Is There such Thing as a Melanistic Barnevelder?

[Bowlzie]

I own a small flock of barnevelders but one of the girls has a very dark colour. I reasently went to a poultry show and all the barnevelders there were similar to the rest of my flock.

Could she be a differant breed or could she have a pigmentation problem?

 

[Henk69]

Barnevelders are very heavily melanised.
The roosters are almost black.

 

[smith2]

Your hen has more than likely inherited a "extra" melanistic gene from the roo. My roo is fairly dark and so are several of my pullets. In the US some hatcheries are outcrossing Barnevelders to brown leghorns to try and increase the egg production of some of the strains. I am currently in the process of out-crossing mine to a dark production red and then will cross the offspring back to the original roo to try and increase both egg production and hardiness without ruining the feather pattern. I'll see what will happen in the next month or so.