ISABELLE LEGHORNS IN USA!

[cjwaldon]

It is really pretty

-- all the lav colored are IMO

..but something about the Isabel (Isabella, Isabelline ( a new word delved from research -- look at this color chart of cheetahs http://strangebio.com/post/79726674587/big-cat-color-morphs-from-messybeast-the-model-is )

In other animals - such as horses etc. the Isabel is 'warm' colored. -- or straw may be a better descriptor... it needs that warm color to contrast with the lav. -- So interesting...

Seems too that a female with the really STRONG salmon breast would help preserve the color going forward. Lavender is meant to dilute both the black and red pigments but not to wipe them out entirely. ;O)

Exactly ChicKat. "Isabelism means an animal that is cream-colored, blond, or golden. . . . Isabelline can also refer to a form of leucism causing a uniform reduction in the expression of melanin."

I had wondered why they were called "Isabel". Great link!

 

[sasafras4u2]

Wow you all are so far over my head! I am just now starting to get into chickens. I never heard IMO, DBL,LBL..... i thought mine with the peach feathers was a bad chick so it turns out he is the better chick.... lol he was the one I wanted to give away. Oh my I am so confused now. Well always was a dingy blonde. But I like the ones without the color that is why I bought them lmbo.

 

[cjwaldon]

Wow you all are so far over my head! I am just now starting to get into chickens. I never heard IMO, DBL,LBL..... i thought mine with the peach feathers was a bad chick so it turns out he is the better chick.... lol he was the one I wanted to give away. Oh my I am so confused now. Well always was a dingy blonde. But I like the ones without the color that is why I bought them lmbo.

IMO = In my opinion.
DBL = Dark Brown Leghorn
LBL = Light Brown Leghorn

No worries, raise what makes YOU happy! Their eggs are yummy just the same.

 

[cjwaldon]

 

[ChicKat]

Love to see these pictures -- the one above looks like it is taken at that "magic hour" for photography -- when everything is more beautiful -- 1- hour before sunset or 1-hour after sunrise -- but sunset usually has warm enchanting colors.

sasafras! -- Like what you like! IMO - and keep what you want to keep. The Isabel can most likely have a range of color intensity - there can't be doubt if the chicken is lavender or not.....and if the basis is a brown leghorn -- then it will be a lavender-brown -- and hence authentic Isabel (as opposed to only lavender).

Don't go the route that the Cream Legbar went where people began telling others that there bird 'wasn't cream' because it was 'too coloroful' -- Isabel coloration can be subtle and ultra pastel -- or more saturated so that the dilution of the underlying brown leghorn pattern can be visible -- or somewhere between. IMO

Meanwhile, as you know the whys and wherefores of how the plumage look was built, you may apprecaite both- I hope that you can keep both for awhile and evaluate them as they grow out.

 

[cjwaldon]

Discussion on feather quality re the lavender gene.

http://www.the-coop.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=88090&page=all

 

[cjwaldon]

http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/09E03A09.pdf

 

[cree57i]

http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/09E03A09.pdf

Very interesting read.

I know Buddy's argument is if you use other breeds is it truly a leghorn?

On the other hand didn't all Lavender originate with Orpingtons?

 

[ChicKat]

Discussion on feather quality re the lavender gene.

http://www.the-coop.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=88090&page=all

Thanks X a million cjwaldon!

I really love classroom in the coop!!

this quote stood out to me and keeps echoing in my brain--->

Re: Lavender and Feather Quality [Re: Black Feather]
RuffEnuff

Ruler of the Roost

Registered: 01/27/06
Posts: 1148
Loc: Australia
Sigi you say:

Quote:
Contrary of the 'feather growth retarder' as on male's shoulders and saddle in lav birds which does not show on females, therefore look at the brothers to breed this out, its something different from ragged.


I strongly believe this is related to mahogany and the secondary sexual characteristic feathers of the male. However, I really need to breed a red pullet that is lavender to prove this. So far I find partridge females are unaffected, whereas partridge males look woefull. However, if the male is made henfathered, then the problem ceases to exist. If, on the other hand, the male is duckwing, then there is no problem. Even if the male is a lavender buff (isabel) there is no problem.

When I see a deterioration in quality of the lavender feather quality of both male and female, the feather sheath of the emerging feather is brittle. Instead of flaking off in a waxy white form, it comes off in a hard, dry, dark crumb structure. Also there is a hard dark core to the emerging feather, which falls away in a hard, dark stick-like structure (for want of a better description).

Everyone can only relate the extent of their own experience etc. working with the genetics in the lines that they have -- but according to RuffEnuff in Australia back in 2010 - the duckwing - and the Isabel seem to protect the chicken from the wing patch....which is good for us working with Isabel......

BTW I have also heard that there are several ways to get to the Isabel look... one of them is based on duckwing - which is e+/e+ on the E-Locus and the other one is brown on the same locus which I think would be expressed genetically as eb/eb - on that locus and then....there is the possibility of other combinations even e+/eb for example. I think a lot of lavender is based on E (that is black) on that locus and that is the magnet for the wing patch...surmising here.... This is some of the background stuff that I think only shows, or shows best in chick down.... Not many have studied the down -- but here is an article from someone who focused on it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1209740/pdf/519.pdf


from G Victor Morejohn - 1954 - University of California Davis - department of zoology

We would want to select chicks that most closely match the down pattern of A in the above illustration. IMO.

 

[cjwaldon]

Very interesting read.

I know Buddy's argument is if you use other breeds is it truly a leghorn?

On the other hand didn't all Lavender originate with Orpingtons?

Interesting that Buddy would have that position, since he crossed Orpingtons to his Leghorns to introduce the lavender gene.