Mille Cochin Info

[Buck Creek Chickens]

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[Msbear]

I've made some remarks on past posts about a problem I am encountering with my partridgey looking mfc project pullets.. .that their feathers seem to black and outlined with gold instead of gold with black chevron and white tip. In this next generation, I am getting the white tip but most of the feathers are black in these pullets and edged in gold.

I've been looking closely at MF color and on this video, they show a close up of the hackle (where most of this seems to happen) It is also present in my wheaten rosecombs

Here is a pic of what Im talking about... Is this from the wheaten gene? which is in buff columbian and why we see it there as well?

 

[BluffCountryShepherdess]

Somebody posted a picture of a "headless chicken" recently. I let my mille fleur cochins outside to free range for the first time since last fall yesterday and my gorgeous rooster, "Trouble" (bred by Mike Vogan) totally LOST HIS HEAD...

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Quote:
Erin, What was the down color on that little partridge-looking pullet? e+, eWh or eb? I'm still not 100% convinced that all the Buff Columbians out there are eWh based; I think a lot of them are eb. From what I'm reading, you can get there either way.

Regarding the lacing, if I'm reading this stuff correctly, "the Co Columbian will override the Pg Pattern only in the absence of the Ml Melantonic. If the Ml is present, then the Co combined with the Pg will lace the feather". (Grant Brereton)

"While the Co extends the Pheomelanin (red) into the breast and body, the Ml extends the Eumelanin (black), and has the strongest effect on the hackle feathering on the top of the head and in the uper half of the hackles." (Brian Reeder)

"The Pg effects the distribution of the eumelanin." (Brian Reeder)

"The mo (mottling) creates the white feather tip with a black bar on the pheomelanic feathers, but the black bar is not visible on the eumelanic birds even though it is there." (Brian Reeder)

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Quote:
Nancy, even without his head, Trouble just gets better looking every time I see him!!!

 

[Msbear]

Gail, thanks. That actually makes sense to me. My goal with this cross it to evenly distribute pattern and keep the color from bunching around the neck area in the hens. Here are a couple more pullets (I think from our feather sexing test

The hen in question hatched eb. Here are her offspring that also hatched eb

I think this one was from her full sister who hatched chipmunk. Her offspring are chipmunk

Some are too dark but some are developing decent background color and the white tips are coming in pretty well on those.

If I understand correctly, the melanizer (mottling gene?) is present so the Pg and Co are working together to lace the feather? If I put these offspring back to buff columbian or mfc with nice background color, I would be increasing the amount of red at the base of the feather and would be working in the right direction.

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Quote:
I think maybe we're confusing the term "melanizer" with the Ml Melanotic Gene and the mo Mottling Gene. Ml Melanotic is a "melanizer" gene, as is Co Columbian, as they both effect the melan (pigment). Pg Pattern Gene and mo Mottling Gene are feather-pattern modifier genes (the 3rd "pattern" gene is B Sex-Linked Barring).

Brereton: "Melanotic gene - a gene which is closely linked to the Pattern gene and whose basic function is to "blacken" a fowl, but in combination with other genes, produces effects such as Spangling, Lacing and Double Lacing."

Brereton: "Mottled varieties, including Mille Fleur Belgians, all rely on the "Mottling" gene (mo) reported as recessive. It works by inhibiting all pigment at the distal end of the feather, and then producing a black band around it, before normal pigmentation of the variety in question resumes. It is my opinion that the difficulty in achieving mottling on the neck of many otherwise "black mottled" varieties such as the Wyandotte, Pekin and Ancona, is attributed to the presence of more than the minimum required number of genes to make the birds black. Test matings would suggest that the removal of such excess Black genes allows for normal mottling to resume in the neck area of any given fowl."

So I'm just flipping back and forth here between my books by Reeder and Brereton - when I'm having trouble understanding what one says, I go to the other and see if I can find more clarification. Sometimes I just get doubly confused; sometimes something starts to make a little sense!!

 

[alpinefarm]

I've been enjoying "t-shirt weather" here in the mountains today. So nice, it feels like the whole world must be "spring-ing"...
Camera happy as a result!

 

[Coopa Cabana]

Is that Picasso in the top pic? He's looking very fine, indeed!!!!! Is Booby in there somewhere?

 

[wwmicasa1]

Quote:
OMG Rosemary~!!!! Is Picasso to die for????