Chicken feather color genetics question

[SourRoses]

Do you mind explaining what the leakage on them is? Like I said I'm new to understanding all the genetics behind coloring. I used that term in explaining the blue with red coloring because someone else had described the coloring as that, but I might have been using that term wrong. I do know Whiting True Blues can come in any color or pattern & that's why I like them for the color variety. I read others experiences where their roos combs were flopping at a young age but by a year old they stood back up like they "grew" into them. My roos are only 19 weeks old so they might grow into them? Is it considered a fault for them to be floppy, even if you're not planning on showing? I wanted a blue layer breed & this breed peaked my interest as opposed to Ameraucanas because they are prolific layers & are also homozygous for the blue egg gene whereas you have to be so careful about getting a true Ameraucana that is actually homozygous.

Leakage is colors like the red on them which doesn't belong to the ground color. It's going to be difficult or impossible to get birds that don't have red leakage, and may get even worse.
Combs that flop over are widely considered undesirable, however there's at least one breed out there that permits it on the basis they can't fix it.

On the Ameraucana, it sounds like you were thinking of Easter Eggers? The truth is that real Ameraucana breed true for Blue eggs, they have 2 copies of the blue egg gene. WTB as a newer, not-yet-a-breed still have some trouble with egg color. 1 blue egg gene is all it takes to see a blue egg, but 2 copies of the gene usually means a bluer egg.
The main selling point for the WTB seems to be the rate of lay, probably achieved by a lack of broodiness. My Ameraucana are everyday layers when they're not broody, which can happen too often.
So, it's understandable if that's what you chose WTB for, but there are a lot of aspects to them that still need work... frankly, so much work that you would save significant time, effort, and funds by just sourcing a new roo.

 

[SpringhouseFarm]

Leakage is colors like the red on them which doesn't belong to the ground color. It's going to be difficult or impossible to get birds that don't have red leakage, and may get even worse.
Combs that flop over are widely considered undesirable, however there's at least one breed out there that permits it on the basis they can't fix it.

On the Ameraucana, it sounds like you were thinking of Easter Eggers? The truth is that real Ameraucana breed true for Blue eggs, they have 2 copies of the blue egg gene. WTB as a newer, not-yet-a-breed still have some trouble with egg color. 1 blue egg gene is all it takes to see a blue egg, but 2 copies of the gene usually means a bluer egg.
The main selling point for the WTB seems to be the rate of lay, probably achieved by a lack of broodiness. My Ameraucana are everyday layers when they're not broody, which can happen too often.
So, it's understandable if that's what you chose WTB for, but there are a lot of aspects to them that still need work... frankly, so much work that you would save significant time, effort, and funds by just sourcing a new roo.

Whiting True Blues are known for coming in any color/pattern so I'm not really worried about the coloring, I actually like the variety
Yes true Ameraucanas are homozygous for the blue egg gene, I was meaning that I've found there to be alot of places/people who misleadingly refer to their Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas so you have to be careful about where you buy from. The Whiting True Blues are actually homozygous for the blue egg gene. They get their prolific laying from their leghorn genetics so yea they don't have a broody tendency.

 

[SourRoses]

I'm just saying you won't have a variety of colors, you'll have red leakage on everyone in a generation or two. Red is like that. If you like it, that's good! If you want to sell birds, it will often be a problem.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Whiting True Blues are known for coming in any color/pattern so I'm not really worried about the coloring, I actually like the variety
Yes true Ameraucanas are homozygous for the blue egg gene, I was meaning that I've found there to be alot of places/people who misleadingly refer to their Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas so you have to be careful about where you buy from. The Whiting True Blues are actually homozygous for the blue egg gene. They get their prolific laying from their leghorn genetics so yea they don't have a broody tendency.

Just wanted to clarify with your birds colorings: #1. Is Black Copper(Red Birchen), it's an actual color. Since this is in the Extended Black genes the Birchen is a dominant trait, so most offspring will be Birchen unless he's split, or carrying only 1 copy. If he's split, then about half of the offspring will be Birchen.

#2. Is either Golden Duckwing, or Partridge.
If he's Duckwing it's an intermediate Allele. It's both dominant, or recessive depending on what other genes are present.

If Partridge it'll be recessive, & won't be seen in the F1 offspring unless their mother carries that trait too.

#3. Is of course a Splash Pyle. Just not sure if his from the Wildtype, Partridge, or possible Wheaten base though.

Couple of examples of a Splash Pyle with my birds.

With males, the amount of red in the wing bars will vary with this variation of Red Pyle.

 

[SpringhouseFarm]

Just wanted to clarify with your birds colorings: #1. Is Black Copper(Red Birchen), it's an actual color. Since this is in the Extended Black genes the Birchen is a dominant trait, so most offspring will be Birchen unless he's split, or carrying only 1 copy. If he's split, then about half of the offspring will be Birchen.

