Crest Feather Colors?

[KsKingBee]

@KsKingBee do you think it's possible that either of the parents of the chick might have been carrying a single pied gene that wasn't being expressed? Do you have information on the grandparents? Thanks for adding the background info

I wish I could tell you for certain, the guy I bought them from had a lot of stories for the same question if you know what I mean... The only thing I am certain of is that there is a LOT of genetic diversity in his stock. So yes, there is a very good chance that there is something lurking in their genetic background that is not necessarily outwardly expressed.

I studied all of my birds when feeding them this morning and found that there are no others with the same split colored crests other than the Cameos that have a range of brown and tan colors and the IB hens that show both brown and green. My white eyed trio of siblings do not have any white crest feathers, and my pied IB cock does not have any white either. Sadly my only pied IB hen does not have any crest feathers at all, never did since I got her. She must have been picked on for so long that they just don't grow back. None of my chicks or my IBBS/WE have any white crest feathers either other than the whites and Nanu the IBSP from DylansMom.

 

[Garden Peas]

I wish I could tell you for certain, the guy I bought them from had a lot of stories for the same question if you know what I mean... The only thing I am certain of is that there is a LOT of genetic diversity in his stock. So yes, there is a very good chance that there is something lurking in their genetic background that is not necessarily outwardly expressed.

I studied all of my birds when feeding them this morning and found that there are no others with the same split colored crests other than the Cameos that have a range of brown and tan colors and the IB hens that show both brown and green. My white eyed trio of siblings do not have any white crest feathers, and my pied IB cock does not have any white either. Sadly my only pied IB hen does not have any crest feathers at all, never did since I got her. She must have been picked on for so long that they just don't grow back. None of my chicks or my IBBS/WE have any white crest feathers either other than the whites and Nanu the IBSP from DylansMom.

That's interesting info... Also that the cameos showing the range of colors. Are the IB hens that have brown and green showing it as green tips on brown feathers, or are there different colors of feathers, some feathers one color and some another? Do your BS hens have the same colors on all their crest feathers?

And Nanu... I know you have posted pix of him, not sure I remember where. Does he have a mix of colors in his crest, or is it solid white? (My opal SP has all white crest feathers; he is a very white bird overall.)

I'm starting to think there's something to this pied thing, but I'm still looking at photos of birds (wow, there's a lot! ) But pretty hard to get tired of looking at peas

 

[casportpony]

Too funny! I just looked at my minimal marked pied and it looks like she has one white crest feather growing in.

-Kathy

 

[Garden Peas]

So here's what I'm kinda thinking...

We have these split birds with white primaries and white throat patches. That can indicate either a white gene, one or more pied genes, or one or more WE genes. But it's not obvious from the bird's appearance which of those genes is causing the white primaries and throat patches. WE shows up, because it's dominant, so we will generally know if WE is present, but we still don't know if the bird might also be carrying a pied gene or not.

My thought is that maybe if the bird is showing one or more white crest feathers, it is telling us that regardless of what other genes it has, that bird has at least one pied gene.

It wouldn't work in the other direction... the absence of a white feather wouldn't disprove a pied gene, since that's one of the weird things about leucism. (I guess, technically, partial leucism...)

But if we have a bird that has a white primary feather and white throat patch, and it also has a white crest feather, I'm wondering if we can say that we believe that bird is carrying a pied gene?

Whaddya think???

 

[casportpony]

Sigh... I went to catch her to get a picture and now it's gone! I swear I was there when I posted last.

-Kathy

 

[DylansMom]

One of my hens has a beak like that, I call her Hook, lol.

-Kathy

His name is Harley, but I do occasionally call him "Captain".

 

[Garden Peas]

Sigh... I went to catch her to get a picture and now it's gone! I swear I was there when I posted last.

-Kathy

Don't feel bad... we picked up every single feather in the pen a few days ago, and there's white feathers all over the place already. Quicksilver is still dropping tail feathers and lots of fluff. I keep thinking I'm going to go out and he's going to be nekkid like Zaz's chicken...

 

[KsKingBee]

That's interesting info... Also that the cameos showing the range of colors. Are the IB hens that have brown and green showing it as green tips on brown feathers, or are there different colors of feathers, some feathers one color and some another? Do your BS hens have the same colors on all their crest feathers?

And Nanu... I know you have posted pix of him, not sure I remember where. Does he have a mix of colors in his crest, or is it solid white? (My opal SP has all white crest feathers; he is a very white bird overall.)

I'm starting to think there's something to this pied thing, but I'm still looking at photos of birds (wow, there's a lot! ) But pretty hard to get tired of looking at peas

The IB hens crest feathers are either brown or green not bi-colored. My IBBS hens are very young chicks, hatched this year and are mostly light colored not necessarily white. This brings me to a question; perhaps these chick feathers are just temporary and these juvenile feathers will change once they mature.(?) much like the way BS chicks change from light to multicolored. I also noticed that there are some black crest feathers coming in on at least one of them.

Nanu has two white quills that the plumage has been lost, probably picked off but they were white. I post pics of him for Mindy whenever I get a chance, usually in the Show off Your Peas thread. I think the last one was around page 508.

After I posted last and said that the one chick was the only one with the white crest feathers I went back outside and was feeding a bouquet of fresh cut alfalfa and noticed that I have another IB chick with a white crest feather. I will try to get a pic of her soon for you.