Colour Inheritance

By Bryan Frost

RED &YELLOW

Yellow is the dilute of red and is recessive to red. This means that a pure red Jacobin cock mated to a yellow hen will produce all red youngsters. The yellow colour is not lost but is hidden in the red youngsters and can be recovered by the correct mating. Colour is sex linked in pigeons. This always means that no matter how a hen is bred she is pre for the colour she appears. She contains no hidden colour factors. thus a red hen is pure red and contains no underlying yellow element. The cock on the other hand may be pure in colour but he may contain a hidden dilute colour in his make up. In Jacobins the colours have so much been bred together that in my experience nearly every red cock contains yellow blood. Therefore a red cock mated to a red hen will produce the occasional yellow hen.

The possibility's are the following with red and yellow matings: -

1.Red cock (pure for colour) to red hen: = only red youngsters of both sexes.

2.Red cock (impure with yellow blood) to red hen; = Red cocks. red hens and yellow hens. Never yellow cocks.

3.Red cock (pure) to yellow hen; = All red youngsters of both sexes.

4.Red cock (impure) to yellow hen; = Reds and yellows of both sexes.

5.Yellow cock to yellow hen: = Yellow youngsters of both sexes.

6.Yellow cock to red hen; = Red cocks and yellow hens.

In mating No.6 and to a lesser extent mating No.2 sex linkage confers and additional bore, because you can tell the sex of the youngsters by their colour.

BLACK &DUN

These follow exactly the same laws as the reds and yellows. If one reads black for the red and dun for the yellow in the above scheme, the matings work out the same for a novice it is best to stick to the mating as above red to yellow. Yellow to yellow or red to red. The same would be true of black and dun. In Jacobins duns are fairly rare and unpopular it is therefore best for the beginner to mate black to black. Once you are have had more experience they can experiment with mixing up the colours. You must then be prepared for some disappointments and surprises.

WHITE

This is actually an absence of colour in point of fact most whites have colour factors in them and if examined carefully will show odd coloured feather somewhere on their bodies. White masks these colours but hidden colour can be brought to light by the appropriate mating e.g. A white mated to a red especially if the white has a red feather or two will produce sometimes red self's and red splashes. If you wish to breed white Jacobins, your best mating is white to white.

BLUE

This was very rarely seen in this country. These days, it is becoming more common. The trouble with this colour is that it is really a pattern of black rather than a true colour in its own right. This is the weakest colour in the black/blue line. In other words black is dominant to black chequer, which is in, turn dominant to blue bars. The barring tends to be drowned out by the stronger chequering; it is not sex linked as it is a pattern not in a colour.

I hope that these notes about genetics will be of a little help to the novice Jacobin breeders. Many people find genetics a baffling subject. It is helpful to know a little about it.