autiful Text & photos:Sigrid van Dort,

be
A
Feb 2023
Other photographers
mentioned in captions.

BREAST What is going on here?

For the colour multiple
laced ‘partridge’ or its
silver version ‘silver
pencilled’, two separate
groups of chickens are
needed in some countries
to give the hen the correct
show colour on the one
hand and the cock on the
other. The show colour for
hens is multiple laced
partridge (eb, s+ or S, Pg),
there is a lot of ground
colour visible (s+ gold or
S silver). The
corresponding male
has the breast colour
as shown in the
lemon cock’s
breast.

Large
photo top:
lemon
partridge.

Bottom
square: red’ish
partridge detail.
Photo cock: Udo Ahrens

Hen on the right:

partridge.

Cock on the left: partridge,

black’ish breast

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First this, the basics show in Germany and really not showing the ‘hen
In partridge (eb), cocks and hens have the colours The manifestations of eb ‘partridge’: breeding cock’ breast as the ones in the background
corresponding to their sex. They are a sort of In fact, in partridge, there are two genetically on the same page (the lemon and red partridge
enhanced wildtype. So the cock colour, also has a different colours which are those that have a cock’s breasts).
hen version which doesn’t look the same. The colour Pg gene, and those that do not have Pg (pg+).
of the hen also has a cock version, her brother, which Gene expression
looks different from his. This, assuming they are born - Pg, hens muddy and smutty multiple laced, It is possible to push gene expression unbelievable
of the same parents or group of parents of the same cocks with black breast, far, which is how the hen-breeding cocks in Germany
colour variety, here partridge or silver pencilled. Two were created that look like golds with a blacktail due
completely different names for the gold or silver - Pg hens with good open lacings, cocks with to the extreme increase of ground colour. They look
version. You could have said gold pencilled and some ground colour in the breast. in really nothing wildtype’ish anymore, while their
silver pencilled, but that runs things in the soup for genes are the same as the ‘normal’ partridge cocks
other breeds where ‘pencilling’ is a totally different Something in between the two above which, with a black or black-mixed-with-ground-colour
pattern. You know by now that hobby colour names however, is a balancing act and lower colleagues. The sisters of these totally non-wild-type
don’t reflect the genetics, if you read my stuff over percentage of good enough ‘show quality’. looking cocks have super defined narrow lacings and
the years. a large proportion of ground colour as a result. Those
- Pg hens with super open lacings and even hens are also multiple laced in hackle, instead of the
Therefore, looking at the sister, you know lacings (pencilling) in hackle and cocks looking normal wildtype shaft stripe. For the German
approximately what her brother looks like, and vice like black tailed gold, genetics book Udo Ahrens bred such a ‘black tailed
versa. gold’ cock to a standard partridge hen en the
Is your goal a hen with a certain pencilling, then her - pg+ version, stippled hens, cocks with a jet resulting offspring was indeed in between although
brother follows in his way of expressing the chosen black breast. the males were more reddish than wildtype. This is a
genes in male form. You cannot change that, the hen sign of superduperselection and a mega tera gene
and cock colours of sisters/brothers are attached to It depends on the country and the standard of expression such that it is unbelievable as said above.
each other. the breed what is tolerated. And you decide How is this even possible?
