Variations in shade on ground color?

[koaladarshana]

Society sisters Rhonda and Lorraine are really starting to warm up to me, letting me snap some decent pictures to share with you all... YAY!

I hadn't realized before how pronounced the difference in their "fawn" coloration is. Being the eager-to-learn rookie, I did some research and found that there are in fact subtle differences in shade of color from one bird to the next. You probably all knew this already, but it's really cool to find out for the first time!

Rhonda is the predominantly fawn hen, though I would describe her color as more of a "ginger" since it's quite reddish though not dark enough to be chestnut.

Lorraine is the predominantly white hen; the tone of her color is slighty "cooler" than her sister... I suspect both girls might be "split for grey" (if that's even possible) because they shared an aviary with a pied "fawn-grey" that I suspect might very well have been related to them. I only paid attention to said grey bird for a split second, not knowing at the time that grey was rarer than "cinnamon" fawn... I passed on it... Sure do regret that decision now!

I would love to one day find a pied grey or "split for grey" male to breed with my girls and see if they produce any grey chicks. I'll need a bigger flight cage though, and I'm a little concerned this yearning is not too different from those feelings that spurred you all to start "Finching"... Only concerns me because I'm still dying from LOLs over the "You know it's bad when..." thread!

Anyway, enjoy the pics! Nothing fancy, just my pied fawn hens for now...

[Nerien]

Very pretty little birds!

We passed on a Pearl when choosing our first birds, not knowing any better. Now, oh, if only....

Best choice if you ever get to testing whether your birds are split to grey is to breed them to a full grey. This is known as a recessive test cross. If you breed to a full grey, then if either of your birds is split to grey (carrying a hidden recessive gene), you have a 50-50 chance of it being passed on, and therefore making a full grey offspring. If you use a split to grey bird, and yours are split to grey, you have only a 25% chance of producing a grey offspring. (and 50% chance of more split to greys, and 25% chance of non-grey, split or otherwise).

But the thing is, notice the wording is "25% chance". Just because the odds say that you will get one pure dominant, two splits, and one pure recessive, doesn't mean that you WILL get those numbers. That's where the "chance" part comes in. If you have 100 marbles in a bag, 25 brown, 50 swirled, and 25 grey, and you reach in and randomly pull 4 marbles, the odds say you will have one brown, two swirled and one grey, but reality says you could get any possible combo from all brown to all swirled to all grey, or any number of each, some, or every color. But that uncertainty is what makes breeding both exciting and frustrating.

[finchmix22]

Very pretty Society's. I love the fawn mutation. Your comment sounds like you may have caught the finch bug! LOL. I started with four Society's years ago and now I have over 60! Breeding is addictive and fun! And the babies are so darn cute.

[debbie276]

Very pretty
best of luck with them

[koaladarshana]

Nerien: That's all really helpful insight! If I ever have a chance to give the "recessive test cross" a shot, would my best bet be to try a "fawn-grey" male or will any "grey" male do if the objective is to produce a grey chick of any color depth? I'm unsure after seeing this chart, which only illustrates "red grey" (which I assume is akin to fawn-grey) x fawn outcomes... http://www.nbfa.co.uk/newgreygen.jpg

@finchmix22: You might be right about the finch bug... I'm almost certain of it after catching myself the other day getting yet again really irritated at my preschool students who keep stepping in our school's garden... Upon reflecting on said incidents, I realized what bothered me more than the fact the kids don't listen is that I don't want them to trample on all the organic greens I collect to feed my hens...

Thank you for the warm wishes, debbie276!

[Ginene]

Pretty Girls!!! Congrats