Guinea Jeans: Coral Blue

Like the Lavenders, the Coral Blue coloring is derived from the same recessive blue background gene “bb.”  On the other hand, Coral Blues are semi-pearled, or “Pp.”  Genetically, both Coral Blues and Lavenders have the same underlying coloring, blue, but the semi-pearling in the Coral Blues makes them appear darker and more blue than the Lavenders.

If you missed out on my first two posts and are confused with what I’m talking about,

• click here for the introduction
• click here for my post on Pearl Gray genetics
• click here for my post on Lavender genetics

In my Punnett Squares, Coral Blues are denoted as:

• bb:  they are homozygous recessive for the blue background color
• Pp:  semi-pearled

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

A Coral Blue Guinea.  Note the richer Blue color than the Lavender.

If I breed a Coral Blue x Coral Blue (bbPp x bbPp):

	bP	bp
bP	bbPP	bbPp
bp	bbPp	bbpp

Phenotype:  25% Lavender (pearled), 50% Coral Blue (semi-pearled), 25% Sky Blue (non-pearled)

Genotype:  25% pure Lavender, 50% pure Coral Blue, 25% pure Sky Blue

Now I know that the Coral Blue gene is not stable and does not “breed true” like the Lavender gene.  “Breeding true” means that I can breed two birds of the same color genetics and get 100% offspring of the exact same color every time.  In this instance with the Coral Blues, I can on potentially get 2 Coral Blue keets out of every 4 keets.  It is a mere assumption that the Sky Blue coloring is derived from mating two Coral Blues.  I am not sure is semi-pearling is a heterozygous dominant that can potentially create a homozygous recessive non-pearling.  I’m not ever sure if non-pearling is a recessive trait or a mutation all together, but at this point I am assuming it is a recessive trait until proven different.

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

A Sky Blue guinea.  Note the lack of polka-dots.

So if I cross a Pearl Gray x Coral Blue (GGPP x bbPp):

	GP	GP
bP	GbPP	GbPP
bp	GbPp	GbPp

Phenotype:  50% Pearl Gray guineas, 50% Royal Purple guineas

Genotype:  50% Pearl Gray split to lavender guineas, 50% Royal Purple split to blue

Since the Coral Blue guineas carry the “Pp” or semi-pearling gene, when they are crossed with a fully pearled, such as the pearl gray, all off-spring can potentially be pearled or semi-pearled.  This means they will be carrying the gray background color, but some with less pearling as opposed to the Pearl Gray parent.  If this is true, the offspring will be a darker gray in color in contrast to their parents, also known as the Royal Purple color (GGPp).

Source: http://www.strombergschickens.com

A Royal Purple guinea.  Note the dark color and no white spots.

Let’s cross a Coral Blue x Lavender (bbPp x bbPP):

	bP	bp
bP	bbPP	bbPp
bP	bbPP	bbPp

Phenotype:  50% Lavender guineas, 50% Coral Blue guineas

Genotype:  50% pure Lavender, 50% pure Coral Blue

So actually, letting my Lavender and Coral Blues mix breed won’t hurt anything.  Regardless, I have the same chance of getting pure Coral Blues than if I were to separate them and breed Coral Blue x Coral Blue.  But if I did, I have more of a chance to get some Sky Blue guineas, which are the blue background with no pearling.  And letting the Pearl Grays cross with the Coral Blues, I could potentially get Royal Purples but they would not be pure but rather split to blue.

Cool, huh?

Guys…?

You drooled on your keyboard…