Regarding Shank Color of Proposed Standard for Self Blue

[Steve Neumann]

I hope I'm not opening a can of worms here.  But I'm just curious, since it's my understanding that members of both clubs were involved in drafting the proposed standard before the clubs split and there was a disagreement about seeking recognition under the name Lavender vs. Self Blue.  My question is...since Lavenders are bred to Blacks, and the standard for Blacks allows for black shanks, is there a reason that the proposed standard doesn't have the same shank color as Blacks?  Blues are also bred to Blacks and also allow for Slate to Black.  I'm just curious why this is not also the case for Lavenders?  I see a ton of Lavenders with black shanks, even from the breeders trying to get them admitted under Self Blue.

[John W Blehm]

I know they are confused and have been indoctrinated by the APA to call lavender "self blue" and our Alliance has nothing to do with that recognition process.
I can address the questions about lavender Ameraucanas though. 

By definition lavender dilutes black, but in reality it dilutes much more, like red feathers, dilutes shank color and eye color.
Since E based shanks should be darker than E^R and assuming lavender would dilute them equally, a lavender with based on E would have darker shanks than on based on E^R.

I believe what you are seeing as black shanks on lavenders are really slightly diluted from black, the darkest shade of gray (?), to something a little lighter.

Some do still breed blues to blacks, but the current opinion is that the best blues are based on birchen (E^R) while the best blacks, lavenders and whites should be based on Extended black (E).  E produces the best solid colored varieties.  Blue is really Laced Blue, so it isn't a solid color and some assume E^R is a better base color/pattern to build it on.   

Further research by Dr Okimoto (quote from Classroom @ The Coop: Blue & E/ or ER/, posted May 02, 2006) ......
Some of us speculated that Andalusian blue used ER instead of E because ER would be more amenable to secondary pattern genes like Pg. I recently tested some Andalusian Blues from McMurray. I had a mixed batch of chicks so I could only tell the gray ones as blues the blacks could have been something else. There were three gray chicks that produced gray chick feathers. Two were homozygous ER ER and the third was heterozygous E ER. My guess is that E probably causes the dark birds and that the show quality birds are probably ER.

[Suki]

Steve scribbled... I see a ton of Lavenders with black shanks, even from the breeders trying to get them admitted under Self Blue.

Yes that's true, and I think that's been the problem with their acceptance process == the birds coming to the show aren't standardized.