Red sprinkles and yellow sprinkles at Oriental
Rollers
In 1926, there were no sprinkles in the German
Breed Pigeon Standard. In the standard of 1951 they are called for
the first time as two-color with white ground color and black, red
or yellow sprinkling. Silver sprinkles with a silver-gray background
and black flecks (sprinkles) were forgotten in 1951 when listing the
colors. However, they were mentioned when naming the breed
characteristics. They may, like black and multicolored, have a black
beak tip as opposed to the other colors.
Recessive red with white factor as sprinkles
after the standardization of sprinkles in the 1950s and 1960s
White with black spinkles has been around for a
long time. The even distribution of colored sprinkles also
influenced the idea of sprinkles in other colors. However, sprinkles
with a uniform, intensely red or yellowish sprinkling throughout the
entire body, including the wings and tail, probably never existed.
Oriental Roller white black sprinkle and the
today white-red marked (Weiß-Rotgezeichnet)
Consciously in memory are the author
‘Redsprinkles’ from the 1960s from the shows in northern Germany.
Still very young, in the wings still not molted young birds received
high grades. Their older siblings had already evolved to
white-flights, sometimes with some full-colored feathers.
Genetically, it will have been Recessive Red endowed with a
brightening factor. That caused the moaning of red youth plumage to
white in large parts. Such a trait was still described by Christie
and Wriedt in 1929.
White Ash Red (dominant red) sprinkles as an
intermezzo around 2000
After 2000, top-breeders of multicolored Oriental
Roller presented at the big shows genetically and phenotypical
different red sprinkles. They were ash red with the stipple (or
equivalent sprinkle) factor. The individuals presented by Horst
Graefe 2005 at the National Poultry Show in Dortmund came closer
with ashy splashes on a white background in the primaries and
stronger red in shield and neck of the idea of 'red sprinkles' and
were honored in the show report by the author. This positive
assessment was not shared by everyone. It was denied by those
responsible in the Special Club that the pigeons would not have red
sprinkles, but ash. This was especially obvious in the wings and
tail.

Oriental Roller white ash-red sprinkled and white
ash red sprinkled cross breed from the own loft
Ash-red sprinkle cocks one already obtains from
the first pairing of black sprinkles with Spread Ash, Ash red bars
or checks. They are heterozygous for black pigment, which shows in
sometimes only a few black feathers. Mating such a heterozygous cock
with an ash red (Spread Ash, Ash-red bar etc.) can with some luck
already result in some homozygous ash-red sprinkles. Genetically the
Color-locus and the stipple locus both are located on the sex
chromosome and are therefore genetically linked. But they are so far
apart that this linkage is often broken. Not only theory, but also
in practice, as sprinkles from the test pairings with other breeds
of the author show. Spread tends to have the effect of changing the
base optically to white in the case of dominant red in combination
with the stipple factor. Without the Spread factor and lacking color
intensifying traits, the pigeons got a light creamy base. When
enriched by the color intensifying 'modifiers' dominant red without
Spread should be the basis for occasionally shown dominant red with
the sprinkle trait (dominant red sprinkles), which are misleadingly
also referred to as 'dominant red Almonds'. They have no white (or
near to white) ground like the white dominant red sprinkles.
Those that felt responsible for the standard at
that time still followed the illusion that you could raise from the
mating with self reds easily red sprinkles with intense red
sprinkles over the entire body. Black sprinkles can be obtained by
pairing multicolored with self blacks and then selecting for
distinct two-colored white with black sprinkles. This should also be
possible by the mating of multicolored or black sprinkles with
Recessive reds and producing homozygous recessive red
St-individuals. But it is not! Recessive red with the stipple or
sprinkle factor become DeRoy, much lighter than Red. The lightened
wings and tail feathers are an obvious difference to yellow.

Oriental Roller DeRoy, Yellow and Red
This could be seen on the example of the English
Short Faced Tumbler also in the Show Report for Dortmund 2005, and
that could have been found even then in the relevant literature.
White-red marked and white-yellow marked as
successors of red and yellow with white factors
After the rejection of the ash red sprinkles,
further attempts were made to raise red sprinkles in the desired
color by matching multicolored, black sprinkles, grizzles, red
recessive with white factors and probably others, but without
success. Often looks into the breeders’ loft and the existing colors
give a better impression of the genetic factors involved than
narratives.
View into a breeder’s loft for an assessment of
potential genes in the flock, a DeRoy, a white red-marked and a blue
grizzle

White Red-marked (the former recessive red
‘sprinkle’) from different German exhibitions
At a photo assembled a DeRoy, genetically
homozygous red Recessive with the Stipper trait, a Recessive Red
with white (or bleaching) factor and a blue grizzle. Even the
intensive efforts did not lead to the hoped-for result, so that
finally a renaming was made in agreement with the Federal Breeding
Committee. However, the crosses and different hereditary factors
have left their mark on the stocks and show up in the variance of
the colorations still today. White primaries are expressly allowed
in the standard description if individual full-colored feathers are
also desired in between.
Revival of the ash red sprinkles?
If you follow recent reports from the US and
Holland, then there still seems to be an interest in ash red
sprinkles there. For the breed it would be positive, if the breeders
inform about the genetic bases of their pigeons and participants in
the discussion about standards are aware of the findings and
controversies in the past.
Literature:
Sell, A., Pigeon Genetics. Applied Genetics in
the Domestic Pigeon, Achim 2012
Sell, A., Genetik der Taubenfärbungen, Achim 2015
www.taubensell.de
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