Creating the MF Pattern

That partridge pullet looks like she could go in there as well. I've heard someone else use them but am unsure of the outcome.

Personally I'd not use the partridge pullet because she will introduce too much stippling in the feathers.​
 
Understand. The results I got from the Buff male X Buff Columbian crossed to Silver Columbian were exactly as I expected and as you said, sex-linked. Good to know that the females cannot carry the silver and gold at the same time. So that discards my theory about why the f1's looked the way they did.

The Buff Columbian in the 3rd photo is 2nd generation removed from the Buff Male/Buff Columbian crossed to Silver Columbian, so if she's carrying Mottling, it's not something I've intentionally put in there. I wing band every one of my chicks so I am pretty sure I haven't misrecorded lineage, plus I get a couple that look like her every year, so there must be some recessive Mottled in there somewhere.

As far as down color goes, to clarify...Dark buff with gray back. Very similar to Silver Columbian but replace the yellow down with a brownish buff down.
 
Thanks for your explanations Tom,

I wing band every chick too. It makes record keeping so much easier.
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I'm doing blue jubilee in Orps at the mo. Much the same pattern but mine also have mahogany. I have trouble with the white not expressing enough, or losing the columbian.
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I also have some of my black & blue mottled orps expressing too much mottling, though it did not start that way.
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I think there's quite a lot to mottling.

I've also got some youngsters which are both mottled & barred....
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Agree that there is a lot more to mottling than is known perhaps. Getting that nice teardrop tip to the feather is not that easy, and you really don't see it as clearly defined as you do in your Anconas. In Cochins my theory (guess really) is that the loose feathering may have something to do with it, similiarly with the Barred pattern. For whatever reason you can't find a Barred Cochin with that nice crisp barring you find on Plymouth Rocks. In essence what you find more opten than not in the Cochins is a black bird with white splotches here and there, sometimes even an entire white feather. What I will concede is that the breeding work that many of the folks posting to this thread have put in, shows better white tipping in the feathers, in many cases better than the mottleds. My opinion of course. The Jubilee pattern is nice looking, and I think I like the darker mahogany over the lighter shade of the Mille's. The Blue is an added challenge!
 
For whatever reason you can't find a Barred Cochin with that nice crisp barring you find on Plymouth Rocks.

Hardly any barred birds have the nice crisp barring of exhibition barred rock. Dr Clive Carefoot wrote that modifiers were needed to make the barring crisp.
I made some quite nicely barred wyandottes from exhibition barred rocks back home in UK. I crossed the offspring together then back to wyandotte, then offsring together & back to wyandotte each time. That way, I figured, I'd hopefully keep whatever gene(s) helping make the barring tidy. It seemed to work. They looked nicer than other barred wyandottes I'd seen.
I have recently read that it is actually columbian with the barring which makes the lovely tidy barring.....knowing it's a certain gene which on can predict, rather than gene or genes unknown somehow makes things easier to work with.
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ETA. I forgot to mention K the slow feathering gene is also required for tidy feathering. Am presuming cochins are slow feathered anyway.
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It has been suggested that the really tidy regular mille fleur pattern (& regular ancona pattern) is actually the result of mottling on spangling (Pg-Ml, Db) & selection, rather than just columbian & mottling. Difficult.
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Good background data on the Barred Wyandotte color pattern enhancement using the Plymouth Rock. Also interesting the suggestion the Columbian is an ingredient/aid in getting the crisp barring. Something I could certainly test in my Barreds.

If you are interested, my website is http://gff.cochinsrule.com/

There are several photo pages so you can get an idea of what I am working with in the different varieties.
 

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