photo taken as pullet, 1999, "Magpie"
Sweet little Magpie passed away on February 8, 2000 (the day before my birthday,*sniff*). I conclude that the mottled gene in this strain carries with it some sort of weakness, at least in this particular strain of Rosecombs. She was not even one year old, and never grew to be more than 12.5 ounces. But boy was she cute!
I never would have guessed that I would end up with a Mottled Rosecomb. Can you guess which breeding pen she came out of? Probably the least obvious of choices. She was F2 Red Pyle. When she hatched, she had a black body, white chest, white head, and black eye stripes (hence the name "Magpie"). I figured she would end up black, since I did get a little of everything out the the Red Pyle line, but I was sure surprised when she ended up Mottled! I had a Mottled cockerel too, also out of Red Pyle, but he died at two months old for no apparent reason. Technically she was too light in color. She should not have had solid white wing feathers. I did show her several times in the winter of 1999 though, and she gained quite a few admirers.
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