this manner. If she never gets black then they are not blue birds.

Of course I'm aware that her birds could have some sort of mutation but that would be very unlikely (not impossible)

KB

[Kristen]

I have heard of other breeders making comments about breeding Blues to Blues and ending up that way (with darker splashes), but you know, I have never had Blues long enough to find out myself. Maybe I just heard wrong, or the person talking had that happen by chance, it was at a show anyway. The ladies post suggests that is incorrect anyway now that I think about it because she has probably been breeding blue to blue for a long time and nothing has changed tone wise, thus she said they breed true. The darkness of the splash probably has more to do with strain differences. I know with some of my birds the splashes are almost completely white with only a few blackish-blue flecks near the head and that is the way they have always been even with the older breeder's flock. I would think that if she was still getting splashes that it would still be a blue anyhow.

That is interesting on your comment about mutation of self blues. That does make more sense for it to have mutated from the black gene. I do believe I did get my information out of the book, Bantam Chickens. I know I read that somewhere at least. What you said makes more sence though.

In the post the lady simply said her birds always bred true to that color, but by that I think that she actually meant the tone of the actual blues, because right after that she explains herself by saying she's never had a lighter blue than pictured and the splashes have never been darker. She didn't say anything about whether she did or didn't get blacks. I would say a blue isn't breeding true if it throws a splash anyway because that is a contradiction right there. A splash itself is different from the blue. That is just my interpretation though, I could be wrong. I think they are regular blues. She might just breed Splash to Blue all the time in order to not get Blacks, I don't know.

Thanks for correcting me on the other post. I realized I made a mistake after I wrote it. I don't know why I get hemizygous and heterozygous confused. I know the difference between the two but I still make the mistake.

Kristen

[Kickingbird]

Kristen,

I wanted to Welcome you to the board in an earlier post and forgot so......WELCOME!

I'm glad you are chiming in on this post! The more we discuss this sort of thing the better off we all are. I'm glad you were not put-off from the correction as I just don't want ppl to get confused (most of the time my chatter is confusing enough )

I bet you are correct about how she was refering to the color of the blues....I didn't think of that

This is why it is great to discuss these topics!

Cheers,

Mark