Comments on Feathered Champions: Rare Colored Homing Pigeons

Whites may very well be a poor example, but white ...

2007-08-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

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.

White was probably a bad example. White is not a ...

2007-08-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

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.

At least you see how difficult a goal you have cho...

2007-08-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

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.

For something like the recessive yellow is much ha...

2007-08-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

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.

I agree. The more recessive the trait the harder ...

2007-08-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

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.

I think many of us racing pigeon specialist still ...

2007-08-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

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.