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Looks like it. Has anybody described a melanizer that only melanizes females? I have not heard it.(apart from black heads on some Dutch/Belgian ? breeds).

Some Belgiam (breeders) speak Dutch others French, some both !!
Why WAS a vault lethal in males and not in females !?
Why IS a vault not more lethal in males as in females !?

The cocks look rather dark red, and the hens look red enhanced too. Maybe an alternative explanation could be, that they have a red enhancer that prevents melanization in cocks but not entirely in hens? Or is it too far-fetched?

I think that the melanizer in play also enhances the red. I see this too in dark lakenvelders. Again deja vu...

The influence of the hormone testosterone !

A very beautiful video with silver flitter leghorns. Pay attention to the fact that the flitter is also present on some females breasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRVKwtdZ5kk

It also looks like the black hackle stripes are not necessarily followed by black stripes on the saddles

Beautiful hens, much better than the gold version.

Do you think the hens are Bl/bl+ blue or is this just the effect of silver blending in the eumelanin? I've got a silver pencilled Wyandotte pullet that is similar, hard to tell if blue or not.

It seems slightly less neck hackle striping too.

With my test breeding of Coffee-laced (Australian Pit Game), I've segregated another e+/e+ phenotype in BC1 (P1 ER/ER CL roo X e+/e+ wildtype, F1 ER/e+ CL hens x e+/e+ wildtype = e+/e+ BC1).

All the following pullets are e+/e+:




The older pullet is paler, only slight salmon on upper breast. The younger 2 have more prominent salmon breast colour (might change as they age?):


They have one dose of a eumelanin restrictor (similar to Di & Db), plus het. for lacing mutations - including a neck hackle melaniser. In day-old chicks I can't tell laced from non-laced:


* left chick e+/e+ with one dose of Di-like mutation, right chick e+/e+ without Di-like mutation.

I'm thinking the head/neck melanisation might actually come from a black pit game hen, their great grandmother (mother of CL jnr pit game roo). Their great grandfather - original CL pit game roo wasn't melanised, only slight tip lacing on breast & wings. Here is one purebred CL pit game ckl with a melanised head/neck:

Now with the e+/e+ wild-type BC1 chicks (one depicted on right above, without Di-like mutation), something I had hoped for....

Both chicks (2 hatched) have much darker breasts than the purebred e+/e+ wild-type Modern Games (not showing juvenile orange-salmon breast (found in both males & females) from the flitter line):


Both chicks are showing some part lacing in wings, more melanised base of neck, tail, etc (often with light feather shaft):



So I think I segregated the lacing (Pg) & melanisers this time without any eumelanin restrictors (except maybe one dose of the MG flitter mutation).

There are 2 F1 ER/e+ CL hens (mothers), the following showing how they changed in tone of eumelanin as they matured (ie went from black eumelanin to a bronzed dark brown):


Notice too how the base ground colour of phaeomelanin is much closer in tone to a Dark Indian Game hen without a red enhancer (ie brownish), not gold like a Gold Sebright. I think this might be because they don't have Co.

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* Also hatched in the CL BC1 were:
- ER Brown Reds,
- some hatched ER black with faint brown face tinge, but turned out Brown Red -slightly more phaeomelanin lace on breast & peppering,
- ER Ginger (without lacing),
- ER Coffee-laced, &
- 2 e+/e+ het. Di-like cockerels with extra phaeomelanin developing on breast, but unfortunately these 2 died young (escaped - pythons probably got at night). Don't know if they would have developed lacing with age.

So with these results & previous CL F1 & BC1, it is clear that there is no close linkage between the lacing phenotype (Pg? & melaniser?) and the Di-like mutation.