# Yellow to Yellow Homers



## Edison (Mar 9, 2011)

Is it okay to breed Yellow to Yellow? Would I get 100% yellow offsprings?

Thanks in advance.


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

yes, if your talking about recessive yellow to recessive yellow


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## Henk69 (Feb 25, 2010)

Why not also for ashyellow?


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

Henk69 said:


> Why not also for ashyellow?


Because an ash-red dilute cock can be heterozygous for alleles at the b locus.


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## Henk69 (Feb 25, 2010)

indigobob said:


> Because an ash-red dilute cock can be heterozygous for alleles at the b locus.


Can be, but doesn't need to be. Once you know he is pure, they should breed true.

Here in Holland it is often advised not to breed (any) yellow to yellow.
Instead they promote crossing back to the undiluted color for intensity.
I wonder why they say that, because genetically it doesn't make sense to me.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

With recessive yellow, yes, 100%. Certain things they are carrying may alter the look but they will still be recessive yellow.
With ash-yellow, you will get all ash-yellows unless the cockbird is split for blue or brown, in which you would get mostly ash-yellows with some silver (or khaki if carrying brown instead) hens.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Henk69 said:


> Can be, but doesn't need to be. Once you know he is pure, they should breed true.
> 
> Here in Holland it is often advised not to breed (any) yellow to yellow.
> Instead they promote crossing back to the undiluted color for intensity.
> I wonder why they say that, because genetically it doesn't make sense to me.


That makes no sense to me either. Once you get dirty factors or whatever they like to make it more "intense", you wouldn't need to back track and mate with intense birds.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Also, the only matings you need to worry about are:

Dominant opal to dominant opal = will give you 25% of the offspring dead in the shell or soon after hatching. They rarely make it to breeding age.

Almond to almond = 25% will have bladder eyes/eye issues.

Silky to silky = 25% will look like porcupines with very brittle feathers. Most are quite bald and would not do well with the cold and may have issues mounting hens since their flights would be sticks (and obviously make them unable to fly).


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## indigobob (Nov 12, 2008)

Henk69 said:


> Can be, but doesn't need to be. Once you know he is pure, they should breed true.
> 
> Here in Holland it is often advised not to breed (any) yellow to yellow.
> Instead they promote crossing back to the undiluted color for intensity.
> I wonder why they say that, because genetically it doesn't make sense to me.



You didn't say he was pure!  - I just gave you the option if he wasn't


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

I am not sure why, but the dilutes and extreme dilutes (as well as the khaki) seem to have more infertility problems than my intense blues and reds.

I have had problems with khaki hens in particular, giving me lots of infertile eggs, no matter which proven cock I put to them. 

I had an extreme dilute hen that bred only females, and I gave her away after the 4th set of consecutive females. Similarly I have a dilute hen that also breeds mostly females and has 2 out of every 4 eggs infertile. 

Could this be a reason for the old hands not breeding yellows (or indeed any dilutes) together indefinitely? Or are my results just the luck of the draw.

I think the breeding problems might have to do with the dilution factor. If I had enough space, I would perform breeding tests to confirm, but currently I just don't have the resources. Maybe after twenty years of keeping accurate records, I could pull some useful info from my database, though only time will tell.


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## sev3ns0uls (Jul 2, 2011)

rudolph.est said:


> I am not sure why, but the dilutes and extreme dilutes (as well as the khaki) seem to have more infertility problems than my intense blues and reds.
> 
> I have had problems with khaki hens in particular, giving me lots of infertile eggs, no matter which proven cock I put to them.
> 
> ...


interesting... i bought a young khaki hen and a recessive yellow young cock which im planning to breed them together this spring to get some beautiful birds. Now im not so sure and a little worry..


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## george simon (Feb 28, 2006)

Henk69 said:


> Can be, but doesn't need to be. Once you know he is pure, they should breed true.
> 
> Here in Holland it is often advised not to breed (any) yellow to yellow.
> Instead they promote crossing back to the undiluted color for intensity.
> I wonder why they say that, because genetically it doesn't make sense to me.


*Hi HENK, When I was into racing there were many racing people that felt that the light color feathers were weaker. Some even felt that light colored birds were weak and they would not have any in their loft.* GEORGE


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## Print Tippler (May 18, 2011)

Evidence on this has never been presented. Maybe a racer should take a picture of it one day. Sounds like one of those fables that just keeps getting passed around till people believe it because that's what everyone says.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

If white flights, white birds, and light colored birds in general were weak and "no good", then why have I seen so many successful whites, grizzles, whiteflights, etc? Most of them are long distance birds too. So whenever that is brought up in person I shoot it down. The only feathers that may be weaker are brown because they do fade and fray more quickly than others. Time their moult to where they have a fresh set of flights before racing starts and you'll be good. And don't fly it every single weekend. Still, some birds have poor feathers, some don't. They'll eventually weed themselves out no matter what color they are.
People also seem to think whites are more easily hit by hawks and I haven't found that to be true either. I've had birds of every color targeted, hit, and/or killed.


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## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

I think a lot of these ideas come about as the rarer colours win less races overall as there are less of them overall, It comes down to odds, There are so many blue checks and bars that ofcourse more of the races will be won by this majority.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

MaryOfExeter said:


> If white flights, white birds, and light colored birds in general were weak and "no good", then why have I seen so many successful whites, grizzles, whiteflights, etc? Most of them are long distance birds too. So whenever that is brought up in person I shoot it down. The only feathers that may be weaker are brown because they do fade and fray more quickly than others. Time their moult to where they have a fresh set of flights before racing starts and you'll be good. And don't fly it every single weekend. Still, some birds have poor feathers, some don't. They'll eventually weed themselves out no matter what color they are.
> People also seem to think whites are more easily hit by hawks and I haven't found that to be true either. I've had birds of every color targeted, hit, and/or killed.


I agree with everyone on the fact that the rarer colors can still be good racers, but I do have to point out that dilutes, browns and especially khaki do have some feather quality issues.

I think it might be related to the bleaching that is so evident in these colors. My khaki and dilute hens' feathers seem to be more brittle than those of my other colors. It is even possible to feel the difference in feather quality of browns vs. blues. I've very rarely seen broken wing or tail feather in a any other color, yet my khaki hen seems to have at least one broken/bent flight every year before the molt as did my brown hen. My brown indigo hen does not show the same brittle feathers. 

I wonder if this would affect ash-yellows, since they don't really bleach that much?

These are just my experiences and by no means do I have any scientific proof, but it could be worth investigating.


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