Tailfeathers wrote: \"Btw, before I forget, can somebody tell me when the W & BW were accepted into the APA for LF? I don\'t remember seeing that anywhere in the SOP. \"
It\'s in there Royce. All the large fowl varieties were accepted by the APA in 1984, a year after our qualifying meet (for bantams btw) was held at the Ohio National.
I did not mean to stir up a firestorm of controversy. But I will draw a line in the sand where it comes to primary breed characteristics. For the record, I am not opposed to the Chocolates being developed and admitted someday if enough folks jump on the bandwagon. They have the slate dermis that is required for the breed. The epidermis (outer layer of skin) of the shanks often takes on the color of the pigment in the feathers in E, E^R, and e^b based birds, because the feathers are just an extension of the epidermis. Thus black pigment creeps into the leg epidermis because of black feathering. Reddish epidermis pigment creeps into the shanks from partridge and red birds. And chocolate coloring will creep into the shank epidermis from birds with chocolate feathers. But any bird without a dark dermis, e.g., barred, mottled, etc., is never going to qualify short of a minor miracle. There are other very good reasons besides leg color not to allow barred. It has been scientifically demonstrated that slow feathering is necessary to get crisp barring, and it has also been proven that slow feathering birds are more susceptible to Marek\'s disease. Anyone is free to mess around with any color they desire, but don\'t expect wholehearted acceptance by the Ameraucana community when primary breed characteristics are missing.