My Baby Homers Left Home....

[Sir Birdaholic]

well, they left the nest box anyway. I need help with their color, please.
This is either Ace, or Miss Ace. What color?

Here's Deuce, or Miss Deuce. It's as dark as Ace, just a washed out picture. This one's having trouble walking.

These are the parents
Joker. a black pied cock

& Queen, a dark check hen

All help is dearly appreciated. It's my first year for pigeons. I think they're wonderful. So far I have 3 pair of Racing Homers, with 2 young. No telling what I'll end up with!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Any pigeon professors presently posting,please

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

They are both pied t-patterns. T-pattern is also called velvet or dark check. The reason they are so darkly colored is because they have the dirty gene, which makes their feathers darker and their feet/beak/skin black like that.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Thanks, Becky
I knew you would come to the rescue. What is the dirty gene? Is it frowned upon in the pigeon world?

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

No problem

Dirty sounds like a bad gene, but it isn't. It's just what they decided to name it. Dirty is one of the 3 darkening genes that makes the feathers and such a darker shade.


- Dirty is dominant and darkens the feathers and skin.
- Sooty is another darkener that is often called "pencil" in homers. It's also dominant, and makes the shield feathers have dark centers. Almost like a check, but not quite. It gives birds who are genetically blue bars, the look of a light blue check. Normally the birds don't show the sooty markings at first, but they moult in.
- Smokey is the last darkening gene. It's recessive. It darkens the feathers just like the other two, but makes the beak and skin lighter than normal, rather than darker like Dirty does. It also makes the albescent strip disappear (the lighter strip on the outter edges of the tail). These are often called "slates", where the pattern is smudged up and sometimes made lighter. The babies in the nest have a dark band around their beak.

And here's some more info and pictures!
http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/smokey.html

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Hey, great info. Thanks. I have read so much & learned alot, but have alot more to learn.