I've been raising them for quite a while. It's hard to find them anymore.
Most of the hatchery ones are not correct for the standard.
The breed has been overly line-bred and some faults appeared that were never corrected. When they are hatched, they should be brown and grey, not yellow.
The shanks of all the hatchery stock I've seen are pinkish white; they should start out yellow, then turn willow/olive green at sexual maturity.
The white-shank gene that is prevalent in these hatchery birds is dominant and incorrect.
The Mille Fleur pattern should show up as a nice red-bay color at feathering with as few spangles as possible since more spangles show up each year.
The yellow hatchery chicks feather into an instant, total, very tight, light yellow background Mille Fleur pattern with lots of spangles.
By the third year, or even the second, they have gone white from excessive spangling. The traditional red-bay Mille Fleur base color never appears.
The hatcheries (Privett, Strombergs, Welps) send out mostly yellow-downed chicks.
A few brownish colored ones were in the Strombergs as of three years ago.
I got my original stock there, and they had all been brown-downed chicks.
Other stock I've ordered since then have had a preponderance of the yellows. Other stock I've pursued have the same shank faults.
The tassel should be well-pronounced as a knob seen on the head in both sexes of chicks when they hatch, but you'll find a lot of chicks from the hatchery have males without any tassel.
To add to the problem, they'll have a floppy comb, the S-shaped type you see in Sulmtalers; this isn't right.
I also, personally, like to see a horn color to the beak; a lot are just pure white.
That is not that big a deal, but they should be that color at hatch.
But the biggest problem I've encountered, especially with recent additions to the flock is viability after hatching.
It appears to be an extremely limited gene pool.
I've worked on correcting the faults for a few years now.
The Mille Fleur pattern was a big problem, to get the right color I had to out-cross. It takes at least four gens to get this right.
This "instant Mille Fleur" allele (that is on a yellow base color, not red) that is expressed on the first feathering with over-spangling has been hard to displace.
The hatchery bird base has obviously selected for that gene over quite a few generations.
As General Bosquet said at the Charge of the Light Brigade, " C'est magnifique---mais ce n'est pas la Mille Fleur. . . "
Well, he didn't say " la Mille Fleur." But if he was a poultry fancier, he would have!
To paraphrase, "Yes, it is magnificent (to have an complete spangled pattern the first year) but it is not Mille Fleur! "
I've got it fixed with my birds; the original stock I had was/is correct (they are rather old now) but the "new" birds that are supposed to be purebred Pyncheons all carried this yellow-based allele.
I had to work on the shanks as well.
Yellow shanks at hatch is great;a lot will go green as they hit 60 days and beyond, then especially when they are at puberty.
You'll even sometimes see hens legs go slightly blue-green when they are laying due to hormonal changes.
If you are interested, I'll post some pictures of the incorrect vs. correct on Pyncheons.
Did you raise any this year?
Sincerely,
Dovemaiden
