Genetics - so easy even a caveman can do it?

[TxChiknRanchers]

 

[Blisschick]

Quote:
I believe brown is dominate over white, and the degree of the brown is dependent on modifiers. Also, the blue egg gene is dominate over the brown egg gene. Many times you will see gene dominance notated as such:

Bl>Br>w

(Don't take this example as gospel, since I have no idea how the egg color gene is actually notated. Each gene normally has a letter(s) to represent it.)

Anyone who has Easter Eggers will tell you that many times they will have layers with green eggs, and the eggs will be in various shades. This is because the brown coloring is laid over the blue coloring before the egg is laid. To know what shade of blue the hen is actually laying, you have to look at the inside of the shell where the brown isn't present.

Also, I do not know if this is a separate gene from brown eggs, since the shell of brown eggs is completely colored, but I would suspect so given the mechanics of it. I do know I have cleaned brown eggs before, and scrubbing will sometimes take a layer of the color off, as it sometimes does on the green eggs.

 

[rooster-red]

OH,OH, NOW I GET IT!

Genetics is like a box of choclates...

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

So glad this came up.. and Elderoo, as always, you kept me laughing. What I could understand about genetics would fit in a thimble. And.. I've never felt as dumb as I did looking at that Sellers site. Oh, the FIRST parts I understood (and I know how to do the punnet square.. even if you add LOTS more traits), but.. get to some of the weirder stuff and I get lost.. even reading multiple times just gives me confusion and a sick-to-the-stomach headache.

I do know that Brown and Blue are dominant over white. Mix a brown egg layer and a blue one, and you get a shade of green. As for the color scrubbing off, I think that the colors are actually put into the egg in slightly different ways. The blue goes through the shell (as was suggested) and the brown is laid on top.

And that, ladies and gentleman, completes my understanding of Chicken Genetics.

Meghan

Edited to add: some times I lurk over at www.the-coop.org to read their genetics posts.. just to see if I can, through symbiosis, absorb some of it. No luck yet, but gives me a better grasp of how smart other people are. Rather humbling.

 

[Davaroo]

Edited to add: some times I lurk over at www.the-coop.org to read their genetics posts.. just to see if I can, through symbiosis, absorb some of it. No luck yet, but gives me a better grasp of how smart other people are. Rather humbling.

I know what you mean.​

 

[jab91864]

I agree about the "coop", don't think I shall ever achieve that level. But as long as the chickens don't figure out how dumb I am then we should be ok....lol

Julie

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

LOL! And there! I should have put OSMOSIS. That's what I get for posting so early pre-caffeine!

 

[Davaroo]

Fortunately for me, all this genetic oatmeal is not that important to the average chickener...or the chickens. I certainly do not rank myself higher than average in the chicken world. Knowing that about oneself is both humbling and liberating, all at once.

It frees one to go back to basics, where The Five Rules of Chickens suffice nicely. I stick to them foremost and so, little fancy foo-faw creeps in.

I have come to grips with the thought that, like our caveman friend, I may NEVER understand the genetic convolutions of the chicken in an academic sense. Knowing this, I have lately shifted my study efforts to great PEOPLE, where perhaps, it is better applied. You'd be surprised to know what I have learned about Hubert Humphrey...

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

btw, elderoo, I really miss your "Join the Darkside, get a cookie" logo. I have to periodically drop over to the other BYC just to laugh about it.

People watching is interesting, but to be honest, anything that makes me feel dumb is grounds for intense research until I *feel* like I understand it, at least on some level. I'm not one to throw up my hands and say "oh well.. I'll leave it to the experts" <unless you are talking about cars and mechanics. No amount of watching my husband rebuild his motor, or even perusing the "Motors in Small block Chevies" will ever make it possible for me to have an intelligent conversation about that. My mind goes blank, I see spots, and I think I start to drool a bit.>

 

[Davaroo]

I'm not one to throw up my hands and say "oh well.. I'll leave it to the experts"

On many levels I share your feeling. But I am able to see in shades of gray and not just black and white, too.

I know enough selectivity, for example, to select the right birds for breeding a vigorous, vibrant flock. Whether Ill get a frizzle headed, duster-tailed blue splash Coochie out of the bargain is not really something I dwell on. For those who do, more power to you.

If I''ve learned nothing else, it's that swimming against the tide only wears you out. You get no further along and the tide wins anyway. This sort of sums it up: