Almond Breeding: Lottery
or System?
A lot has been written
about Stippers, Almond, Multicolored, Sprinkles and the related
colors, although the genetic basis and the appearance is known for
long. However, a recapitulation is useful because new fanciers get
interested in the color and knowledge and understanding of
literature differ. In this illustration some pictures from the net
had to be used to show which terms are used in the fancy in specific
sections. Stipper is the generic term and not in contrast to the
other terms describing sub-groups. All these colors show darker
'flecks', spots, or sprinkles, as always the darker patches on
brighter grounds may be called.
Almond
In the German pigeon
standard Almond as a color is only found for English Short Faced
Tumblers and as Brown- and Yellow-Stipper with similar requirements
for Danish Tumblers. Some Oriental Rollers are very similar. The
body base color is almond, that means brown-yellow. On that base
black sprinkles appear. Primaries and tail feathers in English Short
Faced Tumblers should be three-colored with the colors almond, black
and white with distinct boundaries of the color areas of each other.
In that point the requirements for Danish Tumblers are more
moderate. Genetically, almond-colored pigeons are always
heterozygous for the Stipperfaktor (St) as it is called in Danish
Stippers.
Fig. 1: Almond color at
English Short Faced Tumblers and Oriental Rollers (in the standard
'multicolored') and some standard feathers (three distinct colors on
a feather) in the tail of an English Short Faced, source: 'Sell,
Genetik der Taubenfärbungen'
The complementary colors
Homozygous St // St are
white of color and have vitality problems. Therefore, two Almonds
are not mated together, but Almonds are matched with the
complementary colors Kite and Agate. Kites are dark black-brown with
bronze luster. This is the color of the red milan or 'kite'. Agates
are intensely colored recessive red, which get in the shield area
and occasionally in the head area with the molt white feathers.
Golden dun and yellow agate are dilute kites or agates. The color
DeRoy is not only unique because of its peculiar spelling, but also
because it has the stipple factor like Almond. DeRoy is colored
between red and yellow (cord-duroy). The wings are slightly
brighter, similar to a fink marking. Dark mahogany sprinkles often
appear in the body's plumage. As far as pictures or reliable
descriptions from the past are present, DeRoy were self and without
white in the shield.
The genetic code of DeRoy
was only found in the 1930s by Christie and Wriedt. Before this,
they were partially thrown together with Agates. This explains a
part of the incorrect statements on heredity in the old literature.
Red and yellow agates are not pieds, although they show a
color-white contrast after the molt. They leave the nest in a single
color and then get more or less white feathers in the shield, which
can lead to white shields. Primaries and tail remain colored. In
some exceptional cases they remain self, which - if they come from
Almond strains - does not diminish their breeding value. This white
factor is only shown in Recessive Red and thus in Agates. It is not
applied to color-classes with a black base color like Kites and
Golddun. These show no white in pure strains.
Kites and Golddun as well as Almonds, and in the author's experience
DeRoy from pure streams, show no white in the shield.
Outcrosses upon other
colorations
Today's DeRoy with white
in the shield in the author's opinion carry pied or tiger traits
from mating with non almond-related colors. These are factors which
lead to tigers in blacks and self reds and yellows in other breeds.
Mating of other colors in Almond strains may contribute to vitality.
However, as a result, some individuals will no longer be pure for
factors such as 'kite', dark checks, etc. The proportion of
well-colored Almonds will be lower than before that mating. The
proportion is still not high in couples of Almonds with the
complementary colors. It varies in the mating of Almond x
complementary color between 25% and 50%. If an almond is mated with
a kite and both partners are heterozygous for recessive red, then
they will be 6/16 or 37.5%. Years ago, a breeder of Oriental
Rollers, a breed in which some breeders also strive for almond
coloring, wrote that he successfully introduced blue Oriental
Rollers into the Almonds. In the first generation and with a mating
back to the Almond strain, adverse consequences are not necessarily
to be expected. In the first generation, the offspring are all
heterozygous, and in the case of the mating back to Almonds partly
heterozygous for genes that are responsible for the correct almond
color, e.g. dark check and the bronze factor kite. If, in
unfortunate cases, two such individuals are mated together in later
generations, then the above-mentioned percentage will be pushed from
37.5 to 21% in otherwise similar conditions. If jokesters then in
addition cross with pieds and grizzles, and introduce rosewings and
shield tigers, then the Almond breed becomes really a lottery with
low prospects.
Fig. 2: Almonds and the complementary colors in
the example of mating an almond cock and a kite hen, both
heterozygous recessive red, source: Sell, Genetik der
Taubenfärbungen
Also in English Short
Faced recently new colors like Andalusian and Indigo, Reduced,
Dominant Opal and others came to its own. Also self black and white
and mottled varieties were shown. Fair black 'mottles', as the
rosewings (some white feathers on the shoulders in form of a rose
and a V-shaped white handkerchief back) in England were called, have
not been shown so far. These were very rare at the time of Fulton in
the 1870s, who extensively discussed them. They were made from black
tigers, which are today recognized by the Dutch high-flyers
alongside the rosewings as a shield tiger and represent a precursor
to white shields. In ignorance of the genetics, black with white in
the shield at that time was designated as 'black agates'. Fanciers
at that time could not know that the trait responsible for the white
of the red and yellow agates is a completely different factor or
combination of factors. The term 'agate' may nostalgically have a
positive connotation. Genetically, it was already not correct at
that time and it is not today.
Fig. 3: Dun mottle or shield tiger shown as
dun-agate and almond hen with a similar tiger marking (example from
the net)
The designation 'agate'
was still used by breeders and at the 'Grand National' 2015 in
Ontario 2015 a 'Dun Agate' was even championed. The term pretends
that it is the same factor as Agates in red and yellow Agates. It
can lead beginners and genetically uninformed breeders to the
thoughtless crossing, by which undesirably traits for breeding
Almonds may be transferred as seems to have happened in a young
almond shown by a fancier in the net. Now unfortunately there are
hardly any beginners in Almond breeding. One should, however, not
make the few who are there, the introduction and an understanding of
the relationship of the colors to each other unnecessarily
difficult.
Unfortunately many pigeon
breeders have little knowledge about genetics. Anyone who invests a
morning with a good textbook to study the basics with the instrument
of the Punnett's square will understand quickly the basic concept.
Then it is easy to follow what we get from the mating of Almonds
with the complementary colors like that in Fig. 2. One benefit of
this 'investment' would be that the instruments internalized can
also be applied to other phenomena.
Sell, Axel,
Genetik der Taubenfärbungen, Achim 2015
Sell, Axel, Pigeon Genetics, Achim 2017
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