#2. Is either Golden Duckwing, or Partridge.
If he's Duckwing it's an intermediate Allele. It's both dominant, or recessive depending on what other genes are present.

If Partridge it'll be recessive, & won't be seen in the F1 offspring unless their mother carries that trait too.

#3. Is of course a Splash Pyle. Just not sure if his from the Wildtype, Partridge, or possible Wheaten base though.

Couple of examples of a Splash Pyle with my birds.View attachment 3615664With males, the amount of red in the wing bars will vary with this variation of Red Pyle.View attachment 3615665View attachment 3615666

Ok thank you for explaining their colorings! Here's a better side picture of #2, that is considered Duckwing with the tip of his wing matching his hackle & saddle feathers correct? What color/pattern offspring might he produce?

For #3, your 3rd picture looks very similar to mine. What type of offspring would a Splash Pyle produce? I guess to see if he has a wild type, partridge or wheaten base I would have to see what type of offspring he produces. Would what he looked like as a chick give any answers to his base?

If these are actual chicken colors, in your opinion is their red coloring just a normal part of their color type or do they all have red leakage like SourRoses said?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Ok thank you for explaining their colorings! Here's a better side picture of #2, that is considered Duckwing with the tip of his wing matching his hackle & saddle feathers correct? What color/pattern offspring might he produce?

For #3, your 3rd picture looks very similar to mine. What type of offspring would a Splash Pyle produce? I guess to see if he has a wild type, partridge or wheaten base I would have to see what type of offspring he produces. Would what he looked like as a chick give any answers to his base?

If these are actual chicken colors, in your opinion is their red coloring just a normal part of their color type or do they all have red leakage like SourRoses said?

Hard telling with saying exactly what offspring each may produce if they got other possible genes hidden. Like recessive traits, or extra Melanizers, or such. Since these are basically EEs.

Splash Pyle chicks look like these.

The red is part of their coloration.

 

[Ponyiqandhens2]

Hard telling with saying exactly what offspring each may produce if they got other possible genes hidden. Like recessive traits, or extra Melanizers, or such. Since these are basically EEs.

Splash Pyle chicks look like these.View attachment 3615920View attachment 3615921View attachment 3615923

The red is part of their coloration.

Thanks for all the info.i thought horse color genetics were intense until i started trying to learn how to do chicken color genetics

 

[MysteryChicken]

Thanks for all the info.i thought horse color genetics were intense until i started trying to learn how to do chicken color genetics

You're welcome. I'm still learning too. So, if anything is incorrect others can chime in, & fix it.

 

[NagemTX]

Wanted to point out that BBS can be applied to all color patterns as can lavender. If you have BBS genes in the flock the only ones wont pass on the blue on will be the black ones you get from them. I don't think that was clarified earlier.

Red is also not always leakage. It just depends on if you want that color or not. Red/Blue(BBS) is a very striking combination.

I'm hoping to work on BBS Silver Duckwing, but its going to be a long road because of the traits I want and the number of breeds I'm using. I also want to do BBS Gold/Golden Duckwings. There's just to much I want to do but BBS is one of my fav colors along with lavender so I want to bring it to as many patterns as I can in my flocks.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I'm really interested in feather color genetics but have limited knowledge of it & would love to learn. I have Whiting True Blues that I'll be breeding & I have 3 roosters that I'm trying to decide on who to keep & who to cull based on which will give us the most variety of feather color in offspring, that's one of our main focuses for our breeding program, as well as breeding for muffs & beards & layers of bright sky blue eggs. First picture is of our biggest bodied black rooster with red in his hackle & saddle feathers as well as on his wings & he has muffs & beard. Second rooster has wild type feathering. Third rooster is blue with mahogany leakage. As for our hens, we have a black with muffs/beard, blue, splash, & a blue with mahogany leakage similar to our rooster with muffs/beard. So my question is which rooster would give us the most color variety of offspring? I don’t want to end up just having black, blue & splash chicks, especially since our hens are already those colors. What are the names of each roo's coloring & what colored offspring would they most likely produce with the hen colors I have? I was thinking the blue with mahogany rooster with our similar hen would be interesting to see if we can get more chicks like that since they are very pretty. The black would be good for continuing the muffs/beards. I was wondering if using the wild type roo would guarantee more color variety? Sorry for all the questions just don't want to get rid of the wrong rooster, but I don't want to necessarily keep all 3 lol Thanks for any insight anyone can provide!

The black and red rooster will have a lot of black offspring, the golden (gold/silver split) rooster will have both gold, silver, and gold/silver split offspring, and the blue rooster will pass on his blue gene to 50% of his offspring. Since you already have hens with the blue gene, the golden rooster will probably add the most variety to your flock.