Color Loss

I had written several months ago about a problem that was happening in the Black Tailed White Japanese. The problem that I wanted to draw our attention to was the loss of black in all areas of the plumage and foreign white in the wings.

I would like to key off of something Bill Wulff wrote in his editorial in the April issue of the Poultry Press and continue this discussion. Bill wrote,” The problem for us raising the BB Red Old English female line is, its all new for us and you really don’t know what the color of the females are going to be until they are between two and four years old.” I talked briefly with Bill at the Delmarva show and he said that he was always told by the old timers to only breed from hens and cocks, rarely using cockerels and pullets. His experience with the BB Red Old English support this theory.

If you were like me our thinking naturally would say, “if I can choose cockerels and pullets that look better than their parents and breed from them, I am going to improve my flock every year,” but breeding experience teaches otherwise.

The scenario would go something like this. I buy a trio of Black Tailed White Japanese from a person that is winning at shows. They have good color. I hatch all of the chicks I can and choose the best cockerels and pullets for the next seasons breeding. I get rid of the initial trio. Why breed from them, when I have better-looking pullets and cockerels. I can only better my flock this way. The second breeding season starts and again I hatch a lot of chicks and raise all I can. But as they molt into their mature feathers I realize that I am loosing color and there is foreign white in the wings. How could this be? I started out with such good color.

This has happened because I have not followed the time honored breeding advice of the old timers. If we are really serious about what we want to accomplish then we have to set some goals and establish a plan to attain that goal. The goal that we set is to leave our positive mark on the poultry fancy by choosing a breed and variety of poultry that we like and committing our time, finances, and energies to improve what we have chosen.

Twenty some years ago I used to raise Barred Rock Bantams. I have become interested in them again. As I have looked at different birds I have realized that in general they are suffering from poor tails. I have discussed this with Shelby Harrington of Plymouth fame and he has agreed this is a problem. I want to tackle this problem. Does that mean I feel I can do better than all of the Plymouth Rock Breeders out there. By no means! The poultry fancy to me is like golf. I don’t compete against other breeders when I raise chickens just like you don’t compete against others when you play golf. I see the fancy as competing against myself. I may never win against anyone else, and usually don’t. My real joy is seeing improvement in something I undertake.

It will be 13 years since I mated a Buff Leghorn male to two White Japanese females, trying to make a solid Buff Japanese. I almost gave up twice, but I press on because there was none and now there are some. I believe the whole poultry fancy would do a lot better if we removed the “need to win at any price” from the show hall and replaced it with some real down home chicken fellowship. Sorry I jumped on my soapbox.

Getting back to my theme. To make actual progress, though more slowly, in improving Black Tailed Whites or any other multi-colored bird, it is better to breed from birds that are at least two years old. Start with the trio you purchased and raise all the birds you can from that mating. Keep the initial trio and see how they molt out in the fall. How have they held their color through a molt? If they have done well, only breed from them again the next spring. You have somewhere on your property a pen of the best offspring from this trio from the first year. They were hatched in the spring. Let them go through the next spring and the next fall’s molt. This would be their second molt. At this point look for those birds that have retained their color. Remember you should still have the original trio also. Mate the best-colored two-year-old male to his grand mothers and mate the best-colored females to their grandfather the following spring. Now you also have a pen somewhere on your property that should contain birds from the second year’s mating of the initial trio. Again look for the very best color and get rid of the rest.

When I say look for the best color. When you first do this look primarily for under-color. All Black Tailed Whites should have slate under-color. If they don’t have good under-color discard them. The more under-color you have the better black you will have in your birds.

The difference between this process and breeding from pullets and cockerels is only a matter of one year’s waiting. And your not really just waiting without breeding. You can hatch from the original trio that second year.

This philosophy of breeding is for any multi-colored variety and really for all breeding. Breeding from two-year-old stock is a better way to improve your flock.