Q: How do you breed recessive pigeons?

The Meulemans that I breed are sometimes called recessive reds, or browns by some Europeans. They are also sometimes referred to by the English as chocolate. I regularly breed these birds from blues or blue checkers. In fact, all my recessive red breeding stock originates from blues or blue checkers with no recessive showing for 3 or 4 generations.

If you mate a recessive with a blue, none of the youngsters will be recessive. However, all the blue youngsters when mated to another bird that carries the recessive gene, whether blue or recessive in color, will produce recessive reds. 2 recessive reds mated together will produce all recessive reds. About 1/2 of these recessive red youngsters will mottle, or turn white as they go through their first molt. The mottled pigeons then turn whiter with each molt. When they are 5 or 6 years old, many of them look almost pure white.