Rose breasted?

[Meagan83]

I have a hen that has a very very light breast compared to my other hens. Although I never noticed before. I sold one of her babies awhile back and the breeder contacted me to say the juvie I sold her had come into her adult feathers and had a "pink breast".
I never really noticed before how light my hen was. But this brought it to my attention... She is VERY light breasted. Is she a lilac or "rose" breast?

[nixity]

Rose is just another name for Lilac..
It's like calling Charcoal, "Grey" in terms of how a BH Dilute appears..

But there are (or really should only be) three distinct color names, two of which (Lilac and White) are mutations.

With the flash it's hard to tell but she looks purple to me.
Lilac hens have a very, very pale cast of color to them -
http://www.gouldiansgalore.net/Photo_Al ... ni_JPG.jpg

[CandoAviary]

Though scientifically there are only 3 head colors:red, yellow, black
3 breast colors: purple, lilac, white (blue is still out there???)
6 back colors: green, sf and df pastel green, blue, sf and df pastel blue

But in breeders, pet owners terms there are many names....usually given by what they see. It is helpful in describing a birds looks when they cannot see it or if the oicture can not be provided.

I think that descriptive terms will always be used. Even though the serious breeders are pushing for unity in the terms. I have found that most knowledgable breeders do know what someone is talking about when they use the descriptive term..For example when people note they have an OH PB dilute.... I know they have a scientific...yellow headed, purple breasted, single factor green pastel which is a male. (only males can be dilutes/sex linked)
They say RH WB YB (red head, white breast, yellow back) I know they have a red headed, white breasted, single or double factor green pastel. I would need to know what the bib color was to find out if they have a sf or df... in the single it will be bluish, in the double it will be whitish/grey...

Many call heads Orange because that is what they see....not yellow.
Tangerine Head to describe a red head that has a good bit of orange in it.
Charcoal head on a dilute(sf pastel green) because the black pigment has been changed due to the single factor of yellow (pastel)
Rose Breat to describe a very light lilac breast
Powder blue to describe a blue pastel that has a single factor of pastel (yellow) and the body retain the blue color as opposed to the grey color (silver)
Usually the lighter the breast the lighter the back color.
There are many other terms used to describe color

Melanistic (black)
Blue head
Cinnamon
Dark Factor Lutino
Australian Yellow
Albino
Seagreen
Pied
Redline
Noble Blue
Dark Blue
Clear Wing
Pied
and more.... Here is a site that contains pictures of some of the rarer mutations
http://users.skynet.be/fa398872/navfram.en.htm
Hope this helps and I hope people will use the terms they are comfortable with.... learning the genetics is not everyone's interest. And if you are like me... I am interested in learning but it don't come easy for me

[Meagan83]

Okay, so this is still driving me nuts. I took some pics for the sake of comparison and would still like opinions. These are poor quality, I know. I used my phone, sorry. Also, the little lady in question is going through a light moult, but her daughter is in here too. Does anyone see the difference now?
She is the red head in the top two pictures, and her daughter is in the bottom pic to the left.

[debbie276]

Looks like 2 purple breasted hens to me just different shades, which is not unusual at all.
Nice looking birds

[Meagan83]

Okay. Thanks.

[CandoAviary]

Sometimes it is hard to tell on female purples and lilacs. Some females get a really washed out purple breast that can easily be perceived as lilac...... it really depends on the quality of color of the bird. For example:
The hen on the top right (black band) is a purple breast...just with not grait colors
The other 2 are sisters who are purple/lilac..... you can see the diferent shades of purple They have another sister that is lilac... they have the purple and white bands. You can see the richness of the purple on this hen, also the rich lilac color...these are good quality hens

other sister...purple/lilac and lilac

The Purple/lialc and the plain purle breast (black band)


The 2 on the top perch look pretty much the same but one (on right)is lilac...the other purple (on left)

Another unrelated bird..Lilac breast

I have a lilac chick just finishing coloring out who has a breast that is barely pink it is so light. I haven't got a good picture of her yet.
So it is sometimes hard to tell what your hen is unless you know what the background is. Some hens have great quality of color and some have poor quality. So unless you know your breeding lines it may make you question things. I couldn't say for sure looking at your pictures. Could be a lilac... could be a faded purple

[Meagan83]

The black banded hen has so much black on her head. Do you think she will molt out of it next year? I like the look of it persionally .
As for my light breasted hen, I think she and her daughter are pretty. However, the breeder I traded with decided that she would rather have one of my dark males instead of the young hen. She did not like that the breast looked "washed out". I suppose most people prefer the birds to be as vibrant as possible.

[debbie276]

Your so right Candace, their colors vary quite a bit. My lilac breast hens are so pale that they are more pink then purple.

[CandoAviary]

Debbie,
Pretty girls That is the color breast that my new lilac breast are coloring up to. I personally like it and took one of them yo the recent fair..... most people go for the bright colors.... Many people have no idea about lilac breast or the desired effect this mutaion can reproduce. The pretty girl came home with me... I guess she was meant to go into my breeding lines

[CandoAviary]

[quote="Meagan83"]The black banded hen has so much black on her head. Do you think she will molt out of it next year? I like the look of it persionally .
quote]

Meagen,
This hen came from two parents that have beautiful red heads. They are both RH PB/WB GB. They have thrown BH WB hens, RH WB hens and RH PB hens and cocks.... this is the only 'rudy' head hen I have gotten from the pair. Sometimes they will get a little more red as they age but most times I see they keep this blackish red mask.
Sometimes you see this head color when balck and red heads are mixed.... but in her case this wasn't the case. Maybe her grandparents, not sure as I bought this pair (rescue) from a couple moving overseas with the militaryand they had bought them from a pet store and had no history on them....heck, they didn't even know they were split to white breast. It was a surprize to me to see those chicks sprout white feathers