Is your goal a cock with a certain colour expression, what works best for you, regardless.
then its sister follows. You cannot change that. Why? Using the e-allele’s characteristics
Nature has rules, it will always obey them. Especially with eb, this allele favours neither black
For example, you cannot breed white hens and black (eumelanine) nor red (pheomelanine) pigment by its
cocks from a black father and a white mother. chicken colour factory settings. It is possible to
Nature's rules are not like that, so what you want is tweak the expression such, that either black or red
Above: hen breeder from and by Alison Harrison
not always possible. The children inherit roughly* gets an advantage as in more expression than the
(UK), a blue partridge Brahma. Below an example of
50/50 from both parents with the exception of sex- other.
‘clean’ pencilling (hen breeding) and‘smutty’
linked genes. With wheaten eWh, for example, this is not possible.
pencilling to illustrate how smutty looks.
*) this is more complicated on a molecular level This allele will always favour pheomelanine
however this is not visible in the resulting offspring (red).
when you breed a colour variety - for example This is in contrast to ER birchen, which will
something partridge. always favour eumelanine (black). ER requires
brute force to get a pattern on the chicken,
Black breast of partridge cocks force that makes it impossible for black to
In some countries the show colour for the partridge take over at the expense of the ground colour
cock is (still) jet black, free of ground colour which (pheomelanine - gold or silver).
was called ‘mottling’ in the past (1800-1900s). This You won't find 'partridge colour' on ER
has nothing to do with the gene ‘mo’ for mottled. birchen because the means of containing
The corresponding hen has no lacings at all so are black pigment is limited to the columbian
pg+ (stippling) or they have a muddy colour due to genes and Pg doesn’t help either. To date, no
the more undefined lacings with smut in between. I The three photos above one has considered it necessary to create the
have no photo of this cock-breeding-hen, it doesn’t are the german hen multiple laced pattern on an ER birchen.
exist anymore in Europe and at shows you only saw breeding colour It will probably be possible, though. Then a
their sons and brothers anyway. partridge (Wyandotte balance has to be found: super strong Pg and
This smutty expression bantams). The cock lost perfectly tuned Co and Db. Might take 50
compared to the partridge his wildtype outfit - black is in his under years or so to do that, or longer.
multiple laced show hens with colour. His is genotype is still the same as
defined lacings and clean - non- the cock on the left, the Brahma bantam Use what is already there
smut - ground colour (gold or cock, photographed and bred by Alan However, why should you make an ER based
silver) between the lacings. Kemp (UK). The sisters of this cock are partridge when there is eb?
much less defined in pencilling as the hen Especially with the existence of the eb basis,
The hens used for black above. Only due to a different gene whose allele favours neither black nor red, it’s
breasted show-cocks can expression. Amazing isn’t it? a piece of cake.
sometimes be just within the of the breast feathers. The cock on the first This is also the reason why certain colours
margin of 'okayish' to show page could be such a black breasted, exist on certain e-alleles. For patterns such as
them without their brothers although a ‘bad’ one compared to their single laced, spangled, pencilled as on
getting (too much) ground- ‘black breast bred brethren’. The Hamburgand other ancient landfowls, which
coloured feather tips or edging Wyandotte cock on the front page was at a exist on both e-alleles eb and ER (with

