Here..I will post this paragraph again and read it slowly carefully, they were columbian like but no way columbian..that was added by hatcheries to boost the bottom line.
Contrary to what has been written I recall the sports we had as silver not Colombian silvers. There was plenty of black in the wings and some in the body. Apparently the combination of the Colombian gene with barring restricted the black. The Delaware could never be considered a Colombian as seen in Colombian Rocks. In the latter the feathers of the neck and tail are really black and beautifully patterned. Some gorgeous Light Sussex are still to be seen in Europe. There is more to this question than meets the eye. The hackle and tail feathers show most barring in the barred reds I see.
A brief description of the Delaware and the White American can be found in Marble and Jeffrey, Commercial Poultry Production, 1955.
If the Delaware now exists at all is a curiosity. From the viewpoint of the fancier it was a difficult breed because the combination of barring and the Colombian genes tends to produce females with no black at all in the tail. Therefore "winners in the show ring" Delawares could only be produced by a system of double mating.
So heres a question, ow do we get a copy of this published book or paper with detail about this?
Marble and Jeffrey, Commercial Poultry Production, 1955
