Midnight Forest Lofts

What is a pattern?

Patterns in pigeons are what we see on the wing shields. No matter what else is showing or not showing, all pigeons will have two alleles for this gene.They could be barless, bar, check, t-check, with barless being most recessive. 

What is a base color?

There are three base colors in pigeons: Ash Red being most dominant, wild type (blue) and Brown being most recessive.Every pigeon, no matter what else is showing or not, have two alleles for this gene. 

This is sex linked so hens only need one copy of the base color versus two for cock birds. 

What's a modifier?

Modifiers are everything else! Indigo, Opal, Reduced, Recessive opal, are all modifiers that will change the base color of the bird. 

What is dilute? 

Dilute is, as the word implies, not the intense version of a base color. So Ash Red becomes Ash Yellow, Blue becomes Silver and Brown becomes Khaki. This is also sex linked so any hen will be dilute if the gene is present, but cocks will need two copies of dilute to express.

What is spread? 

Spread is a separate gene that will make a blue pigeon look black. it will take the color of the tail bar and put it all over the bird.

What is Recessive red/Recessive Yellow?

Recessive Red/Yellow is epistatic to everything else, meaning it covers patterns and other colors, including base colors and modifiers. Recessive red pigeon could be Ash red, blue or brown underneath. Recessive yellow could be Ash yellow, silver or khaki. This is unrelated to spread and a bird can also be spread under this.

Barless (2002): this was my first 'rare' color/pattern that I got from Tom Barnhart. This is really the most recessive pattern and the hardest to get as its such a rare and recessive trait. We currently have barless in Ash Red, Ash Yellow, Blue, Silver, Brown, Khaki, Opal (on blue), Indigo (on blue), and looking to add recessive opal (on blue), reduced ( on blue) and rubella (on blue) to the mix. 

Indigo (2002): Indigo came by way of a indigo bar carrying barless and an indigo barless. After all these years I still have only had indigo on blue/wild type base color. I think its time to branch out.

Ash Yellow/Cream (2005/2020): in 2005 we got our first dilute cock, a cream bar from Tom (his name keeps appearing!). He was bred to my ash red barless hen and in two generations we had barless ash yellows. When i moved my birds to my friend Darin's, there were SEVEN ash yellow barless that went to him. Sadly in those 6 years i didn't have birds, they were lost/passed/hawk bait, but we still have a hen down from that orignal cream bar. also from Tom are two ash yellow check hens. From them i hope to make more ash yellows, and in turn more dilutes of all three base colors.

Dominant Opal (2015): My current opal modifier comes down from a hen I bought from Tom Barnhart, whos sire was an opal from Larry Davis, and the dam was a daughter of Tom's Heisenburg. I still have one of her sons (opal bar on blue) and two of his daughters that are both indigo and opal. My plan is to take them to blue carless or blues to verify.

Brown/Khaki (2018/2020): I am all but certain we got our first Khaki from Tom in 2018, and first brown hen in 2020. We do have a few cocks that carry brown, but its been an uphill battle as its recessive to both Ash Red and Blue(Wild type). 

Reduced (2020): We have long adored this modifier and had it in our flying rollers to some extent. we finally were able to aquire some birds in 2021 that produced our first reduced young birds for us! These birds fly and perform well and we can't wait to see what we do with them in 2022. We have about 6 pair planned for this modifer in bar, check and spread.

Rubella (2020): We got our first rubella from Chris at Northernlights and Steven Ly, who both got their birds from Europe. Steven has particularly worked with the flying side of it and has had great success in a short time with this modifier in his loft. We are grateful to be using 5 pair this year to produce this in bar, check and spread.

Recessive Opal (2020): I purchased some birds from Tom Barnhart that carried Recessive Opal. in the first clutch both babies were recessive opal! I was hooked. So i got a few more carriers and then a pair of recessive opal spread from Steven Ly. I will have 4 pair to breed from this year and should produce them in bar, check, and spread.

Recessive Red/Recessive Yellow (2020): Surprise! first one (a yellow),came from Tom. Two reds came form Ron Deisher. Then we bred a few, and now have quite a few that carry for it, so they should start popping out of other pairs this year too!

Spread (2020): So this has come in a few different ways. I got some reduced spread from Stephen Ly, and then added a black from him that carried Rubella. Got two spread Rubella from him now too, and a pair of spread recessive opal from him. Also a black from Tom that is carrying recessive opal.  Oh, and a Dun from Tom too. Hoping to make Andalusians and other fun combinations now with spread! Finally two black hens, one from Wes Lammons and one from Brian Malone. i think we should be set for a bit!

Grizzle/Recessive White: I group them together here as sometimes mostly white birds can actually be homozygous grizzle, and tailmarked birds are a combination I believe. I've had both of them from the very beginning with two young hens from Bob Brekken of Hawley MN. they were out of racing stock and i was in love with their color. I settled them at my loft and trained them out to 150 miles. I had quite a few tailmarks down from that original hen named Blizzard. The grizzle never reproduced herself and I can't recall what did happen to her offspring.

Fast forward and in 2021 i got my new grizzle hen from Briane Malone and a cock from Ron Deisher, a recessive white from Tom Barnhart, and in 2022, I will be getting a pair of tailmarks from Mike Brown in CA! Excited to race with their offspring!