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consequences for the cock), history caused this,
which goes back centuries. The silvers were ER and
the golds were eb, nobody decided this. It
happened. Mixes looked smutty and were liked less
than the cleaner patterned chickens, so ‘the eye’
kept this silver=ER and gold=eb going.
No knowledge of genetics necessary, which didn’t
exist.

Tweaking vs what nature wants

The bottom line is that you can tweak all the
controls on how loud, moderate or silent the
expression of a gene is in its interplay with other
genes.
Of course, there are a lot more molecular variables
of course. These go way too far for a hobby chicken
breeder. Whether it makes any difference on that
level to the end result, I don't think so.

Why mixed colours have so many different

appearances is precisely because of the tweaking
of the expression of the genes present in a mum/
dad combination. Pencilling in hackle, it can be
This can happen even if you use a new chicken of A hen breeder cock, German Wyandotte bantam, for worse though. Dutch/German Wyandotte
the same colour variety and breed, bred by ‘normal’ partridge as now exist since cock breeding bantam (choc) from Danny Stindt.
someone else. The result can be a little The pg+ version of eb partridge to breed cocks with
partridge is not longer fashion.
disappointing. This is due to the fine-tuning of the a black breast. Instead of Pg, they have stippling as
genes the other breeder found necessary for the seen in e+ duckwing. Also seen in eb Satsumadori
disease pressure, compared to sniper breeding. for the cock-breeding-smutty-hens, who were kept
best results in their breeding. Your black may of the same genotype. In those you see a tendency
Especially if you have more colours/breeds, which out of sight.
suddenly explode, or smut may appear in your to form ghost lacings you can see in the large
can add up to hundreds of chicks a year.
hens' rear end, or autosomal red may pop up in bottom photo. That’s the nature of eb. The photo of
Discrimination of the means to an end, ended
your silver based variety, without being visible in the the black
1:1 mating is the best way to see how a particular The cock with jet black breast and their hidden
new hen. breast is just
combination works out, you need patience, sisters and mothers... the hidden hen breeding
informative. It
however. Moving fast isn’t always the best way cocks with ground colour in breast feathers... this
Targeted instead of the shotgun method is the breast of
forward. hiding was ended some 20 years ago in Europe.
A perfect partridge doesn’t exist, that's why you a Brahma
There was a transition period of about 5 years to
always keep 'improving'. For that, you really don't bantam
Stippled eb partridge instead of multiple laced adjust to the new ‘cock’s breasts reality’: the hen-
need to breed large quantities of chicks. Breeding cockerel of
Only in the separate German eb partridge colour breeders. During the transition period the best
should, on the contrary, not be 'hard work'. It is Alan Kemp
with the confusing* hobbyname gold- and cocks were compared and if it was a hen breeder
more like making a painting or composing a piece of (UK).
silberhalsig where the hens are stippled (pg+) similar he would win.
music, with feeling, to e+ hens, does the cock always have a jetblack Even if hobby chicken breeding is a rather rigid and
sophistication, deep breast. And the hens are show-worthy too if they ‘conservationist’ state of affairs, sometimes you
thinking, and are accepted (standard). better have to move along with reality.
knowledge. With a This colour was made for cock breeding and the In Europe, time and space for a hobby is becoming
defined target or goal hens are beautiful too, they are just as important as less. Less cocks with a black breast entered the
in mind and a the cocks with their black breast. shows compared to the other colour hens. Because
roadmap how to *) this hobby colour name is another colour in other breeders favour hen breeding (of course). They
achieve it. breeds. Compare to ‘pencilled’ in English which can enjoy a flock of beautifully pencilled hens and the
With about 15-20 be both genetically and visually different colours. cock is the means to the end. The hen breeders are
chicks in a colour Complicating things by using the same words for shown in similar quantities as the hens now.
variety, you have a different things happens in many languages. No chicken is hidden anymore due to a weird
pretty good palette of system of two-pen breeding for the fake-same
individual differences. End of the scam in some breeds colour (partridge, silver pencilled or dark).
'Breed much and cull No ‘partridge scam’ as in Brahma is happening in
hard' means you are Wyandottes and Cochin bantams in some The other option was: allow the cock breeding hens
breeding like a countries, here Germany. The scam of ‘secretly’ at the show too, rename them. Judge the not
shotgun, rather than breeding from two different pens with opposing necessarily uniform dark smutty semi-multiple laced
being a sniper, hitting breeding goals to get a show hen & cock of the hens to their own standard.
your goal. Shotgun same colour name. Aaarrgghhh!!!! The harem system of chickens worked against this,
breeding of 100+ I was into chickens for years before I understood there are more beautiful hens than beautiful cocks.
chicks in one colour the gaslighting going on. It had to be kept a secret Or create a stippled (pg+) colour variety instead of
variety costs more to prevent competition at shows? It wasn’t told or multiple laced if you want eb cocks with a black
room, feed, bedding, explained to starters, at least not to me. How did I breast, like is done in Wyandottes and Cochin
gives a higher find out? Reading ancient books! Then I felt it unfair bantams.

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 Young German Right: lavender partridge project large
Wyandotte bantam Brahma with pencilled hackle.
hen, in ‘normal’ silver Below silver pencilled Brahma bantam
pencilled. pullet, dropping feathers at show. Her
Her brother shows pencilling is different from the Wyandotte
silver edging on the on the opposite page. Note hackle.
breast feathers. Photo Breeds have their own characteristics
by Udo Ahrens. feather (colour) wise.

Photos below of silver

pencilled (dark) and
partridge Brahma
hens with lacing
starting in hackle.
Their brothers show
ground colour in
breast feathers,
pencilling is open.

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