these photos. In one image, the poor pullet looks
like she just got back from a visit to the local
taxidermist. She is friendly and always underfoot
hoping that someone will drop a treat, but she
won't be picked up and it has been hard to get a
good picture of her. These photos were taken last
night while the whole clan was roosting.
Almost everyone who visits the farm here
comments on this pullet. She appeared last year
as a sport in our Black Barred line.
We believe she is E^R at the E-locus as is her sire.
She has the characteristic color break at the hackle
but not quite as pronounced as her sire.
As can be seen here, she has a very nice
pencilling on her breast. We actually have severl
of these pullets, but this one is the most mature
and has been in lay now for several months.
I am only speculating ... it is known that E^R birds
can sometimes have some breast coloration
(non-black). Smyth comments about non-black
lacing in the breast plumage of birchen birds that
is probably due to modifying factors. It seems that
this pullet (and her sisters) have this modifying
factor ... can it just be the pattern gene, Pg,
together with birchen?
By Robbpa on Sunday, December 30, 2001 - 08:48 pm:
info, what, exactly, is the difference between lacing and pencilling? and in your latest pics, it appears (to me) that the feather shafts are white also.
Thank you for your post, Robbpa. When I was first
Info, that is one pretty bird. I've never seen one quite like it. You called it a sport, so I take it it's the only one you have? Very unusual. I like it.
Thank you for your post, Hannah. I refer to them as
Infomaniac, what breeds were used to make this hen? If you don't mind telling. I have 2 easter eggers that look almost identical to her. They have yellow legs and rose combs though.
Thank you for your post, Paul. This pullet doesn't
This doesn't look like the normal birchin breast lacing pattern. It could be due to Pg, there is a defect in single laced breeds where they develop a non black fringe on the outside of the single lace. It looks sort of what you have except birchin might fill in the rest of the feather with black. Columbian is not usually expressed on birchin birds.
Very nice pics. And thank you so much for clearing up the deffinitions of "lace" and "pencil"...although I am still slightly in the dark. I've never seen a bird that even resembles yours...no wonder you get so many comments.
Thank you for your post, Josh. I still feel that sometimes the distinction between pencilling and lacing is not too clear.... The black lines in a silver pencilled Wyandotte rooster's white hackle feathers are pencilling... those black lines in the white rooster hackle look like someone made them with a pencil. In cases like that, it is clear (please see the Wyandottes on the Feathersite: http://www.cyborganic.com/People/feathersite/Poultry/CGP/Wyand/BRKWyand.html
i am not clear on lacing v penciling yet either. tomorrow i go pick up my silver pencilled hamburgs.the breeder has had silver and goldpencil. burgs and silver and gold seabrights for 3o yrs. he has also been a judge for nearly 3o yrs. i hope to have the answer to this, as seen in the eyes of the exhibition world. i suppose,for me anyway,it will be the definition that counts most. infomaniac, i may have asked already, have you seen the article (@ the chook shed) re. breeding exhibition gold pencil hamburgs? if so, what did you think of it, if not, you may find it interesting. others may also be interested.
well, lacing we all seem to have an idea. there is single lacing and double lacing. it may be narrower or wider depending pn the breed standard and how it popularly perceived. pencilling, there seems to be no real definition, just lacing by another name. pencilled hamburgs are not truly laced nor pencilled,they,as are other (commonly called)pencilled breeds, are barred.
Thank you, Robb. I also came to the conclusion that 'pencilling' as used in breed naming is not really well defined. Basically, you call the chicks after the breed of the parent! then one doesn't have to think about it! LOL!
By Infomaniac on Sunday, December 30, 2001 - 11:16 pm:
starting my studing of genetics (as an area of
applied mathematics), I was frustrated by exactly
the question you asked. As far as the phenotype
(the look of it), I believe this is a very confused
situation .... Back when I participated at the
Onagadori site, I tried to straighten out this
situation but I was not able to rectify what was said
there with what is written in books like Crawford's
volume and others. One person said that
pencilling looks like it was drawn with a pencil
(LOL! that was a meaningless statement to me ...
a good artist could draw a nice lace pattern with a
pencil too! LOL!)
In Smyth's Chapter 5 of R.D. Crawford's reference
"Poultry Breeding and Genetics", Elsevier, 1990,
page 125, there is a set of 9 drawings of
(secondary) feather patterns. They illustrate:
stippling, pencilling, autosomal barring, buttercup,
single lacing, double lacing, spangling, mottling
and the tricolor patterin in Mille Fleur.
