eb/eb Pg/Pg is concentric penciling
eb/eb Pg/Pg Db/Db is autosomal barring
The thing that confuses me about our birds is that I've not had any adults grow out fully barred, not one extending beyond juvenile plumage out of hundreds. Has anyone else? The juvenile plumages exhibits the barring, but I have yet to have any end up barred as adults. By 1/4 - 1/2 - 1/4 odds of db vs. Db in incomplete dominant fashion, we should have had some barred adults, shouldn't we? Because then you could keep barreds to breed to penciling to get 100% hets with the patterns fighting, but that thought process. If the key to the changing patterns for our guys is simply db/db vs. Db/db vs. Db/Db, then we really should have had a fair number of barred birds in adult plumage with the number of IBs starting to be produced. We see some more penciled than others, but I haven't seen the same with barring. I agree that we've got mix matching of the genes in our guys, but where are the barred phenotypes?
Also, what adds the stippling/fading over the back of the hens where the pattern fades/blurs?
As for the dilutors, I'm trying to figure out the mechanism in Herman and the like. Seems like they are lighter at the tips of the feathers, which would be more in line with inhibition of black extension to me, but it isn't cut and dried on / off like lacing. The feathers seem to fade gradually out and the effect seems to enhance with age, or so I've been told. Can anyone confirm or has anyone seen these in present day flocks to tell us what the whole feather looks like?