Pairing Advice

[Jay]

Hi
I have 2 one year old males one is Lutio the other is blue. I am looking to Pair them up for the next season. I have the following options for the females

Blue
Gray
Blue Pallid
Lutino
Albino

What would be a good pairing for each?
The above are listed in ascending order by Price and the budget is a bit tight.

Regards

The "goodness" of a pairing depends heavily on your breeding goals.

My personal choice however would be:

Blue cock x Grey hen
Lutino cock x Blue Pallid hen

This maximizes the color variations produced, avoids masking combos, introduces split Blue to your Green series male bird, as well as gender-on-the-nest scenario on the second pair.

[Jay]

The BLue Male is possibly split to Lutino as his father also produced an albino chick with a blue female.

Is the Blue x Grey still a good pairing?

Risky pairing. I won't do it.

Find a Turquoise hen instead. Then you would be hoping the Blue is split Ino. You can produce at least two colors... possibly four colors including Creamino if the male is indeed split Ino. A rare instance where split Ino is actually a good thing.

Take it a notch higher and find a Turquoise Pallid hen. Then you will have some colorful babies if that male is split Ino... Turquoise PallidInos, Blue PallidInos... Creaminos.. Albinos.. Turquoise .. Blues...

[Jay]

Could you please explain why you call it risky?

I have not seen many turquoise birds here. Even lesser chance of finding a turquoise pallid. But I will look around.

Maybe not the best choice of words but I say risky because every single baby produced is either questionable on gender or genetics.. or both. Personally, I'd like to know the genetics and gender of every single bird I breed.

Blue/Ino x Grey
=Grey/Ino males
=Blue/Ino males
=Grey males
=Blue males
=Albino masking Grey hens
=Albino hens
=Grey hens
=Blue hens

As you can see any Albino produced can either be plain Albino or Albino masking Grey. Any Grey produced can be a split Ino male or a Grey cock or hen. Same scenario with Blue. Sorting them out (assuming you're interested to know their genetics and gender) would take some DNA testing and/or test breeding.