Spotting and Striping in Exhibition Classes of Rhode Island Red and New Hampshire Baby Chicks

Abstract IN A PREVIOUS paper (Byerly and Quinn, 1936) it was shown that 47.5 percent of 1,102 Rhode Island Red chicks hatched at the National Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland, carried black spotting on the head or black striping on either head or body, also that 42.1 percent of 663 chicks from an excellent standard bred flock carried spotting or striping, indicating that these characteristics may be rather widely distributed among Rhode Island Red flocks. It was further shown that 84.9 percent of the striped or spotted Beltsville chicks were females, whereas 77.8 percent of the non-spotted, non-striped chicks were males. Several breeders and hatcherymen have questioned the extent of the distribution of the characteristics mentioned above. They have also pointed out that little melanic pigment (black spotting and striping) appears in the Rhode Island Red Chicks shown in commercial and standard bred exhibition classes. It was the opinion of the . . .