Sumatra Thread!

[championsumatra]

You can easily breed out white feathers, but your hen has to have no white in her feathers in order for this tip to be effective. If she dose have white I would not bother trying to breed out the white, because the chicks will have lots of white in them when they grow up. Never breed a bird with the same defect as it's mate. You will get more of the same or worsen the defect on the bird.

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

So I was inspecting one of my roosters a few days ago and noticed a couple white tipped under feathers on the wings. There were 2 feathers on each wing that were 1/2 white. Is this normal? Is it a bad quality I should breed out? I never noticed that in the 2yrs of having this roo... Thanks!

If he was my roo I would only breed to a blue or splash hen.
There is some reason you are getting a late white bleed-through
in the feathers. I would not be comfortable with the genetic backround
of the roo. You can try to breed it out but that may take many generations
and there are a lot of good roos out there looking for a home as it is. I had
a BCM roo turn up with some white after a second year molt and many of
his offspring did too despite attempts to breed it out.........just wasn't worth
all the trouble and in good conscious I could not sell eggs or chicks from him
without knowing if the white would be passed on and once I did know I really
could not sell anything from him............he was culled and so were all his
offspring. It proved to be a genetic defect that was passed on. JMHO

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Yes, it can be bred out if need be. Just like Champ was saying. If however you have extra males without bit, I'd recommend just using them instead . It is a DQ for showing. If you aren't showing and hes a good type, just use him over solid girls.

There is an thing that causes pigment to turn white. Can't remember what its from. Someone once said its from damage cause by various illnesses yet the bird recovered . Who knows.
But as the birds age, with each molt they get whiter. First year with it they just all of a sudden have a few white tips.

The second year, they look mottled.

The third year they are almost if not , solid white.

I have seen it in 3 birds here over the years in different breeds. But was all in hens.

This is not hereditary and they continue to breeds true and clean.

If he gets whiter with age , that could be the problem.

However if his chicks end up with white after they mature, then its genetic flaws

 

[dsfrango]

Thank you much. What has been said makes sense, i have inspected him before and there surely was no white in him then so I was shocked when I saw it...he's about 2-2 1/2 yrs old. My younger 10 month old from him has no white at all and none of my 5 hens have any white either.... Thanks everyone!

 

[championsumatra]

I heard that stress causes it to pop up too. If I where you I would wait until he molts again.

 

[BGMatt]

I heard that stress causes it to pop up too.

Typically if you have white showing up in just one spot (or a couple irregular spots) on a black bird it MAY be stress or environment related. If the white appears on both sides in same location, that is typically genetic.

You can also test this theory by plucking the off color feather. If it grows back normal, no problem, if it grows back wrong color, well who doesn't love fried chicken?

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: That is a good idea.

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: It is not hard to breed out the white gene at all. I had a rooster myself with some white in his wing feathers, it only took me ones to breed it out. It has been three generations and I don't see any white.

 

[Kae Pasa]

Quote:
Sorry to hear that the show was changed, was it the show you were asked to judge?

 

[championsumatra]

Quote: No haha I wish! It was our local country fair. A very small show with only 50 birds. I really had fun and I learned a lot about other breeds of chickens that I was not familiar with.