The Calico/Aloha/Mottled Naked Neck Thread

[draye]

Help me understand - other than an expected leg color for a given SOP, what is the benefit of yellow legs over legs of another color?

- Ant Farm

Okay best I understand it.
When standards were written for each breed they included things like eye color, feather color in the approximate variety, beak color. Etc. the legs ( shanks) and feet are to be certain colors. Yellow legs supposed to be yellow meat, ( American style), white legs, ( English style), green legs is yellow covering (blue), blue is what I call slate. I was called put on it before. That be as it may.
It all comes down to what you want in your bird(s).

Leg color to don't make a hill of beans to me. I've butchered chickens with all colors of meat and to me it all tastes like.................................
Ummm.............................................................
chicken.

I've got a lot if my flock that have blue-slate legs. That seems to be what us on the partridge and mottled partridge ones that I have and have had. It is on the descendants of those hens also. If I remember right tge Salmon rooster also had those color of legs.

I guess there are ready a for things to be written into the standards fir a purpose, I don't understand why it would make any difference but they think it needs to be there for conformity. What eye color really matters, don't k ow, I dont eat the eyes so I don't know if it would make tge neat taste different or not. Like I said they have their reasons.

 

[Kev]

It's possible, but kind of tough to tell.

A couple of hints:

*Mottling will often show up as a couple of clear white "dots" on the end of the tail feathers. I have rarely seen a "solid" chicken with a random stray white dot on the tail tip.

*The head is another place to check. Often there will be tiny dots on the head feathers. Again, I haven't really seen this on chickens who might just have lighter underfluff or light colored patches. Dots will look crisp.

Also, if the chicken has just one copy of the Mottling gene, the clues may be very subtle. I call these "tells".

Thanks for the reply and pictures. I've seen turkens with the random white tip and wondered if they were possible carriers but never bought or bred any of these myself. This chick is the very first one I've owned that showed any trace of white.. and she has a lot of it.

It is strange, some feathers are solid white or extremely light tan and then noticed what seems to be white tipped feathers on the back by tail, especially with the black area right below the white "tip" that made me wonder if it's a mottle...

There is a cockerel, despite the chicks supposed to being all pullets... happy accident for me though as I wanted one anyways! He is several weeks older and doesn't show any trace of mottling however he appears to be silver with red mixed in- looks like he is going to have interesting colors as an adult.

I have some other unrelated birds that have mottled houdan in their heritage however none of them are showing any white tips. I probably will try breeding this pullet with something out of this and also the one hatchery turken rooster and see what happens. I'm glad to get a possible mottled out of a nice dual purpose stock, as the hatchery turkens usually turn out to be. Don't want skinny more of a layer type either..

Here's another picture taken at same time showing more of her- no hint of white on head:

 

[Kev]

You said it was a hatchery stick Turken. I'm supposing it us a pullet.

One way to tell for sure if its mottling, bred her to airy led something rooster. If she is then the chicks should be mottled.

One other option. You could always send her up me. I love unusual colors, and probably think of some project to do with her.

Oh no lol I love this chick! She's definitely a pullet. She is one of chicks from what was supposed to be pullet only chicks at feed store... managed to luck out on getting a cockerel though. I should take pictures of him too, don't think he is a mottle carrier but his color seems interesting.

 

[Kev]

I was just over on the Texas thread, and someone posted a nice photo of a jubilee orpington.

Has anyone tried these for this project, or for alohas? I was wondering what a cross of these and NN might yield for a mottled/calico/aloha NN. (My speckled sussex chicks are adorable, but I am resigned to them being little and not as suited to the cross if I want to keep the size up.)

- Ant Farm

My guess as for aloha color- jubilee orps are too dark red and have too much black detail? Also the mottling is too small.. big is wanted.

Mottling size/type definitely is heritable.. if you want big or exchequer type, it would be very hard to attain if the jubilees are typically small mottled spots.

Minus the mottling, the jubilees would be much more RIR colored than Hampshire color.

 

[alohachickens]

My guess as for aloha color- jubilee orps are too dark red and have too much black detail? Also the mottling is too small.. big is wanted.

Mottling size/type definitely is heritable.. if you want big or exchequer type, it would be very hard to attain if the jubilees are typically small mottled spots.

Minus the mottling, the jubilees would be much more RIR colored than Hampshire color.

There's a few reasons why I skipped Orps and went with Sussex.

One, Orps can look bigger than Sussex, but they are not. Orps have "loose feathering" which means it sticks out more. So they are basically "fluffy"! Imagine two Great Danes, one with fluffy hair and one with smooth short hair. The fluffy one might look bigger, but it would not actually be larger.

Color-wise, the Jubilee Orps and Speckled Sussex are exactly the same. Both are a dark Mahogany which is hard to breed out, because it's very dark.

Now, if you had a choice between a super-spotty Jubilee Orp or a not-very-spotty Speckled Sussex, I guess the Jubilee might be preferable? But in addition to the loose feathering, Orps also have "cushion tails" which are different from the "fan tails" on breeds like Leghorns. (And Alohas.)

