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The Original All Roller Talk Discussion Board Archive >
14 Tail Feathers ?
14 Tail Feathers ?
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birdman
105 posts
Jan 05, 2006
2:32 PM
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I recently read an article written by the late Paul Bradford of Utah. In the article he was giving a brief history of the Oriental Roller along with some of the characteristics such as a minimum of 14 tail feathers, oil gland (or lack of), flying habits, etc...
Then he mentions that rollers (Birminghams) frequently have.... 14 tail feathers. ????
I've never made a habit of counting tail feathers but have always assumed that 12 are the norm.
How many of you guys produce Birminghams with 14 tail feathers?
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merced guy
38 posts
Jan 05, 2006
5:12 PM
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I had one with 13 tail feathers and I almost freak out, the parents both had 12, then I bred it and its offsprings had it too, after that i didnt stock him anymore. how about web feet--I have a hen hell of a spinner, but has web feet, can I still breed her and not have web feet, how dominace is that?
thong
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
322 posts
Jan 05, 2006
6:22 PM
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I can't recall ever raising a roller with more than 12 tail feathers, but I didn't go through each one counting them either..lol.
It really isn't out of the ordinary to get one with "extra" tail feathers. Some ignorant purist might start screaming "foul play" or that there was a cross in the near background. The reality is it happens and it is a recessive gene.
We get 13 and on a rare occasion, 14 tail feathers in the Wests. I haven't bred one with extra tailfeathers in about four years or so since I always cull them. It is considered a major fault and DQ for showing. Being recessive, you will breed more of them if the bird is used. We don't have Oriental Roller in our Wests, at least not for the last 75 years, but chances are the random floating recessive extra tail feather gene that is floating around some of the West family gene pools probably came from a similar source that it did for the roller way back when.
Brian.
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