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Red leakage

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 5:06 pm
by Shnookie
I was disappointed to see the largest of my new Ameraucana cockerels has red leakage. The brown spots showed up a couple weeks ago, but I didn't see the yellowish color in the same area until I took the pictures today. Does red leakage show up on females too?
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Re: Red leakage

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:04 pm
by labradors
Thank goodness it wasn't blood!

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:40 am
by Farrier1987
Hens from Saskatchewan are known for red leakage. Its the climate. And they bleed green and white.

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:45 am
by WLLady
its super common in the boys-mainly on shoulders (its actually a good first sign of sex in most ees/ameraucanas in some colours)...then hens have a more subdued colour pattern due to the sex differences in expression of the e locus genes so it is possible to not have as promine t leakage in the girls. if you use this male in breeding the trait will likely pass to his daughters but could be masked so going forward to breed it out pick your best nonleaking girls to go with him and then the best male offsrping to pair back to best mom....one back breeding ahouldnt hurt.....from the back breeding pick best males and females to go forward....

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:32 am
by Shnookie
Does red leakage show up on blue birds?

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:37 am
by Happy
I’m no expert but I did hatch out a blue Cochin last year that had red leakage show up on his shoulders so I’m going to say yes.

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:49 am
by Ontario Chick
Yup, red leakage shows up on Blue and Black birds also.

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 2:39 am
by kenya
Yes red leakage shows up on some strains not all, its something you breed to eliminate, usually just shows up on males.

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:02 am
by Shnookie
So if I can't see the leakage, does that mean the chicken doesn't have it? If I breed my blue rooster (3 1/2 years old) that doesn't have leakage, to the new hens (not showing any leakage yet) from the same group as the cockerels that are showing leakage, would I get any offspring with leakage?

Re: Red leakage

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:11 am
by modern17
First off I must confess I hate the word " Leakage" .. and cringe ever time I hear or see it written.... in the Standards ( APA & ABA) we refer to this as foreign color... leakage brings to mind many other things I would not like to think about lol... now I am done with my pet peeve... Ok ... When you are dealing with Blue ( Laced Blue not to be confused with self blue or as many mistakenly call it " lavender" ) & Splash .. in these birds back ground there is black... if you have black you will have a red factor that does show up in the form of reddish or rusty plumage ( foreign color to the variety ) in blues and splash. This is not a positive trait in good colored blues or splashes and should be bred away from as much as possible .. Remember" what ever you tolerate you will have" It does show up from time to time and should be eliminated when ever you can avoid it. .. and is more present ( increased) when in the background of some birds , someone has added a red factor ( Wheaten or BB or other ) into the lineage of these birds. This could be the case here if you don't know the lineage of these birds more than a generation or two. What to do .. If possible eliminate the specimen from your breeding pen.. if it is your only one... breed from it and cull all that have the trait and keep the ones that don''t or at least the ones that have less.. over a generation or two you should be able to eliminate it. In short explode your population then cull down to the preferred traits.. this is my process for eliminating any undesirable traits in any of my birds. Establish a goal and work towards it. Remember every bird hatched is not going to be ideal and culling is a must to make head way
My 2 cents
TL