Lavender Wheaten

[Guest]

Lavender Wheaten? What would that look like? We started breeding Wheatens & Blue Wheatens this year & might be interested in fostering development of Lavender Wheaten on the side. How would you go about that?
Thanks,
Laura

[John]

Maybe it wouldn\'t be as easy as I thought after giving it more thought.  Mike Gilbert used a cross of wheaten and blue birds to develop blue wheatens and this would be a similar project.  
I would think that a lavender wheaten would be a wheaten, but with lavender replacing the black areas.  The neat part is that once they are developed they should breed true, not like blue wheatens that can produce three varieties when bred together.
First cross lavender with wheaten.  The next year mate the F1 chicks together and hatch all you can.  A percentage of these F2 chicks should be lavender wheaten.  
You\'ve got to hatch as many as possible, of the F2 chicks, to increase your chances of getting lavender wheatens that second year.
Comments?
I know in developing the lavenders in the second year the chances of hatching a chick that was both lavender and had a pea comb was 1 out of 16.  I hatched many chicks and ended up with one pullet and a couple cockerels that were lavender with pea combs.  

[Guest]

WOW, How did this get separated from the original thread?

John,  Doesn\'t lavender effect all the colors, lightening the entire bird as in the Milli Fluer to create Porcelain.  I believe it would be a very light bird, definitely an eye catcher.  Sounds like a great project.

glen

[John]

I split your post, since it creates a new topic.

Doesn\'t lavender effect all the colors, lightening the entire bird as in the Milli Fluer to create Porcelain

Yes, It looks like you\'re right and the lavender would dilute the other colors of multicolored varieties.  I had only used it as a solid color, but after reading up on it I can see that it wouldn\'t do what I suggested.  I had read that before, but I don\'t have all that stuff memorized.
 

[HarryS]

 :thinking:Glen,
     You may want to go to the Australian site Backyard Poultry.   They discussed the breeding of Lavender Wheatens.  I believe they call them Champagne.  One person said they look like a pink color.   You could also breed a Lavender to a Buff and when you breed the F1 offsprings together you\'ll get what they call a lemon(quote from the site).  Good luck in the New Year with your breeding.  HS

[Mike Gilbert]

This discussion reminds me of a Bible verse.  I know I\'m using this out of context, but it goes, \"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.   All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.\"  (I Corinth. 6:12)
The application is this:   whether we are perfecting the existing varieties or creating new - is our work in the best long term interest of the breed and of our time and resources invested?    Count the cost.  Will our work  prove to be \"profitable?\"    We might ask ourselves \"Do we have a hobby, or does the hobby have us?\"   Merry Christmas!

[Guest]

Mike,

Very true words, but is it in the asking of what we do not that we understand what we have?

[HarryS]

Link,
    Here is a link to a picture of either a Lavender Wheaten or a Lavender BBR type rooster.  
         http://gallery.thepoultrykeeper.co.uk/v/thewinkingtiger/MVC-004S.JPG.html  

May be a gold duckwing, wheatens may be a little lighter.  The Lavender Wheaten hen should be a soft color?  They say a pinkish color.  
                      HS

[Guest]

Harry,
what a stunning bird.  The hackles and saddles are lighter than I would have expected.

glen

[Guest]

He is such a pretty color!

[Guest]

 Lavender Wheaten is a really nice color .

 Miguel

[Guest]

In order to breed lavender into the wheaten line you would have to use some kind of bantam (self blue dutch) or if you are very lucky you may find a large fowl that was lavender. I did have a pullet segregate from my blueggers that was a large fowl and lavender but that was very unusual.

You are talking about a long term project if a person uses a bantam or even a large fowl. Lavender is a recessive gene and that makes the work of producing a bird that is purebred  even more difficult. I hope anybody that wants to do this project has lots of patience and room to grow all the chicks. You also have leg color and muffs and beard to consider.

Tim

[Guest]

So the pictures are of my first cross F1.  Now through extensive reading I found that they are supposed to feather out like a brown red ameraucana.  I think the may be modified to be lighter by the possible influences of the lav gene, even though they only carry one copy.  I think my best choices are the cockeral with gold and the black pullet.  I have more in the incubator so these won\'t be the only ones.  Anyone have a guess to the genetics of the white one.  She is so pretty, I\'m keeping her anyway but I am interested in what caused her to be an anomoly.  Any guesses?

[verycherry]

I\'m getting a Wheaten pullet from Jean next week or the week after so I can do the same thing.  Glad to see someone else is already working on this.  Please keep us updated.

I haven\'t a clue about your white chick!

[John]

You\'ve got something there...but what?
A couple of my guesses are the lavender females are based on ER/ER instead of E/E.  If they were E/E all the chicks should be black.  If they are E/ER then at least some chicks should be black.  
Another thing is the sex-linked silver/gold gene.  If some pullets are silver, then I would think the wheaten is carrying silver.  That could also explain why a cockerel is \"gold\" (S/s+) and the other \"red\" (s+/s+).
Does the end of the beak on the white pullet look yellow to you?  If so check the pads of she feet for yellow or pinkish flesh color.