Back to the Basics on ChickenColours.com.. Under Complex Colors:
"An important melanizer to do just that(shift pigment), and thereby influencing patterns, is "Melanotic" Ml. Melanotic is dominant, especially for the females, and is able to make "extended black" and "birchen" based animals full black. It enhances and shifts black pigment to the edges of the feather. A typical effect is halfmoon spangling on the tips of the feather. Pattern gene Pg arranges black pigment, eg the stippling, in concentric lines. Pg alone leaves the feather rim (outerlace) groundcolored. (maybe what the mother hen was) The black breast of the rooster can become groundcolor tipped by this effect. This is concentric pencilling or multiple lacing (Pg). Combined with Ml the concentric lines become broader and shift towards the edge of the feather, making the outer rim black: double laced (Pg+Ml). Roosters become quite dark by the action of Ml. By adding Columbian Co the inner laces are removed and you get single lacing (Pg+Ml+Co). When you add Darkbrown Db to concentric pencilling then the pencilling becomes transverse: autosomal barring (Db+Pg). Given enough black this will be true barring like in the Campine breed, else the bars are "pinched" at the edges and nerve giving a wheatear type pattern, quill. Adding Melanotic Ml will render complete spangling at the tip of the feather as in the Hamburgh breed: spangled (Db+Pg+Ml)."
hmmm.. basics, I think not. Anyway, I have been confusing some color genes with pattern genes and confusing how they interact with eachother. I think I'll have to stick with my "common sense" breeding method for now and try to study up when I can. I re-read the same things over and over and after a few times, things start to sink in a bit.
I know mottling is a color inhibitor but thought it was also a melanizer as it added the black band.
"An important melanizer to do just that(shift pigment), and thereby influencing patterns, is "Melanotic" Ml. Melanotic is dominant, especially for the females, and is able to make "extended black" and "birchen" based animals full black. It enhances and shifts black pigment to the edges of the feather. A typical effect is halfmoon spangling on the tips of the feather. Pattern gene Pg arranges black pigment, eg the stippling, in concentric lines. Pg alone leaves the feather rim (outerlace) groundcolored. (maybe what the mother hen was) The black breast of the rooster can become groundcolor tipped by this effect. This is concentric pencilling or multiple lacing (Pg). Combined with Ml the concentric lines become broader and shift towards the edge of the feather, making the outer rim black: double laced (Pg+Ml). Roosters become quite dark by the action of Ml. By adding Columbian Co the inner laces are removed and you get single lacing (Pg+Ml+Co). When you add Darkbrown Db to concentric pencilling then the pencilling becomes transverse: autosomal barring (Db+Pg). Given enough black this will be true barring like in the Campine breed, else the bars are "pinched" at the edges and nerve giving a wheatear type pattern, quill. Adding Melanotic Ml will render complete spangling at the tip of the feather as in the Hamburgh breed: spangled (Db+Pg+Ml)."
hmmm.. basics, I think not. Anyway, I have been confusing some color genes with pattern genes and confusing how they interact with eachother. I think I'll have to stick with my "common sense" breeding method for now and try to study up when I can. I re-read the same things over and over and after a few times, things start to sink in a bit.
I know mottling is a color inhibitor but thought it was also a melanizer as it added the black band.
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