| The Breeds of the United States | |
Texan PioneerThe Texan Pioneer, another truly American breed, was created by Del James during the late fifties and early sixties. It is a large breed, similar in size to the French Mondain, which was used in its creation. In addition, the breed has two major distinguishing characteristics, both due to its origin as a utility (meat-producing) breed: (1)The head and feet are supposed to be small in proportion to the rest of the body, the rationale being that it is senseless to add weight to parts of the bird that are discarded when the bird is butchered ; (2)The breed is pure for the faded factor. The latter characteristic makes the Texan Pioneer a true "auto-sex" breed, whereby the sex of all squabs can be determined by the plumage color. It comes in a variety of colors, being: blue, black, ash-red, and recessive red. but because of the faded gene they are very muted in hens and in cocks only show as very minor flecks around the the neck They use the NPA band side K for large birds. |
|
AutosexingThis magic is performed by that gene called faded. Auto-sexing is not the same as a "sex- linked mating", even though the faded gene is on the “sex” chromosome. The genes position on that chromosome is what allows it to be used for auto-sexing. Since pigeons cocks carry two active “sex” chromosomes while the hens have but one, the expression of the faded gene in cocks is more fading than in hens. Hens, having just one “sex” chromosome, can only have just one gene for faded, and its expression is therefor less pronounced. Homozygous cocks, with the faded gene on both chromosomes ,appear mostly white with dark flecks on the head and neck, while the hens are a muted color of the color gene they have. |
|
Gallery   |
|
| The NPA recognized the breed in 1991, and adopted the official standard in 1993.. |  |