W & BW Wing & Tail Color

[Tailfeathers]

I just sold some POL pullets and couldn't resist running in to get my phone and snap these pics of a BW pullet.  This is the best wing color I've had yet.   The W pics are of the pullet I took to the show St. Patty's Day weekend.   JFYI, I pulled its wings down so I could snap the pic and show the color.

You might also note the pretty even coloration throughout the body.  What you won't see on the BW is why I sold her.  That was a tough one to let go.

[Mike Gilbert]

 Pretty nice.    I'm guessing the reason you let her go has something to do with shank coloring?

[Tailfeathers]

Yup.  I've got one of her brothers in a pen over some Buckeyes right now.  I'm hoping I find out he's homozygous.  I've also got one pullet that's not quite as nice as this one, but pretty good, and I'm thinking she's homozygous on leg color.

My original plan for this year was to color test the males for leg color first and then a few of my best females and get to homozygous leg color.  But now I'm seeing females like this one that I'm pretty sure are hetero and I've got a pretty nice BW cockerel with clean hackles and the lighter color of hackles, saddle, and better wing bay and bows that I think is hetero too.  So now I'm thinking I may go ahead and breed some of these hetero birds and just select out for the darkest leg color and cull any yellow or willow and hopefully all the hetero that I get too.

The two pullets I took to the show, I'm pretty sure, are hetero and they did fine.  If you look at the pic of the Wheaten you can see she's a little light on leg color.