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Walt, you are so right about that one! I have one pullet who looks just like a rich, dark RIR. She has nice single comb, yellow legs, lays a brown egg. Her sire is a BLRW rooster and her mother is an Ameraucana, a Blue/Black/Splash variety (not sure which exact color); I watched her hatch from a blue egg sent to me as an extra by someone. How she came out looking this way is just one of those weird genetics puzzles, though someone did tell me that if the rooster wasn't pure for rose comb and the hen wasn't pure for pea comb, a small percentage come out with single combs. Of course, her body shape is off for a RIR, but if someone doesn't realize that, they'd peg her a RIR and a very nice, dark one.
I've always said the Delaware was very challenging. And we're also dealing with a breed that almost disappeared entirely, so breeding stock was hard to come by, and coming back from obscurity in addition to the different male/female colors makes it really an uphill battle.
Shhh......don't tell anyone, but I know of a case where a bird won super grand champion at a National meet with 3500+ birds and it was only half Plymouth Rock. Visually there is no way to know if a chicken is pure bred, with the color and type fixed. That rich dark mahogany red of the RIR is specific to the Red, so it is a great example of what can happen. You had a very extreme example of this. The body form of the Del should not take too long to get, but the color is very challenging. Anytime you have a different color at the extremities, you are going to have problems. Lakenvelders are an example of that and they don't have barring! The barring adds to the color problems. Most of the Dels I have seen on here tend to be light colored and what is even stranger about them is that the color is migrating to other parts of the body even though they are light. That usually only happens in birds that are too dark.
Walt
Is light sussex or columbian correct base for deleware breed? I noticed that too,a lot of the smut was running as rick calls it. There was a blog on a guy in europe re-creating 2 breeds that became extinct after ww2..he had to search and find the base that they origionally created these birds and I have to say the results were stunning..It has been a couple years since I read that blog but got captivated at someone that dedicated to bringing back an extinct breed.We at least have a base of sorts to work with delewares and buckeyes ect.., does it just evolve into a sub species like delumbian or suxxexware, and let that be a breed unto itself....we live in PA, and NY and DEL so my freind Rick wants something he just drives right to that persons house with a big wad of money ..he finds out whos winning and not kidding drives right to them and even stays overnight a couple nights in a motel if he has to.these people warm right up to him , maybe its his self confidence Im not sure..He just drove to New jersey to look at some birds but he said Nope there is columbian in them...left them there..but he did score some nice ones earlier this spring..
