Thinking about pairing a Celadon rooster with a Tuxedo hen this season. What colors or patterns should I expect to see in the offspring?
Fun cross to try — here’s the general idea, with a caveat that Coturnix color genetics still has some fuzzy edges even among longtime breeders.
Celadon is a recessive gene — it takes two copies to show that soft grey-blue color (and it’s the one tied to blue-green eggs). Tuxedo, on the other hand, is more of a dominant/incompletely dominant pattern gene that controls white markings (bib, belly, wing patches), separate from the base color locus.
So pairing a Celadon rooster (presumably homozygous, showing the color) with a Tuxedo hen (not celadon) means:
- None of the chicks should show celadon color themselves, but all will likely carry one hidden copy of the gene (so they’d be “split” for celadon).
- Roughly half the chicks (give or take, depending on whether your hen is single or double dose for tuxedo) should show some tuxedo-style white patterning, since that trait can pass on more readily.
- Base color will mostly reflect whatever the hen’s underlying color genetics are, since celadon won’t be expressed in this generation.
If you want celadon-colored birds down the line, you’d need to pair siblings from this cross (both carrying the hidden gene) to get some homozygous celadon chicks in the F2 generation.
Genetics folks in this community may have more specific hands-on experience with tuxedo dominance patterns than I can promise — worth tagging a few breeders here too. And if you want to track the actual hatch results as they come in, logging clutches in the Quail Keeper Max app can help you spot the real ratios you’re getting from this pair over a season.