Mixing Gouldian head colours

[Mickp]

I apologise for the bad picture, it was the only one I had.

finally a bad picture , if thats bad then what I had considered to be my good pics are utter ^%$#

[E Orix]

Personally I wouldn't touch a Gouldian with a head colour like that.
The Gouldians we breed are always Red to Red, Black to Black.
To me the only way you will get good Red Headed Hens is to a Red Headed Cockbird. Even he should be several generations of Red to Red.
A Red Headed hen should be as described, Red Headed and not Blackheaded with a few red feathers and as good a red as a cockbird, the difference is the chest colour only.
It is funny but every time we offer our birds for sale they are gone in no time.
I must admit I will occasionally mate a Yellow Headed Cockbird to a Yellow Beaked Black Headed female.
I am sorry if I seem dogmatic but we need quality breedings not quantity

[cranberry]

I must admit I will occasionally mate a Yellow Headed Cockbird to a Yellow Beaked Black Headed female.

What's the reasoning behind that one if you don't mind me asking?

[jusdeb]

Hmmmm maybe you could google Catalyst Gouldian and find the programme that explains how head colour works in the wild population.
Thers 2 ways of thinking here ... you could go with the one that has you breeding certain colours in order to keep pure colours or you can do whatever you want and have some fun mixing colours . Totally up to you but whatever you do enjoy your hobby coz thats what its all about.

[Diane]

The first link is a radio broadcast about gouldians

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/st ... 524731.htm

This is the ABC's catalyst story on the head colour breeding testing being done.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2589683.htm

[finchbreeder]

I admit I like "clean" headed birds, but you work with what you can get, when you are 450kms from the nearest capital city. The red headed hen in my 2nd avairy at the moment is 50/50 red and black on the head. All the others, Orange and Red are nice and "clean".
(Thanks Chris/Fincher)
LML

[fincher]

yes i only really like to breed red to red and so on. finchbreeder im not the one to take the credit for it as they were bred from me dads birds and im glad your happy about them ill tell him next time i speak to him

thanks chris

[nixity]

IMO it doesn't always matter.

Quoted directly from Bill Van Patten of FabulousFinch.com: "in addition to the negatives of breeding cross head morphs, there is also a positive that is yet unexplained. Mike [Fidler] has seen that when Red Heads are paired to only Red Heads, the head color goes "off" over 5 or 6 generations. So he breeds back to a Black head every 4th generation or so to maintain the brilliant red in his lines."

Here is a perfect example:

RH/OH Purple/White Blue Cock x RH Purple/White Normal Hen

Hen Offspring #1 (Click on thumbnail for larger image):

th_IMG_1070.jpg

Hen Offspring #2 (Click on thumbnail for larger image):

th_IMG_1114.jpg

So - even when pairing two RH together I still got one random muddy RH hen, despite her sibling being almost as bright as a cock.

[Diane]

Would this also extend to the chest and body colour? I have a couple of hens from a BH PC GB cock x RH PC GB hen that have a very strong colour compared to my other hens

[finchbreeder]

The hens I got from Chris have very strong chest colour too. In fact the one that is still colouring up I can't yet decide what sex it is.
LML