# Rare colored homer definition



## firingo (Jan 6, 2012)

If the three basic colors are blue/black, Ash red and brown, I can say that the all other different color on homer is a rare colored.
For example, Grizzle is a rare color?
Thanks.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

No. All pigeons are ash-red, blue, or brown by the way. Grizzle is technically a color modifier. But anyway, rare colors in any breed are just that - colors that are hard to find. Grizzles are everywhere. Lemon, Ember, Reduced, Rubella, Almond (all the St genes), Cherry, Recessive Opal, Gimple, most bronzes, Frill Stencil, Toy Stencil, etc are what I would consider "rare colors". Indigo, Dominant Opal, Brown, and the dilutes are uncommon but not rare. Some becoming more common than others. Some are more limited to certain strains/families, like recessive red/yellow in Trentons and Meulemans while blacks are more common in Black Diamonds and Black Eagles (no surprise there). When you are like me and know several people breeding "rare" and "uncommon" colors and can spot them nothing really seems rare or uncommon anymore unless it is non-existant in the breed or still a project. But the most common colors you'll find are blue, then ash-red, and then piebalds and grizzles in both colors.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

As always Becky is absolutely right. Rare colored homers are called exactly that, because the colors are rare.

I don't know if I would make the same distinction as her about uncommon colors and rare colors, they are pretty much the same to me. I also think that colors that are still projects or non-existent should not be called rare, but non-existent instead.

Common homer genes (they are relatively easy to find anywhere in the world) - blue, ash-red, bar, check, T-pattern, different pied genes (including white flight pied) and grizzle. Smoky sooty and dirty also seem to be rather common.

Rare colors / genes (hard to find in non-genetics circles, non-existent in some countries):
Indigo, spread, brown, barless, tiger grizzle, cherry and recessive opal, dominant opal, dilute, reduced and rubella, anthrazit, lemon, the almond alleles (almond, qualmond, frosty etc.)

Known projects (mostly in the US) and non-existent genes:
Pale
Toy and frill stencil (some very good homer type birds already exist, but I don't know how well they perform in races)
Archangel bronze (some good examples exists, but I have yet to see the intense bronze seen in gimpels, I also have no performance data for these projects)
Ice as well as kite and other bronzes


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## firingo (Jan 6, 2012)

That's make sane.
Thanks.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well what I was saying is that nothing is all that rare or uncommon to be because I am in those genetic circles  Unless it is being worked on or a dream that has yet to be started. Indigo here isn't really rare. Dominant opal and brown aren't either. But you definitely aren't going to find them in every loft. 
It would be wonderful if the color homer people would race or at least road train their birds out to 100 or so miles. Only a few I know of do that. Andrew Ruybal is one of them. He tests them before he sells them and has some pretty birds.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Well what I was saying is that nothing is all that rare or uncommon to be because I am in those genetic circles  Unless it is being worked on or a dream that has yet to be started. Indigo here isn't really rare. Dominant opal and brown aren't either. But you definitely aren't going to find them in every loft.
> It would be wonderful if the color homer people would race or at least road train their birds out to 100 or so miles. Only a few I know of do that. Andrew Ruybal is one of them. He tests them before he sells them and has some pretty birds.


I tend to try to define rare in terms of % of total population. Even though indigo is much easier to find than dilute recessive red, it is still rare, because less than 1 in 100 birds I see for sale or in races or in most lofts is an indigo bird. 1% is rare right? There is no real rule though. Most of the time, when I show an 'old hand' homer breeder one of my indigo birds, I emphatically get told that it cannot be a pure homer (someone must have bred a fancy into it), similarly with lemons and recessive reds. That is still even the case with recessive whites. A lot of the racers would say that they only keep whites as release doves, since whites are not racing homers and will never win a race. These attitudes are one of the reasons why the rare colors are rare in the first place. Most racing enthusiasts do not trust birds that have strange colors.

I would love to race my birds, especially just to confuse people with the colors, but sadly, my work and home life does not currently allow for that kind of commitment in time and money. Maybe one day ... I do know that a couple of people in SA do race their rare colors competitively, a blue head (homozygous indigo) even won some of the local races a couple of years ago. I test most of my birds to about 100 km or so, though some I keep some of the rare combinations prisoner because I cannot bear to lose them.

