# How to I get more colourful chicks



## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

I recently got some new fantail, one of them is blue bar cock bird, I know both of his parents are blue bar.

another is a blue check hen, I know her dad is blue check, mum is part indigo / reduced blue.

personally I do not like the colour of blue check and blue bar, esp when I breed them with other colors, the colour always dominate the offspring.
e.g. I breed blue check with a white cock bird, the chicks always look kinda ugly, such as mostly blue check with some white feathers..

so how can I produce more colorful chicks if I want to pair these two birds to other colour birds?

Many thanks


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## HeavyDlofts (May 23, 2012)

Can you post pics?


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)




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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well I hate to break it from you but all you're likely to get from that pair is more blue bars and/or blue checks.

Recessive white covers up other colors. So your white bird was probably also blue underneath and that's why you got so many blues from them.


The best advice I can give is to find a pair of the prettiest birds you can find and put them with your current pair. Some genes are dominant, some recessive. If you can post pictures of them here first before you get them we can tell you what you'll most likely get from the new pairing. 

Do you like ash-red fantails? Ash-red is dominant to blue.


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

I know if pair these two together, all the chicks will look same as the parents, so I have to pair them up with other colour.

I have seen someone pair a blue check cock with almost pure white hen, slight grizzle colour at her chest, all of their chicks look like the mum, I was really suprised.

You mentioned ash red, I am bit confused about this colour

see the link http://www.slobberknockerlofts.com/basics.htm

ash red check, ash red bar is common, but the first bird called ash red spread, it look like a Lavender to me.

also see the color recessive red in that link, it look like red to me as well, so how can I tell if a bird is really ash red or recessive red?

many thanks


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

If lavender is kinda of ash red, I have a lavender hen, so I can breed her with this blue bar cock, what will I get ?


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

It sounds like the white parent that you used in the past was a "pied" white,(possessing genes that express broken color markings, like baldhead, saddle, white flight, etc. (maybe many combined)) resulting in pied offspring. 
The almost white parent that produced grizzles was likely a homozygous grizzle, and when mated to blue it produced all heterozygous grizzles. If you desire to produce grizzles you'll have to obtain a grizzle parent (the grizzle gene).
The genetic makeup of white pigeons varies greatly.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

What do you mean by lavender? Spread ash-reds are often called lavender, but so is milky black (such as in Lahores). Other phenotypes have also been called lavender. Pictures would help


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

look this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=cH9ivnymEQY

the first pair , the male is blue check, the female is almost white with a bit grizzle, however, all the chicks are almost white


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

can anyone tell what colour should the hen in the video called? is it kinda of grizzle white?'


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

The hen in video is almond and when she is mated to the blue check she will produce almond sons and non almond daughters. There is,however, the possibility that she is also grizzle which means her sons could be grizzled almond and daughters could be het. grizzle as well as blue.


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

is she almond? I never know almond can look almost pur white..... btw, even she is almond, how come none of the chicks look like the father? all of them are either pure white or almond like their mum


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

How many pure white and how many near white babies have you raised from her when paired with a blue mate? 
What color were the parents of the blue mate?


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## dingweding (Jun 2, 2012)

no, they are not my birds, I just found the link. at least in the video, the first 3 round of chicks all look like mother


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

If both parents carry recessive white then some of the young could be rec. white and others could be light colored almond cocks. The almond color is poor because the proper modifiers for classic almond, like kite, dirty, and t-check, are not present. If more babies are produced then a blue daughter will appear eventually.


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