Ok. Promise no more husbantry questions. I am looking for a good light brahma rooster. The girls i have appear to be of good size and form, but their fluff is pure white (whitest I've ever seen). Should I be looking for a rooster with grayish fluff (supposing I can find one with good form and size), or does it matter in the standard? It seems that the winning light brahmas in the poultry press and what has been posted on here has that gray under fluff. Should I even try to worry with the hens at all if they have pure white underfluff or try to breed it into their offspring? Last time I read the standard, i was confused on gray Vs. White. Thanks for your help.
I will be joining a poyltry association this sunday, so *hopefully* I will find a good breeder or at least someone who knows a good breeder.
It matters a great deal. Undercolor is critical to top color in breeds where black and white are in segmented parts of the bird. I read Judge Card repeatedly on this subject for my Light Sussex, another black and white color-segmented breed. Breeding Laws " quote page Twenty-Two:"
Where white and black markings are segre-
Page Twenty-three
gated in certain sections as in Light Brahma
markings, nature's control of the pigment appears
to be under a different law wherein under-color
plays the most important part in the proper segrega-
tion of black according to sections. Standard reads,
"undercolor white, bluish white or dark slate;"
yet nature's laws show that a clear white under-
color means generally imperfect primaries and
hackle, either too light or too black. This last is
possible as Standard requires primaries with white
at edge, whereas many primaries can be found
entirely black. This while not a serious defect,
is a defect nevertheless and mostly found on in-
ferior birds. Another defect found in birds of
white under-color is a strong brassiness on male
and creaminess of under-color in female. On the
other hand, where the under-color is slate unre-
lieved by white, nature plainly voices its protest
against too much coloring matter in under color by
decidedly smutty hackles and, in males, intense
heavy striping in saddles and backs, a breaking
out of black surface pencilings on breast, body and
fluff, peppered wing bars, many times attended by
brassiness; in females black in backs, smutty,
stubby hackles and pencilings on body and fluff.
But almost invariably with the under-color bluish
white, or with fluff next to skin white and that
next to web blue or slate, the black points are
standard and the white points free from penciling
of black and brassiness or creaminess in under-
color. Brassiness or creaminess in fowls of above
markings appears to be created by unpropor-
Page Twenty-four
tionate distribution of the black pigment. In
white fowls the above trouble may, in most in-
stances, be traced to breeding stock of short
pedigree in which bloods evidently of color have
been introduced. It is also a well known fact that
some white breeds originated from sports of dark
blood. The action of this dark blood has the same
effect in white birds as the black pigment in black
and white birds as outlined above, and cannot be
eradicated until a sufficient number of years in
line-breeding have elapsed to accomplish the clean-
ing out of the dark blood." end quote
