# Qualmond or Almond



## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

I've worked with almond color for a long time but I'm not well acquainted with qualmond. Can someone tell me if this young cock is a qualmond or an almond? What is the distinguishing difference? 
Thanks in advance.


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm no expert on qualmond but it doesn't look almond to be so my guess is qualmond


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## jabadao (Jun 11, 2011)

For me it's a qualmond.


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## Pouter Guy (Oct 11, 2012)

Qualmond for me aswell. Is this a hen? Would u be interested in selling if it is a hen?

Thanks


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## Pouter Guy (Oct 11, 2012)

tmaas,i just looked at ur albums and i must say that u have some beutiful rare colored homers!

Thanks


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

The reason for which I ask this is because I have always suspected that qualmond is no more than almond with other modifiers rather than a separate genetic factor, but have never introduced, nor bred, any qualmonds in my flock. This bird was bred from these pictured parents, without any intent to produce a qualmond looking bird. The almond father was bred from a blue check kite cock and a classic almond hen. The dilute, smokey, etc.??? blue check mother was bred from a dilute rr cock and brown check hen. If this young cock qualifies as a qualmond then my birds have confirmed my suspicion for me. 

Sorry Poster Guy, he's not for sale yet. I'm planning to see what he produces when mated to a kite blue t-check hen.


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## LisaNewTumbler (Jun 24, 2013)

I've been trying to find a discussion here where they spoke about almond and qualmond but I cannot for the life of me find it.

I only read it in passing and I cannot tell you 100% what it said. But as far as I understood Almond and qualmond are the same gene. The only difference is the colours in it.....and now comes the part I'm really not sure about. That qualmond is an almond on a blue based bird??? Or that qualmond only shows blues??? sorry wish I could remember the specifics, they explained it really clearly. I'll try again. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place and it wasn't PT at all but youtube or something :/


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## LisaNewTumbler (Jun 24, 2013)

well scratch that, absolutely cannot find the link.

read on angelfire that they are alles of each other, but still don't know the definition of a qualmond. They do look pretty different though. 

Falconlofts.com has some pretty awesome pictures if you want to check it out


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

Interesting theory tmass. I know almond comes in many variations and some of those variations could look like qualmond. I believe qualmond is not lethal however almond is. You could test your theory by breeding more like this and then breed them to each other.


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## tmaas (May 17, 2012)

Thanks folks, I'll be doing more experimenting with this bird and report back next year. I may ultimately do just what you suggested, Evan, but that'll be a couple seasons down the road.


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## Chuck K (Jan 12, 2013)

I have also suspected that qualmond is just the almond gene with different factors in the genetic make up of the bird. 

I borrowed an almond hen from a friend, and paired her with a kite cock bird that carries recessive red. I bred three young cock birds off her out of that pairing. 

Two of the three cocks are just like the hen which was your typical black / white looking almond. An expression of almond which I believe is just lacking genes for bronze and recessive red. These two cock birds have grown more flecked as they age which is also typical of almonds.

The third cock bird is very similar to the bird in the OPs original post. He has the typical almond base color of classical almonds with a golden looking neck, a faint showing of bronze bars with very little flecking. What slight flecking is present is reddish instead of bronze or black.

I have two young hens in the nest off him paired to a T-Pat blue self hen, and at this stage they both look very similar in color to the cock.


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

I think if its lethal its almond if its not its qualmond.


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## Chuck K (Jan 12, 2013)

I'll try to post a picture of the two cock birds in the next couple of days. One looks like most of the pictures of a typical Qualmond with a golden neck, slight bronze bar showing, and an yellow ground color with little flecking. The other is the typical black and white flecked almond. They were nestmates raised in a individual breeding pen. The hen carried the almond factor. The cock was a blue T-Pattern carrying recessive red, and roller bronze. Since almond is sex linked, and the hen can only carry one allele for almond, the differing expression in the two sons has to be from the same gene with different combinations of moderating genes. The hen cannot carry qualmond and almond at the same time.

I have seen this result in other matings with almond. When the almond is a cock you could have both alleles, almond and qualmond, present but not in a hen.


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## Chuck K (Jan 12, 2013)

These pictures are the two almond cock birds. The first in the first two pics looks like a faded type to me, but as he ages he is getting a little more flecking. 
The adult photo is a little washed because my white balance was off. It caused the bronze bar to wash out to a very light. It is a little darker than shown in the photo.



















The second one is a typical blue black and white almond. I believe this bird lacks the bronze factor and possibly recessive red that shows in the first one.
He too is getting more flecking as he ages. Both birds were last years birds.


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

why does almond seem more prone to somatic mutation mosaicism? sometimes we see a black feather on an ash red almond hen!? why do almonds revert back to non-almond phenotype as they age?


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm not sure any of the above birds look much like Qualmond at all. I thought qualmonds were typically darker versions of almond with larger flecking and sometimes more flecking.


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## Chuck K (Jan 12, 2013)

Mutations are very rare. I don't believe the same gene has mutated multiple times. In order for the almond series to exist. The wild type gene at that locus would have to have mutated no less than seven times to produce almond, qualmond, hickory, faded, frosty, sandy, and chalky.

I don't think that happened. I think the almond expression in all these variants is caused by the same gene with a multitude of modifiers. The Deroy birds are an example of this in action. If the we did not know that homozygous recessive red was present then deroy would be just another "gene" in the almond series. The modifier genes may well be closely linked to the almond locus which could be the reason some of these variants appear to be breeding true.

The two cock birds I posted came from the same hen. One could be identified as sandy or faded in my opinion. The other is the typical blue/black almond where no bronze or recessive red is present. The original hen was blue/black. I am posting a picture of her and the sire below. For these two to come out with different genes as the different expression shows a mutation would have to have occurred. I have seen this combination occur at least once before. Mutations don't come along that consistently, but recombinations of genes through cross-over does. These examples are the reason I have a hard time believing in seven different allelles at the same locus for almond.


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## thepigeonkey (Oct 12, 2011)

Soon we will know Chuck


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