Brown red vs Black Gold

[Guest]

How is the brown red different than a black gold? From the pictures I have seen, they both are birchen (crow wing) and gold.

Tim

[Mike Gilbert]

Tim,
Genetically they are very similar except for modifiers.
The black gold variety should be laced AND shafted as much as possible, especially in the females.    Brown reds are to be laced only on the upper half of the breast, and shafting is considered a detriment.    Further, brown reds in the Ameraucana breed should be an orange-red color and black, while black golds should be more of a yellow-gold color and black.   In both colors, the males tend to be darker than the females.    Both are based on birchen at the e-locus.   Think of black golds as an over-laced and heavily shafted brown red with modifiers that lighten the orange to yellow-gold.
Good question;   thanks for asking.

[grisaboy]

I saw a picture of a Mealy Gray OE the other day and started wondering if the Black Gold color might be the gold version of Mealy Gray. At least there are some smilarities and there might be lessons to learn from the Mealy Gray genetics.
One site suggests that Mealy Gray comes from crossing Birchen and Columbian.  This is essentially what you get when you cross Brown Red and Buff.  Check out these web sites and see what you think.

Curtis
http://www.pekinbantams.com/experiments.asp
http://www.bantychicken.com/OEGBCA/vmealygray.html

[John]

While I was out with the camera I took some photos of started bantam brown reds and this looks like a good place to post them.

[Mike Gilbert]

Nice looking birds, John.   Just keep working to eliminate the remaining shafting in the breast area.  But these look nice.

[Jean]

Could someone explain again what the difference between striping, stippling and shafting is.....

Thanks,

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

Jean,
Shafting is the light colored shaft on a dark feather.  It appears to give the feather a center stripe.   Striping is the dark center of a feather that is lighter on the outside edges, most notably in hackle and saddle feathers.   Silver males, for example, should have hackle and saddle striping.   Stippling is comprised of the fine dots on a body feather, as in silver females.   The finer the stippling, the more even a color the feather will be - which is desireable.   A common fault of silver females is shafting in the body feathers where there should only be stippling.   I think these terms are covered in the Standard of Perfection\'s glossary, but have not looked at it for many moons.

[Guest]

It may be that the brown red is not columian restricted and the black gold is columbian restricted. It is my undertsanding that the mealy gray is a silver brichen. To get the mealy color the bird can not have black intensifiers.

Tim

[Jean]

Thanks Mike!

I don\'t have an SOP yet as I have been spending my $$ on feed, medications and vaccines lately.

I think I have it down now.  So, in wheatens striping is bad--silvers good.

Shafting -- bad??

Stippling -- good in silver females

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

Jean,
Yes, good or bad depends on the variety.   Shafting is very desireable in black golds, undesireable in most other varieties.
Male hackle striping is required for silvers, a fault in wheatens and blue wheatens.   Required also for brown reds.  And so it goes.   Access to the S.O.P. is invaluable.

[John]

SOP

:thinking:
Oooh...now i get it...I think.
I\'ve had a Standard Operating Procedure ever since I bought a Standard Of Perfection.

[Mike Gilbert]

Wait - I think S.O.P. means Surly Old Porcupine;  no that\'s too self descriptive.

Seriously, a black and white standard only costs about about $10 now, including shipping & handling.   If anyone can afford a bag of feed they can afford a Standard.