INHERITANCE OF REDUCED

BY DOUG BROWN

If you want to see something that is really good looking take a few Reduced birds home and give them a try. These are some fine birds. They are just about my favorite of all the factors. Reduced again is one of the factors that is controlled by sex linkage. It is also a recessive trait. That again means that a cock bird can be a carrier or a pure. The symbol r is used to denote reduced. A pure reduced cock is (rr). A pure reduced cock or hen cannot carry normal. Another thing that is quite unusual about reduced is that the adult plumage is different than when they are young. Sometimes they are white when they are young and then turn color after the first molt.

The reduced factor looks well on both the Ash Red as well as the blue. I much prefer the blue however. On recessive red it is also very attractive. The best reduced birds have a peachy coloration in their shields. The blue barred reduced have a peachy bar with a black outline on the edge of the bar. You can also get some dark blue with creamy white bars. There are also what are called Blue Laces. These are the reduced on spread blue or black. All in all these are very attractive birds and are filled with good blood from some of the best lines around. We chose the old lines from the Pensom lines to fortify these birds, and we have some very nice spinners from these.

If you want to work with the reduced the best way is to start with a Reduced cock. Mate him to any great hen you have and all of the cocks produced will carry the factor and all of the hens produced will be reduced. When you mate the cock to blues try and find some blues with the bronze factor, you will be surprised with the coloration of the offspring. They will be quite peachy. The less the bronze the less you have the peachy color. Put black into them also. You will be rewarded with what are called Blue Laces. These birds look like silvery lavenders with each of the feathers outlined with black. They are really super looking.

The ash red reduced birds are very orangey looking for a better word. They are not yellow and not really red but a nice apricot coloration. The red bars look very much like cream bars. You would have to know that you were dealing with reduced and not something else. They are a trip when you see a white youngster in the nest and then begin to see a little color on the wing butts. It takes about one whole year to see what they will look like. The checkers are by far the best reduced. You really see a neat pattern on the shields, and the color is by far the best. Open Checkers are the best since the T-Pattern birds look very reddish in their shields. If you have any questions email me at [email protected] or phone at 1 909 735 9735