Welsummer People-I have a roo color question

[TammyTX]

I have four 9 week old Welsummer roos. One has the best body type but he has darker chestnut colored hackles. Should I keep him for breeding or the roo with the lesser body type but with brighter orange-ish hackles?

...anyone else have a Wellie with darker hackles that turned lighter w/age?

 

[speckledhen]

I had one very dark Wellie cockerel and though he was very handsome, I asked the breeder if that was the proper color or was the more medium color preferred. She said the lighter color was the preferred one, not the deep mahogany color.

 

[EweSheep]

PLUMAGE COLOUR
MALE
Head and neck, rich golden brown. Hackles rich golden brown as uniform as possible, free from black striping. Back, shoulder coverts and wing bow bright red-brown. Wing coverts black with green sheen forming a broad bar; primaries (out of sight when wing is closed), inner web black, outer web brown; secondaries, outer web brown, inner web black with brown peppering. Tail (main) black with a beetle green sheen; coverts, upper black, lower black edged with brown. Breast black with red mottling. Abdominal and thigh fluff black and red mottled.

That is taken from the Welsummer Club of UK website.

All black or all red chest feathers are very serious disqualifications and should not be used for breeding.

 

[TammyTX]

Thanks for the info. Tomorrow I'll inspect them more closely. Dang, I really like the beefy body of the darker one....I have a friend who wants a large roo to help protect his flock and he doesn't care about breeding so we will re-home him.