Quote: base color on the dilute is just normal red most likely... buff would be more golden, less brown-gold. buff = mahogany and dilute on wheaten e-locus. the top girl I would say does not carry mahogany at all. she may not be dilute at all actually, but just normal red plus the partridge markings... dilute tends to make the brown-gold more yellow/cream.
I've got 4 dorking girls that show the range of intensity between dilute (normal red), normal red, dilute mahogany, and mahogany. if I can i'll line them up for pics sometime soon... they're all on e+ base (normal wildtype) but it gives a good illustration of the color variations possible.
edit - I did find a pic of orangey and tannish. tannish is just plain dilute, orangey is dilute mahogany... (yes, their names are their colors - kinda)
both variations on a red dorking (crossed with colored at some point in their lineage).
Those pictures are both plain red eb birds as Karen suggested. It is fascinating why the UK and us here do not use Mahogany. I think it really brings out the pencilling in partridge birds. And who doesnt love the rich red.
All our birds carry dilute unfortunately. I may at some point try and bring some into my birds as a side project, with the likely candidate here being a Partridge Plymouth rock. They are very very close to perfect here and have remarkable pencilling.
base color on the dilute is just normal red most likely... buff would be more golden, less brown-gold. buff = mahogany and dilute on wheaten e-locus. the top girl I would say does not carry mahogany at all. she may not be dilute at all actually, but just normal red plus the partridge markings... dilute tends to make the brown-gold more yellow/cream.
I've got 4 dorking girls that show the range of intensity between dilute (normal red), normal red, dilute mahogany, and mahogany. if I can i'll line them up for pics sometime soon... they're all on e+ base (normal wildtype) but it gives a good illustration of the color variations possible.
edit - I did find a pic of orangey and tannish. tannish is just plain dilute, orangey is dilute mahogany... (yes, their names are their colors - kinda)
both variations on a red dorking (crossed with colored at some point in their lineage).
What i have found is that Dilute give a faint yellowing around the tips of the feathers, and a slightly lighter breast colouring on females. My birds are split for it, and so i get some interesting variations, i had my first bird born without Dilute a few weeks ago, and was very surprised at the difference in chick down and juvenille feathers.
The yellow/gold edging on the feathers is rather frowned upon here, as it should be. At some point i may try and breed Dilute out, but i am having far too much fun on test breedings to care at the moment.
Quote: LOL dilute is important for buff. so if you want to go that direction, that's what i'd suggest... buff is supposed to also carry mahogany, so maybe crossing buff into partridge, then back to partridge you'll get some mahogany without dilute. just an idea. you'd also have to weed out wheaten in preference for partridge (e-locus) and get the pattern gene solidified again, but something to consider.
I have been really itching to use plymouth rock. Similar size, same e locus. Pure for mahogany and pg. But that is a project for another day. They are much more vigorous and hardy here too then the Cochin bantams
Sweet! I'm getting two dozen white Cochin hatching eggs in March. I knew it would be a solid color that would be mentioned just was not sure if like blue or buff would be one of them.