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Findings from accidental crosses with Gimpel-Pigeons
The first response of a reader to the picture of the cross-bred
young created by cross-fertilisation was: 'for the frying pan'.
Shortly afterwards, more thoughtful, 'also something to learn'. One
could already learn that a week's isolation of the pair before
egg-laying does not protect against another predator fertilising the
egg. But there is more.
Gold Gimpel-couple with peak crested young by cross-fertilising. At
the right the blackwing hen with her peak-crested young.
The search for the father
The search for the biological father is like a puzzle. At least it
encourages flexibility of thought. The mother a gold-black-winged
gimpel hen. The mated gold-blue-wing cock could not be the father.
The gold tone of the gimpels does not degenerate like this in pure
strains and the copper neck colour shows that the father was not
dilute coloured. The mahogany colouring of the young gave further
clues. In the wings recognisable a heterozygous ash-red male.
Heterozygous, indicated by the black ink spots in the tail. Of the
potential fathers, only an ashen (Spread Ash) Pomeranian Eye-Crested
Highflyer came into question.
 
Indicators for the heterozygous ashen/black base colour in the young
male. On the right with shell crest the Spread Ash biological
father.
The genetic explanation
The kitten is not a standard colour. When asked what to call the
colour, one could say 'mahogany with bronze chest'. Genetically a
spread ash, which is heterozygous for black.
Crosses in this random mating at the hereditary level.
For breeders, the young bird is the result of a single cross between
an ashen Pomeranian and a Golden Gimpel. On the level of single
hereditary factors at least five levels can be distinguished:
1. a pigeon with a round crest was crossed with a female pigeon with
a peak crest.
2. a cross was made between a pure ash-red pigeon and a pigeon with
a black base colour.
3. a 'non-diluted' cock was crossed with a golden hen diluted by
'Pale'. Reminder: Pale turns copper into gold in gimpels. The female
pigeon has the factor sex-related single.
4. crossed was a pigeon without gimpel bronze with a pigeon with
gimpel bronze.
5. a cock with spread was crossed, which the hen does not have.
Comparison of the appearance of the young with the theoretical
expectations.
What is the result of these crossings in the mirror of experiences
and expectations?
1. in the case of the head crest the result is a peak crested
youngster. In the first scientific investigation of the relationship
between peak and round or shell crest, Soedergaard in 1927 had still
found a dominance of the round crest. Contrary observations were
documented later. The peak crest thus did not surprise (2012, 2019),
but there are apparently more complex relationships than assumed at
the time.
2. heterozygous breed ash-red pigeons were to be expected. If more
juveniles come from such a cross, then there will also be ash-red
females, but these without ink spots.
3. pale as a recessive factor in this mating can only result in
heterozygous pale cocks like the juvenile and will not show or only
in a limited degree. This also has an effect on the gimpel bronze
inherited the gold mother to the son.
4. gimpel bronze inherits dominantly. This is equally true when it
occurs in copper gimpels and in gold gimpels. Gimpel bronze also
asserts itself in matings with ashy pale. This was also known
before. It is confirmed by the gimpel bronze in the neck area of the
son. Bronze instead of gold because the son is only heterozygous for
pale.
5. The colour spreading factor of the ashen father is dominant. This
is shown by the overall bronze tone mahogany heterozygous son.
Daughters from this mating could have been similarly dark ashy, but
then not had the ink spots of the son. Something else is remarkable
about him. The colour spread factor suppresses the gimpel bronze
(epistasis) in matings with blacks. The offspring then is largely
black. In the early phase of classical genetics this had led to the
erroneous assumption of a recessive gimpel bronze. In ash red, and
also here in mixed black/red base colour, gimpel bronze is less
suppressed by spread than in black.
For breeders not familiar with the breeding of gimpel-pigeons, it is
certainly particularly astonishing how strongly the type of the
gimpel-pigeons with peak crest asserts itself in a first cross. The
black and white gimpels mentioned by Goodall in England in 1924
probably originate from such crosses with tumblers. It is amazing
already in the 1st generation, as the author has experienced several
times in his own breeding
Fig. 356 in Pigeon Genetics. Gimpel Gold White-Wing x tigered short
beaked Highflier hen with selected youngsters with Gimpel-Pigeon
type from own breeding. Source: Sell, Pigeon Genetics, Applied
Genetics in the Domestic Pigeon, Achim 2012.
Result
The mahogany coloured ashy young with peak crest, bronze breast and
neck has been produced by chance by cross-pollination. However, the
inheritance process itself is not random, but follows predictably
known laws of inheritance.
Literature:
Sell, A., Taubenzucht. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen züchterischer
Gestaltung, Achim 2019.
Sell, A., Pigeon Genetics. Applied Genetics in the Domestic Pigeon,
Achim 2012.
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