Which features are dominant?

[momma-hen]

How do you know if a feature is dominant or not? If I breed a crested bird to a non crested, will I get equal amounts of each, or is one feature more dominant than the other? Same with leg color, shank color, etc. Where can i get such information, preferably written for novices (cause I've read some stuff that makes my eyes water!!)

 

[tadkerson]

Individuals want genetics to be simple and it is not. Complete and accurate answers are going to be complicated answers.

Crest is dominant so if you cross a purebred crested bird with a non-crested bird all of the offspring will have crests. If the cross produces non-crested birds- the crested bird is not pure for crest and is carrying a gene for non-crest.There are other characteristics that effect the size of the crest. These are nostril type, comb type and herniated vs non-herniated skull.

Shank color can be difficult because there are a number of genes that effect shank color. The simplest shank color to deal with is white verses yellow on birds that are not black . Skin color determines the shank color- yellow skin is recessive to white skin. If you cross a purebred white skin (white shanks) bird to a yellow skin (yellow shanks) bird, the chicks will have white shanks. This explanation leaves out other gene combinations that can effect shank color.

What other characteristic(s) do you want to know about?


You know if a trait is dominant by doing a test cross. If the trait is found in all the offspring the trait is dominant. For example- if you cross a purebred rose comb breed ( wyandotte) with a single comb breed(leghorn) all of the offspring will have rose comb. Notice I said purebred- the rose comb bird must carry only rose comb genes.



Tim