Colour Breeding in Jacobins
By Paul McNorgan
Breeding of the blacks and whites can be carried out
successfully by using the same method as when breeding
the reds or yellows. Colours can be crossed into them
when a certain bird of another colour has certain points
that are lacking in the whites or blacks.
Whites may be crossed into the colours and good percentage of the young will be white the first cross. Although reds and yellows would seem to be the best owing to their colouring being the only on the outer edge of their feather and the under colour being white. The blacks having a solid black colour seems the most unlikely colour to cross with the whites and obtain whites the first cross. However it does not work out this way as whites will come from black and white with about the same frequency as when whites are crossed with the reds or yellows.
Most young whites emerge from the nest showing colour and might be termed splashes. Generally those young splashes will moult out white. If not in the first year they may still come white in the second or third year. One should not hesitate to breed these young splashes together if such a pair combine the qualities required.
In white breeding there are certain feathers that seem to retain their colour through several moults. Coloured feathers in the wing butts and shoulders as well as those appearing under the beak and around the eyes generally retain their colour. Coloured feathers in the wing flights usually moult white although I have found that most young whites do not moult their secondary flight feathers the first year and if these are coloured. Be removing them one at a time they will be white when replaced by the new feather.
Blacks can't be crossed into the reds or yellows as easily as the whites. However a black cock crossed onto a yellow hen will produce black hens and red straw cocks. This is the only combination of black crossed onto either red or yellow that will produce blacks in the first generation.
Kites wither red or black bred seem to be the most useful cock and a good percentage of the young will be black. The same kite hen can be used with a yellow cock she will produce yellow hens and kite or red cocks. The same kite hen can be successfully used on whites. I have never used a kite hen on the blues or silvers but I am quite sure that a silver cock crossed onto a kite hen will produce silver hens the first cross. Kite cocks work well when used on the blacks but unlike the hen produce a percentage of kites. Some blacks are prone to throw kites and duns. When this occurs it will most likely be caused by both parent birds being of a poor colour. The blacks that carry the green metallic sheen throughout the entire body feathering seldom produce a kite or a dun. The blacks that have a dull colour with no luster throughout the body, and a cooper or bronze sheen are the ones that breed the duns and kites.
Duns also work well with the blacks with the exception of the golden dun which is the product of the yellows. These duns differ in colour. The yellow or golden dun is more of a light brownish colour that shows a trace of the yellow intermingled with the brown. The black bred dun is probably the true dun colour but is an olive colour with a greenish sheen. Both are dilutes and are short downed. When using the golden duns with blacks they should be considered as yellows.
To improve the colour of the blacks the whites seem to produce that intense black colour with sheen quicker than any other colour combinations, while the whites bred from these mating seem to have a different tone of white. Since just about any colours can be crossed and the desired colour obtained in the second generation, fanciers should not hesitate to breed different colours together if mating can be found by doing this.
