Incidentally, Mr. Bosley bred in an unusual way for a cocker, from what he told me. Wish I'd been able to get fowl from him before he passed. He made three families of these Morgans: a dark red, a regular, and a light. Apparently the dark and the light came out of the regular.
When he got a light (pumpkin? Not sure what light meant other than apparently lots of white, but likely both that and pumpkin) out of the dark family, say, he'd use it in the light family. He said this kept him from having to use outside blood. Of course this kept all colors popping out everywhere.
But his goal was not to standardize color or breed for color but to keep the strain strong. It's kind of like clan mating. Except there wasn't an automatic movement of males. He'd use an outstanding male where his color fit, and he had lots of choice.
I have done something similar, setting up Red, White, Blue, Green, Orange, and Yellow lines. Red and White are dark reds. Blue and Green are medium. Orange and Yellow are pumpkin. The lines are based on particular hens. I band birds on the right leg with their clan/hen color. Left legs are the sire's color. Of course they are toe punched and wing banded too. But the legbands let me know a lot at a glance. First I breed each line within itself as long as possible. That is, without intense inbreeding. But half brother-sister, uncle-niece, cousins. Am only about five years into this so have really just begun.
Attached is a picture of one of Mr. Bosely's Morgans. I'm guessing this was a "regular" bird, which was his favorite. He wrote me, "My favorite is a medium red cock with black or mottled breast showing white wing butts, white in tail and some white showing in hackles." The other picture, from a man who won't sell any, looks to me more like Mr. Bosley's description of a medium. But i guess the orange shade is the same and the second bird here is just showing the white through his hackles.
