Cornish Thread

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Yes definitly yellow or what is called light red.
Thank you Al.

I know talk of genetics by a newbie offends you, but I think it may help me to understand the genetics behind things to evaluate and pick birds to keep. Can anyone explain to me the reason a red eye is lighter yellow with only the outer edge slightly darker in appearance? [No trace of red or orange that I can see.]

Another question I have is also genetic in nature. The chicks I've hatched indicate to me that my whites are a mix of recessive white, dominant white, and silver. I know dominant white and recessive white do not always play nice together, though I suppose if they were pure for both types there would be no problem until a cross to another color variety was made. I know a judge isn't going to know, or care I suppose, as long as the bird he is looking at is white, but of course I want to try to breed a Cornish that has quality plus be pure white, and culling promising chicks because they have off colored feathers sucks.. How big of a hill do I have to climb if I continue with a mix of the two types?

Not to take the thread off topic, and she is sure not going to be used to produce something anyone will ever call Cornish whether I continue to keep a layer pen or not, LOL, but the most eye opening, bright white pullet in my layer pen is an easter egger [produced from a true Silver Ameraucana over a red sex-link] that makes the pure white Ameraucans in that pen look down right dull. Is she a solid silver with no genes for white? If so, have WC ever been bred to be solid silver?
 
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The APA has decided to keep the true pearl eye as the standard and not to change it, so for what I can only guess is for simplicity sake they labeled all other colors light red or red for judging sake. Walt may be able to add what the APA / ABA has directed the judges to call these off colored eyes or if it is even relevant.

As far as your white color question saving your pure silver whites ( grey colored ) at hatching and keeping them seperated and identified as such should solve that issue as far as keeping the true whites going and just breeding them. save and keep whatever else you want even though they will be white only you will know they are not reccesive true whites. unless whoever they are given or sold to realizes when hatching that they are yellow at hatch and not grey. or they may not even care or know the difference. Breeding the two whites together will only yield a 25% increase in reccesive white, but if you keep that up for a few years you will end up with all silver true reccsive white. breed for type first color next regarding the whites is the safest bet if your in it for the long haul and don't cross them to get another something or other to speed things up cause it only putt's you back. I will keep a stronger typey dominant white bird and then throw it in with a pure white come breeding season, it's that simple, just watch the young ones closely and pull any pairs or trios that are throwing crap and re-pen them to your programs benefit.
 
Aviengems,
I don't have any experience with breeds with pearl eyes and trying to learn what they even look like. What very few I've noticed in person and the few I've seen pictures of looked closer to white with the mix of grey and yellow pigment to me. Colors do not always translate well in pictures that were taken, and can vary on different computer screens, but it does not look like the few that were easy for me to see as being pearl. I was intending to ask Walt about it, so thanks for bringing it up.
 
The APA has decided to keep the true pearl eye as the standard and not to change it, so for what I can only guess is for simplicity sake they labeled all other colors light red or red for judging sake. Walt may be able to add what the APA / ABA has directed the judges to call these off colored eyes or if it is even relevant.

As far as your white color question saving your pure silver whites ( grey colored ) at hatching and keeping them seperated and identified as such should solve that issue as far as keeping the true whites going and just breeding them. save and keep whatever else you want even though they will be white only you will know they are not reccesive true whites. unless whoever they are given or sold to realizes when hatching that they are yellow at hatch and not grey. or they may not even care or know the difference. Breeding the two whites together will only yield a 25% increase in reccesive white, but if you keep that up for a few years you will end up with all silver true reccsive white. breed for type first color next regarding the whites is the safest bet if your in it for the long haul and don't cross them to get another something or other to speed things up cause it only putt's you back. I will keep a stronger typey dominant white bird and then throw it in with a pure white come breeding season, it's that simple, just watch the young ones closely and pull any pairs or trios that are throwing crap and re-pen them to your programs benefit.

The APA/ABA decided to stay with the pearl eye because it has been that way for over 100 years. Any other color is only a two point deduction.

