indigobob1

The sex-linkage is the other way round: Ash-red hen to blue/black cock gives blue/black hens and ash-red sons with black flecking indicating they are carrying blue/black. Pure ash-red (mealy)cock to blue/black hen will give only ash-red young of both sexes, sons will show blue/black flecking. If the ash-red cock is carrying blue, the young will be ash-red cocks and hens and blue/black cocks and hens.

As stated above, the colour of the young will depend on what the recessive yellow of the cock is masking; blue or ash-red or both. One thing is certain, all the daughters will be dilute and all the sons will be intense-coloured, but carry dilute. There are a number of variables that will dictate the colour of the young; Masked by the recessive yellow, the cock could be blue bar/blue chequer, red bar/red chequer, he could also be spread. If the black hen is homozygous spread i.e. S(black)//S(black), all the young will be spread, she could also carry recessive red. If she is not homozygous spread, some of the colours listed below could be produced. The possibilities are: Black, dun, blue bar, blue chequer, dilute blue bar, dilute blue chequer, spread ash-red, dilute spread ash-red, red bar, yellow bar, red chequer, yellow chequer, recessive red, recessive yellow. If, for example, the cock is pure for ash-red dilute (under the recessive red dilute) and the hen is pure for spread and not carrying recessive red, the young will be spread ash-red cocks and dilute spread ash-red hens. If the cock is blue (under the recessive red) and the hen is pure for spread and not carrying recessive red, the youngsters will be black cocks and dun hens. Those two examples are the simplest to explain, so I hope they are of some help.

tommy2 My reply was to answer the question: "I have 2 Grizzles that have bred 1 Grizzle and one Blue. Is it possible to breed a Blue from 2 grizzle parents or does this question the paternity of the cock ?" Hopefully, that is what I achieved. The first recorded analysis of grizzle was in France by Loisel, 1905; subsequently, Bonhote and Smalley of England, 1911; Cole, U.S.A. 1914; Bol, Holland 1926; Steele and Metzelaar, U.S.A. also 1926. Since then a good more has been learned but not reported formally. The reader is referred to Levi's book for pictures, and to the pigeon Genetics Newsletter for scraps of information, mostly from fanciers' experiments (WFH). (Reference: Origins and Excursions in Pigeon Genetics, WF Hollander)

Hello swheet, The Punnett Square below illustrates how it is possible to breed a non-grizzle from two grizzle parents: G = grizzle and + = non-grizzle. G//+ are grizzle, G//G is a mostly white grizzle and +//+ is a non-grizzle. The 'typical' grizzle colouration (i.e. heterozygous grizzle) is produced by one grizzle gene and one non-grizzle gene; "white" grizzles (i.e. homozygous grizzle) are produced by two grizzle genes. Grizzle is a partial dominant (to wild type blue) gene and is not sex-linked. It is a colour modifier that can be combined with any of the other pigeon patterns and colours. Unfortunately, I can't upload a Punnett Square so I'm only able to provide the symbols and I can't get them spaced as they should be!! Hopefully you get the idea. The top line, G + is one parent, the first vertical line G + is the second parent the other four combo's with // are the predicted offspring genotype. G + G G//G G//+ + G//+ +//+

The ash-red spread baby from a pairing of black hen and red chequer cock could be either sex. The sex-linked mating between these two colours would be blue/black cock X ash red hen; all ash-red (spread ash, barless mealy, ash-red chequer, etc.) progeny would be cocks, the blues would be hens. Any black flecking/ticking on the above squeaker would indicate that it is a cock, ash-red hens occasionally have brown/dun flecking.