The Opal Factor
Breeding reds from two blues is genetic impossibility, but
there are fanciers who claim to have done it. The following
should explain the situation. Sometimes a blue pair will
produce a young cock which looks somewhat like a red check but
is actually an opal. If you compare the opal check with a true
red check you will notice a difference. Also the opal will not
have black flecks as seen in some red checks. The opal colour
is also found in hens and is usually a soft powder blue and
there is no dark bar on the tail. Racing ability does not seem
to be affected.
On looking through past racing records I note
that an opal cock won the 320 mile race for me in 1982.
Further down the race result sheet was another opal cock
owned by someone else. The opal colour in hens certainly
enhances the show potential. I had a beautiful opal hen
that won many best in show awards. Opal is a recessive
colour. When mated to blues or blacks, only blue and
black progeny will result. The young will carry the opal
factor and when mated together will give opals of both
sexes. It is an interesting colour for experimentation. A
blue pair could produce reds if there has has been some
hanky-panky. My birds never do
that!
Black Flecks
You will have noticed that some red cocks have black flecks on
their feathers, mostly wings and tail, and these flecks
increase with each moult. The explanation is quite simple and
has to do with X and Y chromosomes and whether or not there
were blues in the ancestory. Black flecks means these red cocks
are carrying the factor for blue colour.
The business of X and Y chromosomes is more
complex and we will leave that to be discussed under
another heading. You may have noticed too that hens don't
get these black flecks. If they do have flecks, they will
be brown. Its all about sex-linkage and those X and Y
chromosomes
again.
