Blues

[Bearpaw]

Blues are an accepted variety by the A.P.A. but I understand they do not breed true. If you breed a blue to a blue you get
black, splash and blue. If they can\'t breed true then why are they accepted as a variety?

[bryngyld]

I\'ve always thought that the blue should actually be called something that includes black, blue and splash.

It\'s ridiculous to me to have approved varieties in black and blue, but splash cannot be shown... and have sometimes been culled.

Perhaps the colorvariety should be called \"Andalusian\" or black/blue/splash, or combo-blue...

[Mike Gilbert]

Admission to the standard requires any variety breed true at least 50 percent of the time.   Blue meets that requirement.  Golden duckwing males would be another example where they only breed true 50 percent of the time.    Splash is not seen as a variety because it is extremely variable in expression, from nearly white to maybe half dark in some cases.     If you don\'t agree with the APA or ABA on this or any issue you have a district director to talk to, and he or she can take your concerns to the board meetings.   Better yet you can run for office and, if elected, have a vote.  Splash is not recognized as a variety by the APA in any breed, but if enough APA members pressed the issue perhaps the policy could change.

[Bearpaw]

Hi Mike,  
Thanks for your answer I guess I have always just thought that a variety had to breed true. But 50% is good, guess I missed that in the standard or at least forgot it.

[Guest]

Two Blacks =  100% Black
Two Splash =  100% Splash
Two Blues   =    50 % Blue (25% Spash, 25% Black)
BUT a BLACK and a SPLASH = 100% Blue.
It\'s kinda interesting how this all works.  I think I like the Splash almost as much as the Blue bird.  Too bad they are not accepted as a Standard color. So far the Black color is my least favorite.  I know you need them though to make the Blues.

Chicken Will

[bantamhill]

Splash is an accepted variety for the ABA.

[grisaboy]

I think the silky club is working to get splash accepted by the APA.  They have alot of enthusiastic members so expect they will succeed.  There seems to be a lot of interest in the splash varieties so I expect we will see the variety accepted in more breeds soon.  Possibly Ameraucanas in a couple years.

I used to raise lemon blue modern games.  They produce a splash that could best be described as lemon splash. A whitish bird with blue and black feathers splashed throughout with a lemon yellow hackle and saddle.  A really cool color that will probably never be accepted in any standard.  Not many people raising lemon blues let alone lemon splash birds.

Sometimes we just raise them for fun and don\'t worry about the standards.

Curtis