I think it is important that the rare colors are tested (and strongly selected) just like the blue bars and checks. Otherwise color homers will become a fancy breed, instead of the beautiful athletes they should be.


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## firingo (Jan 6, 2012)

That's is what I what to do, no only breed rare colored homer, but let then fly from 50 to 100 miles, I will start with short distance and increase up to 100 miles.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

I guess Indigo is not rare to me because I have a few of them and almost all of my club members do as well. "Chocolates" are not uncommon here.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

firingo said:


> That's is what I what to do, no only breed rare colored homer, but let then fly from 50 to 100 miles, I will start with short distance and increase up to 100 miles.


Train the rare colors just like you would any other homer. There is really no difference. Just be aware you might loose some birds when conditions are not favorable, especially on the longer tosses.



MaryOfExeter said:


> I guess Indigo is not rare to me because I have a few of them and almost all of my club members do as well. "Chocolates" are not uncommon here.


Indigo isn't rare to me either, about a third of my birds are Indgo (it tends to take over since it is dominant). Soon I will have to start treating indigos as more common than blues  Similarly, a quarter of my birds are spread. Due to a dilute cock I bred last season (from a split and his mother), the ratio of dilute to intense is also increasing (1:10). 

Are the indigos in the different lofts in your club related? Where did the original "Chocolate" stock area come from? I assume that people in the club shared these "chocolates" with each other - either because the color intrigued them (though few will admit it) or because the original stock was a good racer. I wish that would happen with some of the other rare colors too, all it takes is a single good performer of the rare color, and people might start taking them seriously.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

A few people got indigos from one of the members that had good indigo birds. But me and 3 other members have completely unrelated indigo families.


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## firingo (Jan 6, 2012)

What about almond, is rare color?
What color they used to created.

Regards


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

rudolph.est said:


> As always Becky is absolutely right. Rare colored homers are called exactly that, because the colors are rare.
> 
> I don't know if I would make the same distinction as her about uncommon colors and rare colors, they are pretty much the same to me. I also think that colors that are still projects or non-existent should not be called rare, but non-existent instead.
> 
> ...


I have some kite in my racing pigeons.The first is het kite and het RR.


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

firingo said:


> What about almond, is rare color?
> What color they used to created.
> 
> Regards


Almond is a gene,you must have almond for produce almond.
One of my hen:Almond blue bar het RR.


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

Other colors in my loft:

Opale dominant,reduced,andalusian,qualmond....

Here's a young cock opale dominant blue bar and a hen reduced blue T-pattern.


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

Cock qualmond blue bar het reduced


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## firingo (Jan 6, 2012)

They are nice looking birds, do you fly? how long?


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

Kites,andalusian and opale dominant fly races up to 800 km.
Almond and qualmond next year, I have them since only 1 year.


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## glosboy (Nov 7, 2013)

Hi Please can somebody help me with advice, im trying to introduce white bar in to my homers. Ido not race ok. I have a dominant opal male, andalusion with brown bar , plus I have pair of starlings black with white bar (toy stencil) what is best way to get the project started, as in uk white bar homers are pretty none existing, Many thanks,Howard


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## Pouter Guy (Oct 11, 2012)

*Racing rare colored homers*



MaryOfExeter said:


> Well what I was saying is that nothing is all that rare or uncommon to be because I am in those genetic circles  Unless it is being worked on or a dream that has yet to be started. Indigo here isn't really rare. Dominant opal and brown aren't either. But you definitely aren't going to find them in every loft.
> It would be wonderful if the color homer people would race or at least road train their birds out to 100 or so miles. Only a few I know of do that. Andrew Ruybal is one of them. He tests them before he sells them and has some pretty birds.


Hey Becky,
I will be racing about 12-15 of my rare colored birds in the NC combine in 2014. Excited to see how good they perform. I have a nice opal grizzle hen that is a nestmate sister that placed between 1st-3rd in every race in 2011. She was flown out to 350 miles.

Thanks


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## Abdulbaki (Jul 31, 2013)

IMO Color homers should be traited just like any regular homer unless we want to make them fancy or show type pigeons, which gonna be a significant loss to the game and the birds. 
people lose normal homers as well so why don't they trust color homers?
I knew people racing with white homers & they did pretty much good and got their birds in the top 3s


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## glosboy (Nov 7, 2013)

I never meant to offend anyone. guess when people introduce new colours they must do crosses, how else do we get them.


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