Walt
 
IMO~
the cock bird of Walt does have Pearl/Gold eye from what I can make out. Yes, its not a clear Pearl eye, or what i have heard called platinum eye in Oriental gamegfowl circles but the undertone is Pearl. This eye has a significant amount of viens running throughout the eye changing the overall hue which is picked up by even the best monitors.

Also, this is very different to Yellow, Orange, or Red eye birds in which the base color of the eye is not Pearl or Gold(14k color not 18k).
 
IMO~
the cock bird of Walt does have Pearl/Gold eye from what I can make out. Yes, its not a clear Pearl eye, or what i have heard called platinum eye in Oriental gamegfowl circles but the undertone is Pearl. This eye has a significant amount of viens running throughout the eye changing the overall hue which is picked up by even the best monitors.

Also, this is very different to Yellow, Orange, or Red eye birds in which the base color of the eye is not Pearl or Gold(14k color not 18k).
Thank you Paulo.

I've found two pictures, and they're not Cornish, that I can, as a newbie, easily identify on my computer monitor as pearl. The first is a reasonably clear pearl, the only one more clear was copyrighted.




The second, and this is the only type I've seen in person, was called 'bloodshot pearl',




Perhaps Al or someone else has a good picture of a quality Cornish with pearl eyes. Paulo's avatar appears to be pearl eyed to me, but is not Cornish. I've figured out that the gene for dominant white feathers can lighten the eye color on a White Cornish, but they certainly are not pearl. The reason I've asked a question regarding the genetic eye color is that I've read that pearl eyes are thought to be a result of a recessive gene [recessive meaning it takes two copies to be seen] that is thought by some to work only on genetically brown eyes.

Just the opinion of a newbie, I fully agree with keeping pearl eyes in the SOP of Cornish. As a two point deduction at a show, it has little effect on any great example of a Cornish without pearl eyes being shown against lesser quality birds that do have them. If I get the opportunity to show, and my bird gets beat because another was as good as mine but has pearl eyes in addition, then to me that would be good judging and aimed towards keeping a heritage breed true to its heritage.
 
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Thank you Paulo.

I've found two pictures, and they're not Cornish, that I can, as a newbie, easily identify on my computer monitor as pearl. The first is a reasonably clear pearl, the only one more clear was copyrighted.




The second, and this is the only type I've seen in person, was called 'bloodshot pearl',




Perhaps Al or someone else has a good picture of a quality Cornish with pearl eyes. Paulo's avatar appears to be pearl eyed to me, but is not Cornish. I've figured out that the gene for dominant white feathers can lighten the eye color on a White Cornish, but they certainly are not pearl. The reason I've asked a question regarding the genetic eye color is that I've read that pearl eyes are thought to be a result of a recessive gene [recessive meaning it takes two copies to be seen] that is thought by some to work only on genetically brown eyes.

Just the opinion of a newbie, I fully agree with keeping pearl eyes in the SOP of Cornish. As a two point deduction at a show, it has little effect on any great example of a Cornish without pearl eyes being shown against lesser quality birds that do have them. If I get the opportunity to show, and my bird gets beat because another was as good as mine but has pearl eyes in addition, then to me that would be good judging and aimed towards keeping a heritage breed true to its heritage.

Yup, those look fine here. Next time you go into a Fry's or Best Buy pay attention to all the monitors on the wall and note how the colors are all over the place by brand. Before I retired I worked at a university where all the graphic arts people reported to me. We calibrated all our monitors, printers, scanners and camera's every day with a $5k software program for a reason. You just can't talk color while looking at an average monitor.

in any event I am tired of talking eye color. I have had to talk to numerous people over the last two years about why the SOP should be changed after 100 years of having pearl as the Cornish eye color. I'm done. If we couldn't get pearl eyes, maybe I would be more interested in changing it...that's the only reason people want it changed....... and that is the bottom line. No other breed has this eye issue, but every other breed has someone who wants to retool the SOP to match the birds in their yard.. It's what the people who can't breed do. If it was impossible, there just would not be so many pearl eyed Cornish around. I'm not rehashing eyes any more.

Walt
 

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