Welsh harlequin colors?

[jakal92]

I have a few females but they are not all the same colors. One is very colorful like the drake, but two look more muted and pale. Which color is more desirable?

 

[DucksnDaffodils]

It looks like you have 1 Silver phase and 2 Gold phase WH. Both colors are found in the Welsh Harlequin breed.

 

[kswaterfowl]

I agree that it looks like you have two gold phase and one silver phase. The American Standard of Perfection only recognizes the silver phase currently. (While across the Atlantic in the UK & AU they only recognize the gold phase variety.) Currently, along with several other breeders we are making an attempt at getting the gold phase standardized. I would personally tell you that both of your gold phase hens appear a little on the lightly colored side to me. The golds hens should look identical to the silver hens pattern wise but everywhere the silver is dark brown/black the gold should be muted to a warm bronze or brown. We have found in the thirteen or so years that we have bred them that the golds fade out more than the silvers and when you get to where they are molting or about to molt the birds will look almost like yours with just hints of color here and there. (That said, they may be darker than the pictures are showing them as well, its really hard to judge ideal color on a computer screen and not in person.)
We have been breeding both silvers and golds in the same breeding pen for the entire time we have had them. Some of our best silvers are out of golds and our best gold drake last year was out of a silver hen. We actually kept a gold drake for our breeding pen last year and are very happy with how he looks! He is a great addition to our standardization project of this variety. In the picture below you can see two silver phase hens in the foreground and in the background you can see two gold phase hens. This picture would have been late last Spring (there is still green grass so it was before the drought really hit) but the birds we getting ready to molt, but you can see how much "ticking" the gold hen has, the other hen in the upper left corner you can't really tell that much about. Hope that helps. You should breed from both colors, but silvers are the only ones recognized, but if you are showing birds, by all means SHOW SHOW SHOW the golds too!!! It will get them the attention the deserve and bring them to the judges attention to help get them standardized!
K&S

 

[jakal92]

Thanks for the great info.

The two Golds have been loosing color lately,
so much that i mistake them for small Pekins when they are in the flock sometimes.

So my drake is Silver?

 

[Nebraskagirl]

Yep, you got a silver drake. Here is a pic of my pair (her feet have darkened quite a bit since the photo taken a couple months ago) I too have a golden female and silver male:




Here is a pic of their two babies we hatched out this past Saturday and Sunday. Both females:



I am very proud to have a golden female. They seem to not be as common and they are the original color of the breed.