thicked birds on lipochome type

hello Gents, in Malta a thicked bird, meaning with a little black patch of feathers is disqualified straight away. How is it in your contries, is it the same?

I do not sell these birds, I prefer to keep them and breed with them. What are your comments about this?

thicked/ticked

If a class is designated "clear or ticked" for either coloured or type birds in my country the total area of the tick can be no larger than a 5cent piece.
Such ticks shall be disregarded by the judge.
This applies to one tick, two ticks no matter the total size becomes lightly variegated.

Hello Ninetails, many thanks for your response. Australia! I used to live there when I was a child, in Thomastown. Today I have several relatives there. Maybe you know my uncle, his name is Emanuel Brincat and he makes programs on the Melbourne Ethnic Community Radio.

I take it that where you are follow European rules ie: clear lipochrone's only with no place for ticked or variegated birds.

The down side of this is that by using them in your breeding programme you run the risk of breeding more and more marked birds which is defeating the object of what you are trying to do.

I would suggest that you reduce the use of marked birds to maintain a stud of lipochromes.

a lot of breeders say the same but I have tried a ticked hen 2 years ago and I had 7 youngs from it, and only I was with a hardly seen tick and they are amongst my msot beautiful birds and I achieved same result last year

The problem....as I understand it....is that those 6 youngsters that did not have a visual tick, may well in one or two generations down the line, start to throw ticks in most or all of their young. It is in their genes. If the 'good' un-ticked birds are cocks, & you use them liberally, by the time the "ticks" appear, it could be all through your stud ?

I have just bought some clear Lipos from the Continent & I am told that if a 'tick' appears in a nest of young, they all "go", as the top men over there do not want to run the risk of 'contaminating' their stock. It is different in the Uk ( & Australia obviously) where classes are laid on.

The opposite argument is at the root of the problem in birds like the Lizard where light marks are not identified in what are otherwise 'self' birds, & the birds are used for breeding, proliferating foul feather.

At least with a 'tick', in many cases it can be seen .........although I fear at least one ticked bird at the ACS today will be 'wrong-classed'