Hello Mike.
White legs, possibly with a little slate-ish blotching would be about the most we could hope for. Sex-linked barring does cancel out the dermal melanin effectively. That\'s not something that bothers me much though, simply because most people understand the effect sex linked barring has on a bird\'s legs. The only alternative to work around this would be autosomal barring like in the Fayoumi and Campines, then we could have slate legs. Autosomal barring would be more involved than I have time for right now, I\'ve already got a lot of Ameraucana breeding going on.
The only reason I\'m bringing up everything that I have is that all these varieties fit in with what I\'ve been working on for the last several years. I joined the ABC back in 2004, but didn\'t get involved for various reasons. Now that I\'m getting back on my feet so to speak, I want to do what I can to help out and become more involved. For me, showing can only happen a few times a year due to my work schedule and family (7 kids) unless the shows are local (2-3 hr drive). So, breeding birds as part of a concerted effort and sharing brood stock is what I\'m most able to do right now. Knowing ahead of time if others would like chicks from any of the color/pattern projects I\'m working with will allow me to hatch more, with those folks in mind. Otherwise I\'ll hatch less, just for what my improvement needs are.
The Black Gold, Brown Red and Birchen colors are spectacular! The only patterns that get my heart beating more are the laced patterns. Fortunately for me, some of the best lacing comes from birchen birds, because you can draw the lacing right in to the tail.
So for me birchen and laced breeding projects go hand in hand. I\'m really excited about picking up on the Black Golds!
Lavender is an unusual gene, one that I\'ve been wanting to study for a long time. I\'ve seen good lines of Old English that didn\'t have the brassiness, but, you can still get varying shades of lavender as well as some with darker lacing on the feathers. Mealiness is the fault to avoid from what I\'ve seen. I guess there\'s only one way to find out, lol.
Thanks for the support Mike, although you didn\'t look \"that old\", I can understand where you\'re coming from. I haven\'t been breeding for nearly as long as you have so hopefully I have enough miles left to go this time around to see some of these endeavors come to fruition. Of all the birds I have/had, Sumatras and Ameraucanas are two that I can\'t imagine being without.
Regards,
Dan Demarest
Missouri