In the picture that illustrates pencilling, the outer
edge of the feather is white (the light color) and the
feather has concentric bands of black (dark color).
The difference between that illustration and the
illustration of (double) lacing is that the colors are
reversed. The lace illustrations show the feather
having a dark outermost edge with concentric
band(s) of lighter color.
If you look through hatchery catalogs to see the
breeds that are named something-lace or
lace-something and compare those with
something pencilled or pencilled something... the
situation is still confused.
So, I have adopted my own vernacular.... if it is a
THIN, SINGLE LINE of color .... it is pencilling. If
the bands of color are more broad, it is a lace.....
surely there will be readers here who will have
different definitions and notions ... I don't want to
argue and I would be happy for rigorous definitions
that distinguish the two ... please note my
discussion below and the differences in Smyth's
illustrations of lace and pencilling.... one is the
negative of the other. (The difference between
pencilling and autosomal barring is clear to me....
the 'barring' should not intersect the edge of the
feather in a pencilled pattern.)
One can define lacing and pencilling in terms of
the genes involved. (See Table 5.3 in Smyth's
chapter (page 127) or the genetics website has a
very similar table) Smyth's table 5.3 indicates that
pencilling is caused by the pattern gene, Pg, on the
e^b allele at the E-locus in the absence of Co, Ml
and so on. Single lacing is Pg, Co, Ml with e^b.
Double lacing is Pg, Ml with either e^b, or
recessive or dominant wheaten.
The thing that we notice in our birds is that they
should be birchen at the E-locus. I have never
seen any author indicate the influence of Pg
(alone) on birchen.
You are correct that the feather ribs are also white
in these birds. I believe we could get away with
calling our birds "Silver Pencilled Dakota Blacks".
The "silver" indicating that the pencil marks are
white.
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 1, 2002 - 10:39 pm:
By Infomaniac on Wednesday, January 2, 2002 - 01:31 am:
sports because they're not the type we expected
from that line (which is black and barred). We
actually have severl of them now but the others are
juveniles. This one is the only mature female like
this.
She has an eye-catching appearance and
everyone that visits the farm comments about how
pretty she is. But, I'm not sure what genes are
responsible for that breast pattern ... I speculate it
is due to birchen + pattern gene .... a type of
pencilling.
By Paul Gonzalez (Pgncluck) on Wednesday, January 2, 2002 - 10:40 pm:
By Infomaniac on Thursday, January 3, 2002 - 12:06 am:
belong to any recognized breed. She's from one of
our breeding projects (Black Barred line) , but she
escaped the barring, which is why she has black in
her shanks and feet. Our Black Barred line looks a
lot like Marans, but they aren't. (This pullet doesn't
look anything like a Marans) With some simple
cosmetic tuning we could create a pretty good line
of faux-Marans....
I am uncertain what genes are responsible for the
breast pencilling phenotype here... I am
speculating that it is due to birchen + Pg
By Rokimoto on Thursday, January 3, 2002 - 09:18 pm:
If you cross these birds to light or dark brown Leghorns and you see the faint hints of partridge pattern on the feathers you probably have Pg. Pg is incompletely dominant and one copy will only give a fuzzy partridge pattern on e+ or eb birds. If the birds are ERER it may take two generations to see the Pg.
By Josh on Friday, January 4, 2002 - 06:35 pm:
By Infomaniac on Saturday, January 5, 2002 - 12:21 pm:
After having looked at the Wyandottes again, I believe I would call the pattern in my bird pictured above a lace pattern rather than a pencilled pattern. Please look at Feathersite and see if you agree.
Here I'll try to figure out the nameing convention:
Golden Laced Wyandotte = red / gold feathers with black border (the lacing)
Silver Laced Wyandotte = white feathers with black border (lacing)
Blue Laced Red = red feathers with blue / grey edges (the lacing)
But, notice the picture titled "My Silver Pencilled Wyandotte Hen"... certainly her hackle looks pencilled but I don't know why her body wouldn't be considered to be laced....
I give up. It doesn't make any sense to me.
By Robbpa on Saturday, January 5, 2002 - 08:00 pm:
By Robbpa on Sunday, January 6, 2002 - 04:40 pm:
By Infomaniac on Monday, January 7, 2002 - 11:42 am:
But, Smyth provides a genetic definition of pencilling (Pencilling comes from e^b at the E-locus plus the pattern gene, Pg). We see this lacing / pencilling pictured above from birds we believe are birchen, E^R, with Pg (pattern gene). None of us here have been able to find a reference due to a poultry geneticist that indicates what one gets with a bird that is birchen with Pg.
I'll look at the article at the chook shed....