Who cares about tails? Well, I think a lot of us like the look of a long, flowing rooster tail. Orps do not have that. Sussex, the show ones do not have that, but some of the hatchery Speckled Sussex have very pretty tails.

Here is a photo of a long-tailed very spotty Sussex rooster from Feathersite:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sussex/SpSusCkl.JPEG

Here's a not very spotty Jubilee Orp rooster:

http://thefancychick.com/sitebuilder/images/JO.uk.1a.2.18.13-464x436.jpg

Between these particular two, the Sussex would be better.

However, when we look at these two hens, this one "oddball" Orpington hen has great spotting, and is really light in color, too:

http://www.theorpingtonclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/jubilleorpington.jpg

Let's compare her to this Sussex hen, who appears small (may just be young) but also has little spotting:

http://www.clayfootfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DSC_0543.bmp

Between those two, the Orpington hen is more vividly colored, and appears to have much better size.

So in general Sussex is better, but if I found an "oddball" Orpington that was very, very spotty, you could still use it for sure.

But watch the tail thing. NN's usually have nice tails, just try to pick for that NN type of tail, if getting your color from Orps.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

There's a few reasons why I skipped Orps and went with Sussex.

One, Orps can look bigger than Sussex, but they are not. Orps have "loose feathering" which means it sticks out more. So they are basically "fluffy"! Imagine two Great Danes, one with fluffy hair and one with smooth short hair. The fluffy one might look bigger, but it would not actually be larger.

Color-wise, the Jubilee Orps and Speckled Sussex are exactly the same. Both are a dark Mahogany which is hard to breed out, because it's very dark.

Now, if you had a choice between a super-spotty Jubilee Orp or a not-very-spotty Speckled Sussex, I guess the Jubilee might be preferable? But in addition to the loose feathering, Orps also have "cushion tails" which are different from the "fan tails" on breeds like Leghorns. (And Alohas.)

Who cares about tails? Well, I think a lot of us like the look of a long, flowing rooster tail. Orps do not have that. Sussex, the show ones do not have that, but some of the hatchery Speckled Sussex have very pretty tails.

Here is a photo of a long-tailed very spotty Sussex rooster from Feathersite:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sussex/SpSusCkl.JPEG

Here's a not very spotty Jubilee Orp rooster:

http://thefancychick.com/sitebuilder/images/JO.uk.1a.2.18.13-464x436.jpg

Between these particular two, the Sussex would be better.

However, when we look at these two hens, this one "oddball" Orpington hen has great spotting, and is really light in color, too:

http://www.theorpingtonclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/jubilleorpington.jpg

Let's compare her to this Sussex hen, who appears small (may just be young) but also has little spotting:

http://www.clayfootfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DSC_0543.bmp

Between those two, the Orpington hen is more vividly colored, and appears to have much better size.

So in general Sussex is better, but if I found an "oddball" Orpington that was very, very spotty, you could still use it for sure.

But watch the tail thing. NN's usually have nice tails, just try to pick for that NN type of tail, if getting your color from Orps.

Very interesting and helpful. I have "learned" more about color genetics from following this thread due to my interest in these birds than anywhere else. (I have to put "learned" in quotes because I can't ever manage to retain anything I've learned, so not sure that's worth much...)

I have 5 hatchery Speckled Sussex in my mudroom at the moment. At one week old they're tiny and look like sparrows, but they're also completely appealing and hysterical. That being said, props to the NN chicks who were interested in me well before food or treats were involved. The Sussex are speckled mercenaries - I was the enemy until I had mealworms, now I have become their best friend.

{{{Le sigh}}}

In all seriousness, I may still see what I get from a cross with the Speckeld Sussex even if they are small, but I keep reading about how low they are in the pecking order and worry I'll need to have yet ANOTHER housing set up for them rather than letting them live full time with the NN in the Nudist Colony. (How many coops can a woman build???!!!

)

- Ant Farm

 

[draye]

Here are some pictures of the Mottled ones from today: 2 days shy of 6 weeks.

These three are the cockerels. The bottom picture I'm almost positive that its a cockerel by the comb, but some of the other signs say pullet. I'm not going to hope too much. Either way the third photo chick had the most mottling if all 5 from this paring.

Here are the pullets:

 

[draye]

Photo was taken @ 5 weeks and 5 days old on 10/27/2015. I didn't think at first this one was going to be mottled but today I finally saw a white spot that tends me he will be mottled some maybe not a lot though. This I e should produce all naked neck offspring at least when bred to naked necked hens.

This photo was taken 11/05/2015 @ 7 weeks old.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Photo was taken @ 5 weeks and 5 days old on 10/27/2015. I didn't think at first this one was going to be mottled but today I finally saw a white spot that tends me he will be mottled some maybe not a lot though. This I e should produce all naked neck offspring at least when bred to naked necked hens.



This photo was taken 11/05/2015 @ 7 weeks old.

Pretty boy! Now you've got me wanting to go get my boys that look a little like this and ruffle their feathers looking for white...

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

Cool.

Starting to think my 'is she mottled?' pullet is not going to be mottled after all.. seems to be molting out the very light colored/white feathers.