INHERITANCE OF RECESSIVE RED

BY DOUG BROWN

Recessive red rollers have now become very popular and many are excellent spinners. In fact the last two champions of the California Classic were recessive reds. Many of our families have this factor in them. There are some who believe that recessive red is a color, and obviously it looks like one. We must however remember that there are only three colors, and if recessive red was one of them then it would have to be Ash Red. Why? Well because of the red color. The only thing wrong with that is that true ash red birds have an ashy colored tail. The recessive red is red from the tip of the feather to the end of it. There is no ashy color anywhere on the birds.

Some think that the Recessive Red is the spread phase of the ash red color. This is also false. Remember that spread is a dominant factor. If this was what recessive red was then the bird would only need one gene to make it recessive red. But we know that a bird must have two of these genes (ee) to be a recessive red.

Recessive red is not a color or a pattern. It is truly a factor. A recessive red bird must have two of the genes for recessive red to be one. Geneticists have given the recessive red bird the letter (e) for recessive red. The recessive red bird is of the genotype (ee). If there is only one present the bird will not be a recessive red but will be a carrier of the trait. Recessive red is also not sex linked as the other colors. Both hens and cocks must have two genes for recessive to be one.

It is a recessive factor since when a bird only has one it is not recessive red but a carrier. When two recessive reds are mated together all of the youngsters will be recessive reds. It has been noticed that when two recessive reds are mated together it seems that the youngsters are many times over hot, and people have more trouble with birds that are too frequent. Now I do not have any scientific proof of this. I may be just the families that we are dealing with around here. It really seems that way. You may have read Jerry Higgins article about this phenomenon. I also think that it may be the birds that were introduced into the mix that made it so. But it may have some merit. I find that Recess red dilutes (yellows) are very frequent also.

Recessive red birds also have a pattern, and may also be spread. In fact you can make beautiful recessive red birds if you just make some easy combinations. The first that will make the birds more red is the presence of bronze. Earlier I talked about the Blue T-Patterned birds with the bronze in them. They when mixed into the Recessive Red families makes the red much richer. Also if you use some of the dark ash reds into your matings you will find a better red. Spread will make the red more even throughout the bird. Open patterned checks and bars will really cause a problem in the evenness of the red through out the wing shield. If you have the really shiny blacks that I talked about in another article you can make some really red recessive reds.

Recessive red in the dilute form is called Yellow. These are quite beautiful and are very frequent rollers. I have found in my family that to mate these together will bring quite a number of over hot birds and many will roll down. I believe that it is because that we are dealing with a double recessive. Remember that recessive red is a recessive gene and so is the dilution. Dilution in the recessive red is also a sex linked trait. I like to make my recessive reds the long way. The way that I do it brings me many more hens than cocks. I find more good hens in my family than cocks anyway so it doesn’t bother me too much. Well anyway what I do is take a recessive red cock that is carrying dilute and mate him to a normal bird that I know is carrying recessive red. From this mating I know that I can get some dilute recessive red or yellow hens. If I mate a recessive red carrying dilution to a dilute hen carrying recessive red then I can get both dilute recessive red cocks and hens. This is sometimes a tedious path to take but I eventually get there and I find that the dilute recessive reds that are produced this way are much more stable than if I were to breed them together. However, I must confess that sometimes I do breed them together because it is the fastest way to get some yellow cocks.

The addition of the factors that I talked about in making a good rich recess red holds for the making of good yellows. Good yellows will almost take on an orange to gold coloration. They are quite beautiful. The poor ones are washed out. They are pretty but they do not have the rich yellow that is wanted in the yellow birds.