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The other standard or accepted colours were white, black
and silver partridge. Further development was obstructed by a lack of - or
inaccurate - Information about genetics and hereditary factors. The Second World
War did the rest. After the war various attempts were made but mere was no
progress worth mentioning. The lowest ebb was reached in the seventies and for
years there were no yellow partridges to be seen at either specialist club
shows or at the big shows. The odd bird that was seen was usually aft accidental
mutation.
The turning point
The German pedigree poultry breeding world, was slowly changing and this was
to benefit the Leghorn bantams too. Increasing numbers of breeders were
choosing new avenues to proceed in and specialising in rare breeds and colours.
At the start of the eighties, a few breeders decided once again to fly breeding
yellow partridges. Independently of each other - sometimes without even
knowing who else was working in the field - and using various methods they
started their programmes. As in earlier years, German bantams were used. The
colours hardly caused any problems but obtaining the other specific
characteristics of the breed was almost an impossible task. The most successful
attempts were made with various colour variants of the Leghorn bantams. Before
describing these attempt further, first a few general points about how the
yellow partridge colour is passed on genetically. Yellow partridge is a
variation of the wild colour and; additionally, it is possible to breed them
with lacing (as in the partridge and silver partridge) or without lacing (as in
the partridge, brown partridge, silver partridge and wild colour). Of course,
many intermediate variants are also possible and that is why mere has to be a
genetic factor for the golden base colour and the pencilling which will cause
the background colour to become lighter. We shall call this genetic factor,
(variously known as dilution factor, yellow factor or cream factor in the
professional literature) yellow factor. Inheritance of this factor is recessive
and independent of gender, so that it only occurs as homozygote. hi order to
obtain yellow partridge Leghorns without introducing other breeds one has to
ask how the yellow factor can be
found. It has long been known that various silver varieties can carry this factor but because the
silver-white cannot be made any lighter it is not possible to recognise which
of the silver coloured birds carry it in a double or single form. By breeding
partridge with silver, the first generation can, depending on whether the
silver parent animal had the yellow factor, differentiate. Birds with recessive
genes will, however, not be recognisable and it is only by interbreeding
the first generation that yellow partridges will be obtained in the second
generation. Then, thorough
checking of lineages will reveal
which parent birds possess the
factor. Correspondingly, this is also applicable .when starting with silver
birds. There is one more possibility which must be pointed out and that is that
silver x partridge (gold)
crosses can produce me colour fault known as silver orange backs, as is seen in
game breeds. The mates of this colour variant strongly resemble yellow partridge
males but have a colour somewhere in between silver and partridge (gold). It is
also possible that they will possess the (single or double) yellow factor, as
described above. This can also only be determined in the next generation. It is
also possible that silver orange backs will recur in following generations and
it is advisable to selectively breed them out of the line. It can take many
years to produce a pure breeding line so that no throwbacks occur. If this programme of breeding had
been followed from the beginning, it is more than likely that yellow partridges
would be far more widespread than is now the case - they might even be one of the
most popular colour variants! But now for the next stage: once yellow partridge
birds have been obtained, improving the standard will only be possible by using
birds which have the gold factor. The first generation is always gold
(partridge) but heterozygote for yellow partridge and in the second generation
there will be 25% partridge (gold), 50% partridge (gold) with a single yellow
factor and, in either gender, 25% pure bred yellow partridge. The progeny of
these birds will breed true. Further, it has been ascertained that birds bred in
this way are of a better quality than those bred from silver partridge crosses.
Should no yellow partridges be available, gold (Partridge) and silver
partridges should be crossed until yellow partridge females are obtained.
These will always be true bred as these females (due to the fact mat the silver
factor is gender bound), cannot be untrue in gold. These yellow partridge
females with the gold factor will produce the -undesirable- silver , orange
backs when crossed with males with the gold factor. For the further development
of yellow partridges, silver partridges and partridges have been used and the
brown partridge has now also become available. To improve colour, the German
bantam is also used.
Personal breeding experiences
To get around the problem of how to introduce new blood into rare breeds or
colour variants, I built my stock up out of various bloodlines. I already knew
that the lacing in the female's
plumage and the breast pencilling of the males was genetically dominant and so,
to prevent excessive pencilling, my first line was created from brown partridge
coloured birds. As the strong lacing of the silver coloured birds could have
been an obstacle, I started with very light coloured birds. Previous
experiments had established that they could also carry the yellow factor.
Problems also arose with form as neither of the initial colour variants were in
good form in the early 1980's. I tried to breed
this disadvantage out by using
the best possible blacks. As was
to be expected, this caused colour repercussions, but these were followed by
improvement and the yellow partridges of today are still profiting from this
late cross. In a second line, I crossed gold (partridge) with birds from the
first line. There was a clear improvement in yellow partridge, almost no
pencilling in the neck in the males and the expectation/prospect of a further
improvement in form. This is why I cannot share the popular opinion that
partridges (gold) are not suitable for crossing with yellow partridge. In fact,
I believe the opposite, but only if birds, of both colour variants, which have
as little lacing as possible are used. A much finer peppering is also shown. To
date, the best birds have usually come from this breeding concept. In a third
line I did start with silver coloured birds. Although I obtained birds carrying
the yellow partridge factor, serious problems arose after several years in the
intensity of the yellow partridge colour so that I now only possess a few birds
from this line. With regard to form, they were among the best, which was
confirmed by the award of the first 'Excellent rating' to be won by any male in
the 1980's and a 'Beautiful rating' awarded to a female in 1987. An attempt to
cross into the German bantam line failed, despite excellent colour quality,
because of bad form, which once again proved old experiences to be valid. The
second attempt to introduce birds from another line also failed rapidly as a
result of poor type, strongly sloping back lines and insufficient colour
affinity, starting from brown partridge and silver partridge. A third attempt
with an orange silver back male from different stock, which had good breed
characteristics, also failed to give the desired result. The problems initially
caused by the orange silver back male have already been mentioned, but even in
this case I managed to create pure bred birds. In recent years, the most
important task has been to unite the various lines, keeping in mind that the
present preference (the single line) is retained.
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Breeding results
At the start of the 1980's yellow partridge Bantam Leghorns were never seen at
the big shows. In 1985, the results of the breeding programme started to become
visible - 3 breeders showed 25 birds at the big shows at Hannover and at
Munster. A year later there were even more, but after a few years numbers
dropped again. But, from the continued improvement in quality during these three
years, nobody could fail to guess that a rapid expansion in the numbers of
entries was about to happen. A landmark in the breeding of Leghorn Bantams in
general, and yellow partridges in particular, was winning the Golden Victory
Ring at the Hannover show in 1989, when some 900 Leghorn Bantams were entered,
including 49 yellow partridges - a record which has not since been equalled.
Between 1989 and 1991, the average number of birds shown at the German Special
Club Shows stabilised at about 70. As more and more fans of this beautiful
colour variant are recruited, we will be able to depend on additionally
increasing numbers. It will not go unnoticed that the opinions of the judges
have been jointly responsible for guiding this positive development. Novice
breeders must not think that a good stock can be built up quickly. It will take
a least a couple of years and there will be disappointments to be overcome. But
don't be discouraged: take heart and breed good birds -this colour variant
deserves the effort.
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THE Yellow Partridge (click for pictures)
