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Dominant Bl = Lavender?

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Guest:
Bear with me; I\'m new to breeding for feather color!
If splash results from homozygous blue, is this the recessive blue and Lavender is the dominant? At this time all my birds are free range so I cannot be sure who comes from who, but I have been getting splash and what I think is a Lavender splash (no lacing with lavender color and dark spots of color) for a while now. I began with a blue wheaten rooster years ago, so all this color comes from him as none of the hens had any blue.
Also, I would like to second a comment in another thread that it would be nice to post pictures of colors that breeders are working on.
So many questions ... my interest is definately piqued! Can anyone reccommend a \"Beginners Breeding\" Book. Lots of pictures please ...living in the middle of nowhere, I\'m still struggling with defining the difference between spangling, mottling, strippling, on and on! I\'m making the hens nervous staring at them so hard & close, HA!

Guest:
Rose,

The blue gene (Bl) causes the black color in a bird to be diluted to a blue color.  In order to have a blue bird, you have to have a genetically black bird.  For example, a chicken that has two extended black genes (E/E), like a black jersey giant,  will normally be black but if a bird has a Bl gene and has (E/E) then the Bl gene causes the black to be diluted to a blue color.  If an E/E (black) bird has two Bl genes then the birds color is  diluted to the point it is almost white with the splashes of blue.  

The blue gene is an incomplete dominant gene. The blue gene is not completely dominate if it were then the one blue gene would cause a bird to be white or splash. If you think about it, the E gene is still being expressed because the bird is gray and the blue gene is being expressed because it causes the black to be diluted.

The lavender gene, lav, is recessive. You always write a recessive gene in the lower case  A chicken must carry two of the lavender genes ( be homozygous) in order to express the trait. One lavender gene will not express the lavender trait. When a bird has two lavender genes, the two genes work together to dilute black and or gold/red in a chicken. For example in the lavender wheatens that are being discussed on the board, the lav/lav gene will dilute the black color in the wheaten male and also dilute the gold/red and any browns found in the rooster.

The best thing you can do to learn genetics is to take one thing at a time. Make yourself a notebook with information about each gene or color. You can even define words or write anything you want. Write down the information in a way that you can understand. Then when you have a question go back to the note book. I have several notebooks I keep information in.


Rooster


 

grisaboy:
Hello Rose,
It is easy to be confused between Blue, Splash and Lavendar however Blue and Lavendar are completely different genes.  They both affect the black color.  Some shades of blue and splash look very much like Lavendar (Some folks even show these pale blues as Lavendar or Self Blue and it may be impossible to tell the difference unless you know the breeding lines that were used.)

Here is a brief synopsis of the difference.
Blue is sometimes called Andalusian Blue because it is most famous in the Blue Andalusian Breed.
Blue is a heterozygous color, meaning that is the result of the interaction of two co-dominant genes and both have to be present to get the Blue color.  This also means that matings with Blue males and Blue females does not give 100% Blue.
In genetic lingo it looks something like this;
Bl is the Blue gene
bl is the non Blue gene (Black)
Each bird has 2 of these genes so
blbl is a Black bird
BlBl is Splash or nearly White with some blue or black feathers (splashes)
Blbl is a Blue colored bird.
According to the standard this color of Blue bird should have blue gray color with black lacing on each feather.  The base shade of Blue can vary greatly, but they must have the lacing.
Sometimes Blue birds with the BLbl genetics do not have the proper lacing and these non laced birds are the ones that get confused with the Lavendar birds.

The Lavendar color also affects the Black color.
Lavendar is also called Self Blue and sometimes called Belgian Blue.  The color is thought to have originated in Belgium in a strain of fighting games.  The Lavendar color is a uniform soft light Blue Gray color with no lacing.  (By the way, the picture of the self blue Old English in the APA Standard is terrible and not at all close to what self blue should look like.)  The Lavendar gene is a true recessive to black so when crossed to black will give 100% black (unless the black bird you are using already has one copy of the Lavendar gene).  The Andalusion Blue crossed to black will give half Blue and half Black.
Lavendar to Lavendar will give 100% Lavendar chicks   where as Andalusian Blue to Andalusian Blue gives half Blue, one quarter Black and one quarter Splash.  This is true whether they have the proper lacing or not.

Anyway I hope this helps get started on understanding the difference.

Curtis

Guest:
Now you have something to put in the notebook.
I just added all of the handy new things I have learned about red fowl.

I keep several notebooks too...complete with illustrations and paintings of various fowl I have seen/raised. For the lineage notebooks of various crosses I have photos of all angles of the fowl and of their eggs.
Writing down Bl Bl for a fowl you have raised isn\'t very useful if in 5 years you go back to look at it and can\'t remember what the allele means phenotypically (even if you write down that it makes the feathers blue splash).

John:

--- Quote ---Can anyone reccommend a \"Beginners Breeding\" Book.
--- End quote ---

As far as learning some basic genetics I think Rooster (whoever he is) has the right idea.  A good starting place is http://marsa_sellers.tripod.com/geneticspages/page0.html.  I\'ve printed the info from that website and put it in a notebook to study and use as a quick reference.
I think an APA \"Standard\" is also a must.  The color protraits are helpful - even though there are some errors as Curtis mentioned.

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