Ash Reds inferior?

[symbro]

two ideas here.  first looking at the ratio of ash reds to wild type blues i have knoticed

 

A) birds sent into one loft races tend to be blue and the winners also tend to be those blues (of course 3 out of 30 birds have a far less chance of winning than the 27 of 30)

 

Feral flocks are 95% wild type blues.

 

 

i am beginning to wonder if it is conscience or if hawks go after red birds more than blues...

 

Any Ideas?

[Guest Hjaltland]

Hi Symbro,

 

This is a regular topic where we live. We are not often troubled by hawks, however we do have Arctic Skuas which, in the breeding season when feeding young, do go for our pigeons - especially the young and coloured ones such as pieds and lighter coloured birds (which we call 'cream cookies!') and have been seen to kill them. Needless to say i have no reds in my loft - thats a personnal thing LOL - my friend does have mealies and has done well with them , so dont read too much into my conmments.

 

It would not be surprising to discover however, that the wild type coloring is best suited to avoiding predators. I guess it would be real interesting to do a survey of the colours which have done best  - especially over distance.

[jimmy white]

i personally think ,when the hawk wants his dinner, he wont worry to much about the colour, hell have his dinner.

[westy]

i personally think ,when the hawk wants his dinner, he wont worry to much about the colour, hell have his dinner.

and i think that jimmy if it is dead hungry it will eat anything but than again i migth be wrong.

 

 

[Guest]

Agree with the others that hawk will take anything it can catch, regardless of colour.

 

Also agree that 'red' isn't the easiest colour to hide in the wild but there are fewer reds to start with, so maybe people tend to notice it more when these are taken?  

[Rentenier]

I am going to breed some white pigeons to race. I do not know how thet will do but as i have a nice pair of white pigeons and they seem to have the right eye, I will do this this year and compare them to the others.

[symbro]

i believe whites to be inferior simply due to the fact they were breed for colour and not racing.   a few grizzles have made it into the top racers.  but i have yet to even see white birds even raced.  

 

now most white birds are redash birds with (brain fart) another gene that cause there to not be colour on the inside of the feathers.  the red ash cause no colour on the outside of the feather

 

eventually the different colour modifiers will be mixed with enough good racers to produce birds that will be able to fly with the best.  but you have to remember that our racers today have been breed generations for certain aspects and colour breeds have usually been crossbreed with other pigeons (fancy or feral) and with no consern about racing ability.

[Guest shadow]

a white bird called virgo won the young bird national a few years ago but I must admit there have not been many, on saying that a lot of fanciers would not have whites reds or mealies in there lofts.

[Guest shadow]

a white bird called virgo won the young bird national a few years ago but I must admit there have not been many, on saying that a lot of fanciers would not have whites reds or mealies in there lofts.I have won with reds and mealies, pigeons win no matter the colour.

[peterpau]

Don't be colour prejudiced we've won with black,grizzle, barless, etc

[NANCYVIEWLOFTS]

i agree with you peterpau we have only had a few pure whites over the years but have bred and raced brill bred out of the rapido busscherts but yes its true you can breed for colour but then again you can with blues also

[snowy]

hi,

got a red pied cock, paired to a pure white hen.

any ideas of the off spring??

[Marky5]

Two light red cheqs perhaps , Snowy

[jimmy white]

i would say youll get red pieds,, if you do get a pure white i bet its a hen :)