Honestly i dont think it has anything to do with recessive white, since that would turn the bird entirely white and would require both parents to carry it. unlikely in a line of blacks that breed true, IMO. i've seen random white feathering in chicks that goes away with their first adult moult. especially in blacks. and also occasional white feathers popping up where they weren't before, but grow back in the normal color again later. i attribute these to nutritional or stress factors.Hey all.
Noticed some more peculiarities with my improving partridge project.
As you can see from the side by sides, one of my partridge chicks has white chest feathers coming in. i have noticed this a lot with nearly all the offspring from my partridge cockerel.
Another case in point is one of the f1's from the same partridge cockerel cross to black seen here. You can see the "red" leakage in the feathers, and the white on the chest.
This little girl also has the same white rear as of one of my previous partridge crosses to black, seen here, the boy also started out with a few white specs, then developed a gorgeous white toush.
This all leads me to believe one of three things.
1. My partridge cockerel has white recessive that is coming out in the f1's.
2. Number one plus my black girls have white recessive.
3. Number one and two, plus my partridge girl has white.
The clincher for me is that the partridge x partridge baby also showing the white chest. Leading me to believe it's my partridge cockerel that is producing the white leakage.
Oh well, as long as my cockerel keeps producing gorgeous boys like this one i am happy![]()
i may keep this little guy and put him over my two recessive white girls, one has some slight black feathering. Just to see what pops out.
This does throw a spanner in the works of my improving partridge project, as i keep getting the white leakage in the f1's, breeding that out is going to take a while i guess.