Sunday, January 2, 2011

White roosters -- or are they?

This is White Rooster #3.  You'll remember that first we had Spot, then White Rooster #2, and now a third.  None of the white birds is a girl, drat.  I think they're just beautiful and I really wanted a sweet white girl.  But no such luck, and they're kind of skittery, not cuddly at all.

I was watching them this morning and realized an interesting thing about their color.  They're not actually white!

This is #2.  Look at the feathers on his neck and back.

You can see it here even better.  And if I make these photos a bit larger...



You can see that he's got dilute stripes!  The pattern of a Cuckoo Marans (see below photo of Chick-Chuck and Eggy Jr.), but with the color diluted.  In the right light, the stripes glow golden on top of the white background.

I am enchanted!  But there are still too many roosters.


The end.
Posted by Johanna at 10:00 AM
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3 comments:

Roberta said...

I lucked out and have only one rooster. He lucked out and has four hens. I have to say, your white rooster is very very pretty but my heart goes out to Eggbert.

January 3, 2011 at 11:38 AM
The JR said...

Those are prettier than my 2 white hens....

January 4, 2011 at 10:43 AM
RockinTonyA said...

It certainly looks like some kind of dilute coloration. Also, with the sheen of those feathers I would wonder about some kind of 'satin' factor in the mix. The genetics of the colors related to sex in the different breeds of chickens is quite interesting. It's been a long time since I 'did' chickens, but some crosses will give you one color male offspring and a different color female.

January 9, 2011 at 11:51 AM

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