cutie-
There are some things about your number 3 that I really like. Have you heard the expression that we should "build the barn before we paint it?"
Your #3 pullet probably has fewer melanin genes active --
check out this cut-and-paste from Henk69's chicken calculator geneic information which you can reference at the link that follows:
Chickens have 2 kinds of pigment that define their plumage color. These are the black (sometimes darkbrown/chocolate) pigment eumelanine, melanin for short, and the yellow/red pigment pheomelanine. The groundcolor of a chicken is pheomelanine. When this is absent it is called "silver" which looks white. The common silver-gene allows the expression of some red features like salmon breast or red shoulders. In wildtype chickens the groundcolor is yellow to brown, it is called "gold". By so called red enhancers this gold can be boosted to a (dark) red color.
For example the mahogany colored Rhode Island Red.
The gold can be diluted to a yellow, cream or lemon color. The groundcolor can thus be silver, gold, red or yellow. Chickens are rarely fully groundcolored. An example being Buff. This color is partly a mystery for the genes that eliminate the last bits of black are unknown. In the chicken calculator you can approach this color by setting it to a columbian like pattern.
We will get to that later...
http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm#berkenEN
I have learned so much from Henk's site!!!
Back to the subject - put on glasses that block out the color - and envision the chicken as a black and white photo--or take photoshop - import the photo and slide the saturation for color to zero..(Or any photo software and switch to black and white to evaluate the really important features that exclude coloration. Now look at your chickens...who has the best lines, which one has the best 'type' (like conformation in a horse)--- who's crest do you want to see in your future chicks? Who's comb etc. And I am not speaking about color.... That is what the old timers meant by building the barn first, then painting it. I would look for long backs too and tail angles that were low -- select your breeders that way -- the color thing has gotten so much overemphasis IMO that the other traits are considered secondary.
Then, later, When you are looking at color make sure that the important basics are there -- who has a clear yellow beak with no hints of horn or dark streaks, who has clear bright yellow legs with no underlying dark pigment in the toes, nails and shafts.
So from what I see in these pictures, were I you, I think I would use pullet #3 for traits that I see in her that are positive for the Cream Legbar......There isn't enough known - again IMO to oversimplify the way it has been done - If all that is needed for the perfect color is to breed in two recessive inhibitor of gold (ig) genes to your flock - it really shouldn't be that hard to get it in. Again - the old timers had a point. If there is more to it - that will probably be unearthed with time. In the meanwhile - work on the important things like type, straight combs, high egg production of blue eggs etc.
for the first time in my flock, the Easter-time hatch, two out of this this batch of pullets had some of the dark tips on their salmon breast feathers....I attribute that to an excess of the black from the melanin. That may make me particularly attracted to low-melanin showing Cream legbars now-a-days..... But to eliminate what may grow into your best of the three pullets because she has too much 'gold' may not be the best path to get the excellence into your flock.
good luck with your choice!
There are some things about your number 3 that I really like. Have you heard the expression that we should "build the barn before we paint it?"
Your #3 pullet probably has fewer melanin genes active --
check out this cut-and-paste from Henk69's chicken calculator geneic information which you can reference at the link that follows:
Chickens have 2 kinds of pigment that define their plumage color. These are the black (sometimes darkbrown/chocolate) pigment eumelanine, melanin for short, and the yellow/red pigment pheomelanine. The groundcolor of a chicken is pheomelanine. When this is absent it is called "silver" which looks white. The common silver-gene allows the expression of some red features like salmon breast or red shoulders. In wildtype chickens the groundcolor is yellow to brown, it is called "gold". By so called red enhancers this gold can be boosted to a (dark) red color.
For example the mahogany colored Rhode Island Red.
The gold can be diluted to a yellow, cream or lemon color. The groundcolor can thus be silver, gold, red or yellow. Chickens are rarely fully groundcolored. An example being Buff. This color is partly a mystery for the genes that eliminate the last bits of black are unknown. In the chicken calculator you can approach this color by setting it to a columbian like pattern.
We will get to that later...
http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm#berkenEN
I have learned so much from Henk's site!!!
Back to the subject - put on glasses that block out the color - and envision the chicken as a black and white photo--or take photoshop - import the photo and slide the saturation for color to zero..(Or any photo software and switch to black and white to evaluate the really important features that exclude coloration. Now look at your chickens...who has the best lines, which one has the best 'type' (like conformation in a horse)--- who's crest do you want to see in your future chicks? Who's comb etc. And I am not speaking about color.... That is what the old timers meant by building the barn first, then painting it. I would look for long backs too and tail angles that were low -- select your breeders that way -- the color thing has gotten so much overemphasis IMO that the other traits are considered secondary.
Then, later, When you are looking at color make sure that the important basics are there -- who has a clear yellow beak with no hints of horn or dark streaks, who has clear bright yellow legs with no underlying dark pigment in the toes, nails and shafts.
So from what I see in these pictures, were I you, I think I would use pullet #3 for traits that I see in her that are positive for the Cream Legbar......There isn't enough known - again IMO to oversimplify the way it has been done - If all that is needed for the perfect color is to breed in two recessive inhibitor of gold (ig) genes to your flock - it really shouldn't be that hard to get it in. Again - the old timers had a point. If there is more to it - that will probably be unearthed with time. In the meanwhile - work on the important things like type, straight combs, high egg production of blue eggs etc.
for the first time in my flock, the Easter-time hatch, two out of this this batch of pullets had some of the dark tips on their salmon breast feathers....I attribute that to an excess of the black from the melanin. That may make me particularly attracted to low-melanin showing Cream legbars now-a-days..... But to eliminate what may grow into your best of the three pullets because she has too much 'gold' may not be the best path to get the excellence into your flock.
good luck with your choice!
