What does smokey plumage color look like?

[hinkjc]

Is it as obvious as we would think..smokey bluish gray color? Notice the difference in color of the dark pullets to the lavender pullets/cockerels. Is this smokey or a dark variation of lavender? I plan to test mate it to try to figure it out, but just curious if anyone has seen a smokey colored bird and can tell us what it looks like. Thanks.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I read that smokey is limited primarily to genetics labs. And that it has pretty much the same appearance as blue, but breeds true as it is the most dominant of the dominat white alleles.

 

[Henk69]

Quote:
It is dominant to "dominant white" which is the most dominant allele of its gene BUT it is recessive to every other allele of that gene that is not "dominant white" I.

Smoky reverts dominant white to smoky color (I^s/I).
Smoky is recessive to wildtype i+ and probably dun I^d.
Homozygous Smoky I^s/I^s is smoky color again.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I didn't know that. So it's kind of like E^Wh--variously ordered dominance. Are there any other genes with mixed dominance?

 

[tadkerson]

Order of dominance or in some cases incomplete dominance

I^S < I < I^D < i+ Smokey is most dominant allele.

I^S / I = smokey

I^S / I^D = smokey

I / I^D = dominant white

I^D / i+ = what ever you want to call the color. dunn, chocolate, etc.

Tim

 

[Krys109uk]

Now that is confusing. I hadn't even heard of I^s until a few months ago. I thought the way it was explained to me went:

I^s>I
but
I^D>i+>I^s
&
I>I^D>i+

 

[Katy]

is how I feel about understanding genetics!!

 

[hinkjc]

I've read that about smokey as well Sonoran. I'm just having a hard time figuring this one out. I'm sure the next mating will give me some answers, but thought I'd share for insight and education in case anyone else sees this.

It isn't blue..I'm certain of that. The feather shafts are white on the outside like lavenders. They have no dark lacing and the color is kind of a flat matt slate shade in person.

I've ruled out blue based on how the birds originated.

One breeding was from lav roo to pure black hens - produced all black offspring. If blue was present in the lav bird, I should have seen blue and black offspring, however they were only black.

I took those black offspring and mated siblings - some are this slate color, as well as lavender and black chicks.

I also took black offspring back to the original lav roo and got the same - some slate, some lavender and some black.

The first bird I pictured has a bit of a chocolate appearance when seen in person. This is in comparison to a bird I am looking at in the 21st Century Poultry Breeding book on page 111. Although I don't think it could be that either.

I don't think it can be dun/khaki either, but looking for insight on possibilities. Or is this the typical expression of some lavender birds, which are culled out due to dark color?

 

[Krys109uk]

It is a symbolic language to make writing it much quicker & easier. Sort of like mathematics, just another symbolic language to shorten & make more precise than words.

 

[Krys109uk]

Or is this the typical expression of some lavender birds, which are culled out due to dark color?

I sometimes used to have a dark shade in lavender Araucanas back in UK.
I guessed it could be the effect of other melanising genes being present.
I tried to show one once, as it was otherwise a very pretty bird. A friend, a judge, told me it was far too dark & to cull against it.​