The Opaline

My thoughts are that if you intend to show birds at exhibition level then it is a must that you use good quality Opaline hens in your breeding program.  Why?  The opaline hen brings with it the following:  The ability to bring into a stud the much sort after body and head size required in the exhibition normals of today, it also brings with it the spot size.

Although advice will br given in some cases, not to pair opaline to opaline, by being very selective and breeding only the best opaline cock to opaline hen can give you a useful pairing and will give you 100% opalines in the nest and hopefully produce you the excellent quality hens required to put into your stud.

By breeding a good quality Opaline hen to a Normal cock bird, will give you the results of:  Normal/Split Opaline Cocks and Normal hens, all the chicks in the nest should be visually normal. These normal birds which are produced are often better than those birds produced direct from a normal to normal pairing, especially the hens.  They tend to carry more of the desired qualities require by those who exhibit today.  Width across the head and face, good size in the body and also good spot size which is an asset to those breeding for exhibition purpose. These normals are often better quality birds when  pairing back into the breeding program.

When breeding this combination of birds: Opaline hen to a Normal cock bird, if you do find that you have any Opaline cocks or hens in the nest then the cock bird you have paired must be a visual Normal/Split Opaline Cock and some of the visual normal cock birds in that nest will also be split for Opaline.  

Normal/Split Opaline Cocks :-This Bird will look a visual Normal but when paired up will produce Opaline cocks and hens.
Hens cannot be split for opaline, if they don't show opaline then they are normal.