[mwncigirl]

Hi, newbie chicken addict here, wondering if anyone can explain to me what would be the results of hatching eggs from cuckoo pekin cockerel and lavender hen? Thanks

[Casey76]

You will end up with all cuckoo chicks

[mwncigirl]

oh......sob! Thanks

[Chookiechook]

What were you hoping for??

[Casey76]

If you wanted lavender anything then you would need to have two lavender parents as the gene for the lavender colour is recessive.

On the other hand, the gene for barring (cuckoo) is dominant... and here is where it gets a bit complicated.  Males have two sex genes, females only one, so a male barred or cuckoo bird will pass the barred gene onto all his offspring.  If you have a barred female (and mated to a non-barred male) only the male offspring would be barred, and the females would be plain colored.

If you are wanting to create a lavender cuckoo, that is a project of many years work

[mwncigirl]

I wanted some lavender chicks! I bought the week old chick as a lavender but he turned out to be barred. I then thought I could buy/hatch some lavender ladies to breed some more.

Not quite sure what to do with this cockerel now..... perhaps I'll just get an incubator and buy some eggs!!!!

Thanks for the info, what a lot i have to learn!!

[Casey76]

We all have lots to learn... learning about chickens is FUN!!!