Oh the old dreaded yellowing/brassiness creeping out in the ol Delaware question. It seems to me there are quite a few different reasons for this horrid trait the pops up in the breed and some are still up in the air on this subject. I've read and seen such stuff as recessive white causing such to bleed through(?), Diet/feed(for sure on some), Out-crossing the Delaware with different breeds also WILL cause such, and environment(another big?) on this one too. I know for sure that the diet(xanthophyll/carotenoids) such as corn, green vegitation, can cause this yellowing to occur (esp) on the males and just on their sex feathers too(ie...Hackle, saddle,wing bows and bars,all of which is considered their pyle zone) there's something to this too, as all these feathers are of a different conformity than the rest of the body plumage with the exception of the sickles in the tail and the reason it doesn't show up on these on the Delawares is because they are dark (grey, black, green and some purple). It has to do with the oils from the oil gland that stains these feathers after a time because if these feathers were supposed to be this color they would come out of the follicle colored as such, the base color should not change but with the exception of fading from sun and wear. Feathers are just the same as hair and finger nails and such and they are created by dead proteins.
Now onto the out-crossing which was/is done at the hatcheries because of the shortage of Delawares and to keep up with supply and demand the factories would/might still do cross Delaware males onto Columbian pattern females and Red females (RIR,Production reds, and New Hampshire and no telling what or who else they could) and/to produce a clone look-a-like Delaware patterned birds. This is where the a lot of the yellow/brassiness is leaking through generations later down the line and even on some you can even find red/rusty feathers throughout the body plumage esp on the females , (colored this way from creation in the follicle) not just on the male sex feathers stained from the oils, sun, weathering, fading,wear, dirt, so on and so forth that goes along with normal everyday activities.
I got to get back to work or I'd elaborate more here, I might can get on later and give a little more of my hypothesis on the brassiness but short on time now and there are a few other post I really want to get in on while its hot on my mind, cause inquiring minds just got to know stuff and esp while the topics are on the front burners at the time, get my drift , too much going on all at once which is normal for me. I got lots of irons in the fire so to say.
Oh I have to say too, Mrs. Kathy the 2 Delaware girls are just amazingly beautiful (well so do the NH girls too but that's for another thread but not left out for sure) they are all super looking right at this age, right now you can tell they are soon to be layers and right at POL is when the girls always look there best too.
Jeff
