Marsh Daisy Colours

Marsh Daisy come in five standardised colours. On the following pages you will find photos of each colour and explanations of the key features. To understand more about the genetics do read the brilliant article by Nick Bohemia here

The Wheaten - The original Marsh Daisy was a wheaten bird.

This stunning cockerel was a National Show winner for former breed Registrar Sharon Smith. The key features are the rich gold hackles, beetle green-black tail and dark bay breast and undercolour (very important to distinguish between wheaten, brown and buff) smoke white to french or blue-gray.

The Wheaten hen should have a chestnut hackle with black tips only at the base, the upper part of her body should be red-wheat and the lower part and breast white-wheat, the flights should present a triangular patch of light brown. The tail should be dull black with red-wheat edging. Again the undercolour smoke - white to blue-grey and pure white on the breast. For more Wheatens click here

The Buff - Developed out of the Wheaten with the same genetic base, the Buff has diluting genes and other factors.

The Buff should be golden buff throughout all the way to the skin. The ideal is an even all buff bird but the male's tail is often bronze and sometimes black . This colour is very rare indeed. The cockerel below was bred by Charlie Peck and the hen by Danny Barrand. For more Buffs click here.

The Brown - next came the Brown developed by the Earl of Canterbury. Based on partridge (wild type) colouring. The key to the male is the black breast and beetle green-black tail, a rich gold hackle and dark gold saddle, coverts black like the tail and the secondaries forming a flat brown triangle. The undercolour (very different to the wheaten ) is blue to blue-grey. The hen should have a rich gold hackle with the tips of all feathers black not just at the base of the neck like the wheaten. The back and the wings should be a mossy brown ticked or peppered with darker brown or black. Tail flat black. Breast and underbody red -wheaten or salmon. The cockerel and hen below were bred by Serena Eustice. It should be noted that the hackle on the male is too dark rather than gold on account of the presence of the Mahogany gene. This is a widespread problem with the Browns at this time . For more Browns click here

The Black - should be black all over with a beetle-green sheen. For more photos of Blacks click here

The White - should be pure white. For more photos of the Whites click here

You can follow the links above to find both modern day photos and photos from the Feathered World Yearbooks. Although the latter were originally in black & white and rather old to be scanned to best advantage it is hoped that some knowledge will be gleaned from them. Grateful thanks to the late Dave Scrivener for so willingly scanning and sending the photos from his extensive collection of Year Books.

Read the breed standard and find more helpful photos of specific features.

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