# color question



## ohiogsp (Feb 24, 2006)

I have a pair of pigeons here the cock is a red velvet color with white flights and the flights have the dirty look to them even though they are not. The hen is a blue check. My question is this year for YB's they bred me a very good bird and it was black. I lost this bird last weekend but my question is how often might this happen? I don't have pedigrees on these birds so I don't know the parents colors.


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## learning (May 19, 2006)

ohiogsp said:


> I have a pair of pigeons here the cock is a red velvet color with white flights and the flights have the dirty look to them even though they are not. The hen is a blue check. My question is this year for YB's they bred me a very good bird and it was black. I lost this bird last weekend but my question is how often might this happen? I don't have pedigrees on these birds so I don't know the parents colors.


I have several reds that when paired to blue checks or blue bars tend to throw what I would call dark checks. I would say almost half of the young are this way.

Dan


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

I will move your thread to the appropriate forum.

Thank you.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Sounds like the velvet is split for blue*

I'm not sure what you mean by dirty but I'm guessing it's just the normal ash red color in flights and tail, silvery gray. The bird must also have black flecks in wings and tail which means he is split for blue. Mate him to a blue hen and you will get ash reds and blues. The dark ones are T pattern blues which people call dark checks or black checks. True black requires the spread factor which it does not sound like you have in the pair.

It also sounds like the ash red is only heterozygous for velvet (t pattern) which will probably result in one of these dark blue birds at a rate of one in eight. Another one in eight should be like dad. I believe the rest would be made up of red checks and blue checks. I think this would be your results if I have the parents figured out.

Bill


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## ohiogsp (Feb 24, 2006)

Here is the cock bird.

This pair has all kinds of different colors but mostly some form of red. 

Thanks for the help.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*He looks like ash red velvet to me*

It also appears that he has the flecking that indicates that he carries blue. For this pair to have any blue or blackish youngsters, he has to be split for blue.

He also has some odd mottling going on, which may indicate another modifier such as dirty, sooty or smoky. I think sooty is the one that makes these variations in the shield area and makes the red look somewhat mottled. This gene has somewhat of an overall darkening of color and he does look darker than a typical ash red velvet.

Bill


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## ohiogsp (Feb 24, 2006)

Thanks, and like I think you said the yb I am talking about is very dark check accually. Not black but you have to look at his belly and see it is not black but a dark check.


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