[croad langshan]

Hello all,
Does anyone know what you get if you cross a lemon cuckoo Orpington cock bird with a Buff Orpington hen? Will you get some Buff and some Lemon Cuckoo? Or will you get White and Buff? Help im confused. Oh and also i seem to have a blue Orpington hen with a very chocolate brown running through her!!!! How did that happen?   

[raeburg]

Really depends on which is the dominant colour.  Having said that I have a favourelle x Wyandotte which has traits from either parent!

[croad langshan]

I think it depends on what colour genes are recessive and which are not!!! But i know very little about genetics!!!! Heeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!!

[joyfull]

according to one of my books I have 21st century poultry breeding by grant brereton, in order to get blue and chocolate together you would have to cross a chocolate orp male with a genetically blue splash wyandotte female - the mixed colours would then show in the females but just blue in the males of this first cross. Perhaps this happened in your girls case or in her ancestry somewhere? as for your other question I am not sure - perhaps you will get some splashes in there  

perhaps somebody like Foxy, Big Jen or IMOmimmey will be able to help you with this problem?

[too many girls]

you need to ask Foxy, she knows about this stuff

[Foxy]

Dont know about that TMG .. just lucky to know some of the top poultry breeders!

Anyway there are lots of combinations when looking at poultry colours and genetics.

The first thing to think about is what is your ultimate goal? This is critical - breeding for colour/colour patterning involves a lot of wastage

Are you trying to get more lemon cuckoo or buffs?? Lemon buff is a gorgeous colour :)in answer to your question you are likely to get buffs of variable quality as you may only have one copy of the patterning gene from the lemon cuckoo.

Your second point re: blue hen with choc markings...again, what do you want to do with her? blue is a gene that will throw black, blue and splash in equal ratios. However this all depends on her existing genetype which unless you know the parents you can't tell. A photo of this hen might help detirmine whether the "choc" is actually a gold..(or what I would call a red which is normally dominant)

Maybe contact the breeder and ask what other colours where in his breeding pens???

Finally don't bother with chocolate, it has been done and very expensive to get pure or splits.(black carrying choc gene) I know Grant was using choc orps to develop his own strain of choc partridge dottes..but might have misremembered that!!

If you want anymore specific help on genetics and patterning just PM me!

[joyfull]

I know the red gene in Lavender Araucanas will come out as straw or brassy which is not very good for using for show birds, Big Boppa has got this but non the less I have mine for fun not showing thats way too serious and complicated for me 

[croad langshan]

Thanks everyone, im not looking to do anything with the lemon cuckoo Orpington really, he is a spare bird that was given to me, he is stunning so i may just put him with some buff and see what i get. As for the blue hen she comes from a well known Orpington breeder down here in Dorset and i got her because she just looked lovely, she came with another stunning blue Orpington hen and a black Cock bird who gives blue or black offspring. The breeder has some  very rare colours including a Orpington that has the same markings as a Light sussex but is clearly a massive Orpington! Ill post some pictures and show you my ones as they are rather lovely!
Thanks again. I do have the abc of poultry genetics but i get a headache when i open it!!!