- Nov 9, 2010
- 2,069
- 268
- 346
I had him nearly ten years ago so it's hard to remember, probably about 5 - 6 months old.Interesting! How old is the bird in the first photo? I've not seen an adult rooster with such small comb before. The 2nd one is very cool and would look great with a crest. How do you know, for sure, you have R/R and Dv/Dv? I'm trying to eliminate birds from breeding that prove to be heterozygous but it's challenging since they're both dominant. I now have a female R/r and Dv/dv, which I was thinking about breeding back to my Dv/Dv Spitz rooster. I'm still in the process of test breeding to find R/R hens. I had been collecting from multiple hens, assuming they were R/R, until I got some single combed offspring. I've been able to eliminate at least one confirmed R/r and I'm hoping to confirm at least one R/R Dominique hen and one Hamburg this year to use in upcoming experiments.
Test mating is the only way I know of to identify R/R from R/r+ birds, I have wondered if there could be another way, similar to the small wattles in homogenous pea comb birds or cavernous nostrils in birds with two copies of duplex.
Dv/Dv birds are usually identifiable by their cavernous nostrils and severe reduction of the comb when compared to their Dv/dv siblings. In crossbred Dv/Dv birds, the structure of the cavernous nostrils can vary greatly -- due to all of the unnamed genes that affect the comb and beak. As an interesting side note, while Dv/Dv typically shortens the length of the comb from front to back, as in the picture I posted of the R/R Dv/Dv rooster and in Polish, La Fleche, etc., it is possible to achieve Dv/Dv birds with a full-length comb. I will try to find pictures!
Breeding your hen back to the Spitz rooster should give some fun and interesting results!