Within the homing pigeon fancy there are two divisions. First there is the racing pigeon fancier who's primary focus is racing performance. Color is almost never a factor in breeding. In the show breed color and genetic factors of the phenotype are the main factor, and performance may not be a factor at all. Both types of fanciers though enjoy the same special homing pigeon but with two comletely different goals. Occasionally there are the fanciers who specialize in one but dabble in the other.
Within the two types of fanciers there are two types of shows. In the show breeds, the birds are separated into color classes and any flaw within a color will easily disqualify a bird or the bird will be moved to the "any other color" (AOC) class. In the racing community shows have a diploma class in which performance birds need to have earned a diplomas by scoring in a sanctioned race to enter the show. Within the show, the birds are usually divided by sex and by distance class. Both shows will stil demand a high quality pigeon, but it's very interesting to see the difference in judging.
Within the racing pigeon lines, many rarer colors still are present such as, self or spread, dilute, opal, faded, recessive red, whites and indigos. I'm sure there are others, but these are the one's I've personally seen the most of. I personally have self (black), opal, indigo, recessive red, barless (in both blue and brown) and dilute. Thanks to Randall Carney for the barless birds. Using mulitple traits, I would like to have the rarer colors that score up to the long distance. In addition, I am working towards creating a family of recessive yellows, yellows, browns, barless and blacks.
Regardless of which type fancier you may be, what color types of homing pigeons do you keep? If you are of the show breeds, do you work with a racing enthusiast to maintain color classes which also maintain a racing performance? If you are a racing enthusiast, what genetic traits have perhaps accidentally shown up in your breeding program?
For an excellent reference for understanding rare colors in homing pigeons check out Ron Huntley's website: http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Rare Colored Homing Pigeons
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6 comments:
I think many of us racing pigeon specialist still like to see a beautiful colored or unique bird in our loft. And it is tempting to try to create a nice colored bird that can win races. I have great respect for anyone that can do it other than the grizzles which can be mated to normal colored birds and still begat grizzle youngsters.
As an old plant breeder I cannot tell you how difficult it is to select for more than one trait at a time and still be successful. Let's take the barless character for example. You must select for barless first and flying ability second or you will not have many barless birds in your loft. To date it plenty difficult for me to develop a family of birds that win for me even when I will take any bird of any color. To specify that it must be a specific color and win, well that will be a lifelong task and extremely difficult to accomplish. However, this is a goal and a young man may want to try and accomplish it.
I agree. The more recessive the trait the harder to select. I have a barless blue cock and a barless brown hen both with long distance winning pedigrees. These I am most hopefull for. The strategy I hope to employ is to mate them both with my best peforming long distance stock and then if any of those young score at the long distance then to mate them back to the parents to bring back the recessive traits.
For something like the recessive yellow is much harder. You have to have both ressive red and "dilute" which when combined creates the recessive yellow effect. That will require a lot of work.
At least you see how difficult a goal you have chosen. Many people jump into it without realizing the size of the task. I see it most in the white birds. Everyone wants a pure white racer and if you cross a white bird to a colored racer, it can take forever (well maybe that is extreme) to get back to an all white bird. So,everyone crosses white to white and hopes to get a fast racer. THE GENES FOR RACING MUST BE IN THE GENE POOL. You must fish where the fish are. If your white gene pool is deficient in the good genes for racing, then you can cross white to white forever and never get a decent racer. Because you are depending on genetic mutation to improve your white birds. YOu would need to breed thousands of birds to expect one mutation and it could either be a good or bad mutation. So, take the hard road but the only road if you are serious. Outcross to colored birds, get some decent racers then look for your white progeny. Good luck.
White was probably a bad example. White is not a color but a lack of a color. White also be caused by various genes and not one single gene. Examples are dominant white, recessive white, environmental white, grizzle white, gazi white etc. Environment white is caused when the embryo in the shell is developing. The pigment cells which will later develop feathers start on the head area and work their way down. A disruption in this process leads to environmental white. Maybe that's one reason we see so many pieds in racing homers. We don't select for it, but it always can occur in development.
Whites may very well be a poor example, but white color or lack of color is a color or lack of color that many flyers like to see in their loft. I think it is a beautiful bird and one that I would like to have in my loft if I could find some that could fly.
I do not consider a grizzle as white because you will never get a pure white bird. The albinos are nice but usually too weak to survive rather less fly.
Anyway, as you said it is complicated. Many caged bird breeders are on the constant lookout for new color mutations and can make a fortune if they can find one that is beautiful to the eye and can be fixed as a trait. I'm looking for genes to make em fly faster and if I ever get a true champion, he will probabally be a blue bar or blue check. And I will be one happy camper.
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