erminette!!! erminette!!! I remember now!!! Thats what they used to call "paint" aka heterozygous dominant white!!! Ugh im so happy i remembered. There is like only one "paint" chicken breed (as the main color) and i couldnt remember it because i kept spelling erminette wrong lol.
Anyway The Erminette Chicken is an old American chicken breed that wasnt really standardized and was thought to be extinct by the 1980s intill it started to be revived in 1990.
They are a cold hardy dual purpose breed that are productive light brown egg layers and good meat producers. The hens are good mothers and go broody somewhat often. Erminette, heterozygous dominant white on a black base is the most common color but red and blue are also being made.
Erminette birds are selected for more "holes" in their dominant white giving them an almost dalmatian-like appearance that is unique to their breed due to this selection. Crossing a random black and dom white bird wont give you the same clean spotted appearance
They do not breed true since they are heterozygous dominant white meaning you also get black birds (no dominant white) and pure white birds (homozygous dominant white) these birds are still invaluable for breeding or as production birds since you can cross a black bird and white bird to get more erminettes!
Part of the reason why it almost went extinct is because the color was made on several different breeds but everyone called their lines "The Erminette" so their was alot of breeder rivalry but not alot of standardization lmao.
One of my favorite breeds due to them using dominant white. Dominant white is my favorite gene :)