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I'm a bit confused about the defination of lacewing and the genetics involved. I've looked at some pics on the net, and lacewing doesn't look like what the name sounds like it would. I do know that my breeding hen is a blue and I was told that if she had turned out to be a cock she would be split for lacewing. (I really didn't care at the time because I wasn't buying her to breed with, she was just meant to be a companion to my special needs IRN But she's ended up being paired off and breeding.) So I am assuming it's a sex-linked trait. But....she does have a noticeable amount of green on her wings. Is that just a colouration fluke or is that an indication of lacewing genes?

The lacewing is a sex linked mutation. What must have happened is that your hen would have had a lacewing mother and a non-lacewing father. The hen you have is not lacewing at all. The green coloration sounds more like turquoise peeking through. They sometimes don't develop full color for a few moults.

I have seen pictures of fully mature lacewing males with very faint lacey areas on their wings.

Thanks daybird. That does help a bit...but.....the hen with the green wings is nearly 3 y/o and the green seems to get more intense the older she gets. I am fine with it being just a fluke in her colouration. Just hope she passes it on to her chicks.

Can you post a picture of her. The only blue with green that I know of is turquoise.

I'll try. She's a bit nervy so it's hard to get her to sit still when the camera comes out. Her body etc are light blue, but the wings not the flight feathers, the actual wings themselves are becoming more and more the standard green IRN colour. It's a bit hard to describe really. You can see it a bit in this pic http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_and_patti/2798697370/ the bird on the top perch is her....but it's a bit washed out thanks to the flash on the camera.

I've added 3 more pics that I just took. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_and_patti/ These are better, but they still don't show how dark the green is in person. When she was younger she was that same light blue all over with the flights and tails a darker shade just like her mate Bruce. We've just really begun to notice the green in her wings over the past 9 months.

I'm not sure what color she is. She still looks turquoise to me. In my experience, they do mostly start out blue and then get the green color a little later. In the picture, she looks like a grey turquoise to me but that wouldn't explain how she started out blue and then got the green.

Like I said...it's really hard to get an accurate pic, and then of course, what looks right on my monitor may look different on yours. More than anything I am just curious because it does seem to be something that is developing over time. The cock bird is uniform in colour...like most other blues I have seen. She's just different. One of her chicks went to a friend of mine, so it will be interesting to see if he/she develops the green patches on the wings as well. It took her a couple of years to get them though.

Thanks for your help.