Tough Genetics Question

[akidsgal]

One of my newest purchases is a RH WB YB/BB male. What should I pair him with to get blues and yellows? I do have a young female silver.... or looks to be a silver. I don't see any yellow on her. She is from my RH PB GB Dilute and BH WB BB female. I am wondering if they will produce something that I would love to see. I am looking for blues but yellows and silvers would be welcome as well.

Any help anyone?

[nixity]

What you can get really depends on whether or not he is DF or SF for yellow - a photo would help for sure.

If he is DF for yellow there is nothing you can pair him with to get blues. Every bird he produces will inherit that yellow gene and inherently can't be visually blue. You could get variations of blue (Pastel Blue and Silver) but not straight up blue.

If you pair him with a Silver hen you have even less of a chance of getting blues because she would pass a yellow gene onto every son.

Silver body is the result of combining blue body and yellow body.

The reason the bird is visually silver is because of the way the two mutations work.
Yellow "blocks" the structural blue color of a normal bird.
A normal bird is, in simple terms, Yellow + Structural blue.
Yellow + Blue = Green as you probably know, so this is why a normal bird appears Green to our eyes.

So, when the yellow mutation is present, the structural blue is blocked and the bird appears yellow as a result.

Green - Blue = Yellow

Conversely, the blue body mutation blocks the expression of yellows/oranges/reds.

Green - Yellow = Blue

So a silver is the result of these two conflicting genes existing in a single bird.

Green - Yellow - Blue = Nothing!

You take a normal green bird, add the yellow gene which blocks blue, and a blue gene which blocks yellow - so the bird essentially is stuck in limbo and can't produce any body pigment at all outside of on the breast and head. The bird is "washed" clean and appears white or silvery in color.

All that being said - If he is SF Yellow/Blue the easiest way to get blues would be to pair him to a blue or normal/Blue hen.
Assuming he is SF and you pair him to a visually PB Blue hen - you could get the following:

Yellow/Blue Hens
Normal/Blue Hens
Blue Hens
Silver Hens
Dilute/Blue Males
Normal/Blue Males
Pastel Blue Males
Blue Males

[akidsgal]

Ok. Part of it I do understand. She will have to be with someone with color in order to have offspring with colors.

For my male... I will post a pic. But I think he is SF Yellow as I was told that he is /Blue. He is visually yellow but has spots that look to have some kind of color in him. He of course is ready to breed. I was thinking of putting him with a GB for the time being as he is really ready to be with a lady. Some of the birds I have just settled in are supposed to be males but I have seen no singing in them. They are just starting to color up and I would have thought that they would have shown some kind of singing by now. There are 2 blues in the bunch. There are also 2 yellows as well. None are fully colored so I am not looking to breed them this year.

[akidsgal]

Ok I got a couple of pics. Here are the best of the bunch.

He does have a blue cast to his yellow in areas.

[nixity]

Yes I would say he is SF Yellow

PS: I didn't notice this before, I was too focused on the bird - one of the biggest vectors in terms of disease transmission is feces.. their food cup is covered in poop! If you find it difficult to keep them clean because of the way the perch is positioned (and they perch on the dish itself), maybe invest in a couple extra so you can wipe them off daily and rotate out freshly cleaned ones every few days or so?

[akidsgal]

I see some of this. However I am confused. Will he only produce /blue and blues? There are no other color factors? I am guessing this is because he is SF Yellow/ Blue.

So, if I understand correctly ALL of his offspring will be of blue decent. Whether full Blue or Split. WOW! This was a really great man to get!

He will produce the colors I am looking for. I will not however put him with my silver. I am thinking that I will put her with a Normal/ as she is so special by herself

[nixity]

I see some of this. However I am confused. Will he only produce /blue and blues? There are no other color factors? I am guessing this is because he is SF Yellow/ Blue.

So, if I understand correctly ALL of his offspring will be of blue decent. Whether full Blue or Split. WOW! This was a really great man to get!

He will produce the colors I am looking for. I will not however put him with my silver. I am thinking that I will put her with a Normal/ as she is so special by herself

If you pair him to the Silver, all babies will be at the very least /Blue - but that is because of her, not because of him.

Meaning, if you paired him to the normal hen, only 50% (statistically speaking - this is not guaranteed) of his babies would be /Blue, and you wouldn't know which ones were, and which ones were not.

[akidsgal]

Ok so I still didn't get it. However I do get that he is a true find. Now to find who to pair him with. I do have a couple that are just coloring up but am still unsure of gender. All of my birds sing before they are even close to coloring up and are not ashamed to sing in fron tof me. These however seem to hold back. I did put pics of them in the genetics section as well because I am unsure of what they will be good paired with.

I am looking for diversity. Meaning all kinds of colors and all being their own self. It seems that the more colorful I get the happier they all seem. The only thing that holds true is that they all want to have a partner with the same color head.