Sumatra Thread!

[stonykill]

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I'm not sure what you mean by concerned with the adult color. I let me Sumatra's breed as they wish. With whichever Sumatra roo they pic. And there are a lot more than 4 colors if you let this happen. Just because a group of guys years ago said" these are the colors we say are the right colors", doesn't mean that there are only 4 colors in nature with Sumatra's.

Were you refering to my pic at all? Or the platinum chick/roo pics from someone else? I've always called the light blue ones blues. But maybe they aren't.

There are more than 4 colors out there in the Sumatra world. Some of the colors, particularly white/white splash tend to show characteristics that aren't true to the breed, such as having yellow legs instead of blue legs.

According to those who have studied the genetics of the birds there is no way to get a white without crossing in a breed that has white as the color, generally white pheonix are crossed into Sumatra to get white birds.

The colors you mention are the "True" Sumatra colors that occur in birds that have no other breed or genetic line crossed into them or so they say. According to some it is impossible to get a lighter colored bird such as white from this breed.

Out of curiosity what are these other colors that are occurring in your flock?

Edited to fix my bad spelling.

The other colors are the ones I've read ....somewhere, were in nature in Sumatra 150 years ago. Splashes of red on a black roo, golden feathers on the heads of some roo's, one with silverish feathers on it's head. The hens are either black or various blues.One young splash. I have never seen a good picture of a platinum or khaki, or dunn, so I can't tell you if I have them or not. I only have Sumatra roos, so there isn't any crossbreeding going on.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

no problem Stony,
figured that's all it was
I was talking to 2 folks after all in that post.
I should have listed Jeremy's name when talking to him.

I was just agreeing that the color didnt look quite right from other platinum birds I've seen

doubt you have any thing other than black and blue. Outside them, they are very very rare. The duns will basically be chocolate colored, khaki, a washed out chocolate (just like the clothing color)

Platinums are even rarer as it takes someone with both blue genes and dun genes to make them.

 

[stonykill]

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gotcha. My blues vary in color, and the really light blues are almost silver. I personally find them prettier than the "perfect blues" IActually very few of my blues are the "perfect" ones. At least in my flock they are the minority. I mainly have black hens. Roo's about 50/50 black and blue. Many of this years blacks have some cool coloring on their heads.

 

[jeremy]

Maybe this will help... these pictures belong to a few other BYCers, one of them I can't remember their name but I know they were working on a Dun Sumatra project at one time. I found these images via Google and on auction listings here on BYC.

Black (Splash in the background), peachick's birds.

Blue, peachick's birds.

Dun, ???'s bird.

Khaki, ???'s bird.

Platinum, my bird.

I'm not trying to offend, but I don't see how one could easily confuse the colors... they all look pretty distinct to me.

 

[stonykill]

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thanks. your platinum and the splash look very similar in the pics. Some of my blues look like the "perfect" ones pictured, but many are lighter. Hence my question in the 1st place. Were my LIGHT blues that are almost silver a platinum. The Dun ...well it is hard to say from the pic if it is a black, but a poor picture, or indeed a different color bird. For me, seeing them in person would be the only way to be 100% certain......

 

[jeremy]

Splash, Thode Family Farm's bird.

Still looks noticably different to me.

Splash looks like a white bird with gray (blue) splotches. Platinum almost looks steely gray throughout... IMO.

Seeing all of these different colors in person I'm sure would help immensely in differentiating them.

Next spring I should have some nice examples of hopefully each on of them, with the exception of Khaki... I'll need some Duns to produce Khaki, so I probably won't have any of that color until the Duns reach maturity and I am able to start hatching their eggs in the fall. If all goes as planned.

 

[stonykill]

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now that I can ACTUALLY see the bird and it isn't hidden behind a black , it is clear. Looks just like my splash. I don't show my birds and never will, but I just want to call them the correct colors. Chances are with my birds I'll never get past splash, and that is fine by me. I keep 50% of the birds I incubate, and all that are born to my broody's (14 broody's this year, over 40 new chicks) and do sell the remainder locally. As well as hatching eggs when asked. Only when asked. So this is good info for me to know. Thanks for the pics

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

Jeremy,
Noticed you put ?? marks by some of the colors.
no need, you labeled them all correctly.

The duns often throw folks a lot. I get it in my duns birds a lot, sumatras, phoenix, and d'anvers

For those not use to the color.

Note on the black and blue roos how shinny and iridescent the feathers are? Now look at the dun bird. No dun will ever have an iridescent to them.
Also, just like Stony have mentioned with the blues, the duns too come in various shades.
They can be a deep dark chocolate like the one Jeremy has pictured, or they can be all the way down to a smokey grey color, but all are duns, just like there are light and dark blues.

Splash can also vary, from a sky blue with darker blue streaks (almost looks lavender) to white with pale blue streaks.
It's counter part, khaki, also does the same.


Platinum, being such a new color, IN ANY BREED, is still to be seen, but being both blue and dun, one would have to think there are variations in it as well.

All the platinum birds I have seen to date, look way different than the sumatra pictured. BUT, that being all said, it very well can be just a variation in the norm.
The chick originally put up, was without a doubt, platinum. Also, in the head of the adult bird you can see chocolate, yet it definitely isnt dun. Therefore, platinum is the only logical end to it.
With all that, yes the other colors are a no brainer as you said Jeremy...BUT, the bird you posted does look very similar to dark splash. Not saying it is...but is can very easily be confused for one without knowing it's history

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

heres some other breeds off here in platinum for comparison

this is Henk69 's bird

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/Henk69/platinum/DSC_1467.jpg

 

[ramirezframing]

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Does anyone know how he or his birds are?