**Mottling on my Split/Black Lavender Orpingtons**

[tgrlily]

My split mottled girl from Jody is now jet black & drop dead gorgeous! I loved the mottling & hope she gets it back after a molt, but she's a beauty either way.

 

[hinkjc]

That is the one I was thinking of tgrlily.

She is perty. It may not have been mottling, like this one in the OP. Her legs are dark for a mottled bird. She is likely just split black/lavender. I can see you're taking good care of her.

 

[tadkerson]

Jody,

I was writing about your cream colored chicks. I must have missed some of the discussion and missed the date on the picture. I now see that the chicks in the picture hatched around 7/28. They look wheaten to me.

What color are their wing feathers at this time?

Tim

 

[hinkjc]

Tim, the ones in the shoebox on page 2 feather in to the ones I posted on page 1 (post #8). The first cream chicks feathered in completely black with white specks on the tips of the feathers.

You can also see them on the first half of this page on my web site as they are feathering in. http://www.hinkjcpoultry.com/jubileemottledorps.htm

 

[Krys109uk]

While is most likely the OPs bird is not homozygous mottled it is possible for the bird to be heterozygous for mottling.
Birds which are het for mottling very often have a few white spots in adult plumage, can have dark legs & will not, in particular, have white primaries.

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
Sure! Bring them with you to the Chickenstock! Hehe! I have the lastest batch of chicks growing out and a few of them have really yellow underbellies. I wonder if that means anything? All are downy right now will have to wait and see.

As they grow the mottling is less noticable but still at the bottom of the breast feathers

 

[tadkerson]

Jody,

That is very interesting. You can get a black bird on any E locus. Wheaten does not work as well as other alleles. I put melanotic on wheaten- does not show in the down, pullets have a darker hackle which comes in black when the hen gets older. Did not get any melanotic in males or it does not show????.

This may be a gene that effects down color and not be a wheaten E locus thing. I have 4 studies on mottling and none of the studies mention a lite down.

I wanted to work with mottling but the houdans all died on me. The next time I want to work with mottling I am gong to get a sturdy breed -sussex.

Have your tried crossing a lite down mottled bird with a normal penguin down mottled bird?


Tim

 

[Nivrocco]

Here's a link to pics of when they were small..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=221816

 

[Krys109uk]

Tim,
Have you seen Feathersite's page on Jap chicks? It has two different chick down phenotypes for mottled & both are different to my mottled Orpingtons.

Here are the Jap chicks.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Japs/BRKJapChix.html

The mottled Orp chicks are near the bottom of this page. They look the same as my mottled Orps.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Orps/BRKOrps.html

My mottled Orps have identical down pattern to the Exchequer Leghorns I used to have in UK & Anconas my friend had. I also notice Jody's very light mottled birds have very different juvenile plumage to any mottled birds I've ever had. Speckled Sussex & Jubilee Orps feather up in the same manner as my Orps etc.
I've been messing with mottling for a good few years but have never had chicks with down like Jody's with which to experiment.

 

[tadkerson]

Krys,

Thanks for the pics. Well, it may be that there are two or more alleles at the mottling locus that cause the different down color or there are modifiers that effect the down color. Some test crossing would determine what is going on with the down color and mottling.

You would expect some variation in down color but I believe the range is too divergent for simple variation. One more phenotype to toss into the I do not know basket.

The trouble with biology is that the more you learn; the less you know. That is what I enjoy about chicken genetics. There is always something new that pops up.

Tim