Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[Blueface]

That male is on the darker side of what I call silverquill. Most of mine had little or no brown bleeding through on wings. My hen and her daughters like her could through a high percentage like that. Mine also all green / willow legged. That holds even now with birds of same stock. Peacomb was only in part of line I played with out of a battlecross cock that brought in the grey, toppy and wheaton all at the same time.

This family of fowl has been bred straight since 1952....nothing else has ever been added. These fowl were handed to Mr. William by way of Sweater....to Kurby Johnson by way of Mr. William....they were very close friends and then gifted to me by way of Kurby. They are a wonderful family of poultry that has lasted the test of time.

 

[Blueface]

Do you have any pullets coming from her that look the same?

Not exactly the same....the regulars do and will come a variety of patterns

 

[centrarchid]

You do not have to add anything to get the variation you describe. The rarity of some variants indicators many of your birds are heterozygous for at least some loci. That would have been removed with sloppy inbreeding. I have birds also of an older line and looking to test refreshing part of it using another older line.

 

[centrarchid]

Not exactly the same....the regulars do and will come a variety of patterns

She being hatched white is strong indicator of wheaton allele. Hens I had like that would not breed true with respect to color but they very like carried an allele that made for a look like the hen below when no grey or pattern gene present to make redquill.

I do not know what to call this but was essential to give me my whitish hens. I bet you have the makings for such a phenotype but it is covered up by the wheaton or silver alleles, probably both.

 

[Blueface]

One of the little known facts about Mr. Williams greys is that he felt that it was important to breed back to the off or odd colored birds....it was what made the family unique in his opinion and he felt it was important to incorporate it back into the family....many people have bred toward color or pattern ....this has indeed lead to very uniform color...i'm not saying that is wrong...I'm surely not the authority on anything outside of my own flock. I've carried out those same ideals and on occasion I will get throwbacks and as long as they meet my standards...they will be reintroduced to the flock accordingly.

 

[centrarchid]

One of the little known facts about Mr. Williams greys is that he felt that it was important to breed back to the off or odd colored birds....it was what made the family unique in his opinion and he felt it was important to incorporate it back into the family....many people have bred toward color or pattern ....i'm not saying that is wrong...I'm surely not the authority on anything outside of my own flock. I've carried out those same ideals and on occasion I will get throwbacks and as long as they meet my standards...they will be reintroduced to the flock accordingly.

The breeding back to odd colored birds is a very direct method for conserving at least rare color alleles in the population / line. It does not do as much for alleles not related to color. The assumption is color is not important with games although evidence is overwhelming that it is when most strains are expected to have a particularly look to them. Problem we all must deal with is no one has enough breeders to prevent loss of alleles, sometimes good alleles, from a given line. Selection for quality (even pit quality) alone will eventually lead to a strain that either weakens or becomes very consistent in its looks. Sometimes both happen.

 

[Blueface]

Game should be bred on overall performance and health....not so much color or pattern....overall type/station/bone structure .....even feather quality are immensely important in maintaining a strong and solid game family.

 

[centrarchid]

All you say is correct.

 

[Blueface]

Mr. Williams Blueface

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

*Staff note*

The discouragement of political topics is a result of many years of trying to let those things be discussed with no success. It often leaves bad feelings between members on chicken related threads. The political discussion has been removed from this thread, let's keep on topic please.

Many thanks for your cooperation in this matter.