Buff genetics

What would you get if you crossed a White Rock X Buff Rock or other Buff colored hen?

It depends on the genetics of the white rock and the buff. Most likely if you cross a white rock male and a buff female you will get a black/ dark brown and silver bird. The females will be black /dark brown and tend to be a white color on the head, hackles and breast. ( birchen looking). The amount of silver (white) they show will vary- could be alot or a little. The males will tend to be black and may show silver in the pyle zone- could be just neck hackle being silver or could spread into the back and wing bows. Silver may even spread into the breast feathers. It depends on the genetics of the white rock concerning the amount of silver that will show. Black will be found in the wings and tail.

If the male is gold then replace silver with dark buff in the above paragraph.

The white rock should be recessive white and that is why the offspring will not be white. If he is carrying dominant white then you will get some white and buff birds or white birds (male is silver)and some birds like I described in the first paragraph. The same holds true for the buff/red bird. If the buff is dominant white and the rock is not dominant white then you will get some white and buff/red birds or white birds (male is silver) and some birds like I described in the first paragraph. If both carry dominant white, then you will get some pure white birds or birds that are white and show some red/buff. All birds that have dominant white in them will have an almost white tail and wings. Wings will tend to show black before the tail.

It can be very complicated with more posibilities. But this should give you an idea.

Tim

Is the Buff a dilute of a Red (or Brown or Black)? Would you expect the Cornish X Rock rooster to be a Dominant White ? If so, what colors would one expect if crosssed onto a Buff hen?

Buff is a dilute of red. Brown and blue are a dilute of black.

Quote:
Commercial meat birds (cornish cross) are dominant white (I) and sex linked silver (S) and are columbian restricted (Co). They may also carry sex linked barring (B)and blue (Bl). I do not think they carry the recessive white gene (c) because studies have shown that the c gene can effect growth of a bird.

Cornish cross X buff bird = You will get white females or females that show some black as specs of black in the feathers.

and the males will be white with buff leaking through the white. Th pattern of the buff can vary with the bird - could be a small amount or it could be a large amount. As the males get older they leak more buff. They hatch white but will add buff as they get older.

Tim

Going a step further... what would you expect to get for an F2 generation if you bred the F1s together ...Cornish X rooster back to F1 hens ... F1rooster onto Buff hens?

BossRoo,

What is your goal in breeding the broiler and buff cross?

Tim

In my college Biology courses, we studied Mendell's color genetics of the pea, etc., which interested me greatly. I also have studied color inheritance in horses on my own. I am new to raising chickens and there seems to be a lot of information on color inheritance on red, black, blue, etc. except that I can only find very little information on the Buff color, other than it is complicated. I want to broaden my knowledge of this mode of inheritance, so I thaught by posing a question regarding white x buff, I may learn something from knowledgable people.

Buff
The color buff is one of the least understood variaties that make up the vast array of chicken colors. None of the papers the author has read explain how the color is produced. In order to obtain the buff color, the chicken must: 1) have a gene or genes that add red pigment to the chickens plumage, 2) the chicken must carry a gene or genes that dilute the red pigment to a buff color, 3) the chicken must also carry restrictors that remove black pigment from the body of the bird, even the black in the tail of the bird. If one can breed genes into a bird that will do the above tasks, they will produce a buff bird.

There have been two studies that have genetically analyzed the color buff. One of these studies is the study by Brumbaugh and Hollander (1966) and the other by Carefoot (1995). In the study by Brumbaugh and Hollander, the genetic makeup of the Buff Minorca and the Buff leghorn were analyzed. The Buff Minorca carried the following genes: recessive wheaten (ey), sex linked gold (s+), champagne blond (Cb), mahogany (Mh), columbian (Co) and dilute (Di). The Buff leghorn was determined to have the E locus gene recessive wheaten. In the study by Carefoot, he determined that the bantam Buff Rock contains the following genes: columbian (Co), dark brown (Db), sex linked gold (s+), and dominant white (I). The author was not able to read the paper by Carefoot but did read the abstract.

The sex linked gold gene will add red pigment to the chicken. The mahogany gene will make the red even darker but it is evident in the plumage that the mahogany gene does not cause the plumage to be red. Buff birds have a diluted orange/red color. The columbian gene and the dark brown gene both add an orange hue to the red pigment.

The next obstacle would be to dilute the orange/red to a buff color. Dilution of the orange/red could be accomplished with the champagne blond and the dilute genes, in the Minorca, or the dominant white gene in the Rock.

The next step would be to add genes that would remove all of the black pigment from both the male and female birds This would allow the entire bird to be a buff color. The columbian gene, the dark brown gene and the mahogany gene are all called restrictors. These genes are able to remove black from much of the bird but none of them alone can remove all of the black. Dominant white can be an answer to this problem. Dominant white in the Rock will remove the black and allow the red to enter the tail and wings. Dominant white was not found in the Buff Minorca. So, what is removing all of the black from the wings and tail of the Buff Minorca? More research needs to be carried out to answer this question. It is the authors opinion that the restrictors as a whole work together to remove the black from the wings and tail.

Brumbaugh JA, Hollander WF, 1966. Genetics of buff and related color patterns in the fowl. Poultry Science. 45:451-457

W. C. Carefoot., 1995 Evidence that the eumelanin restrictor genes (Co) and (Db) are present in the genome of the Buff Rock bantam British Poultry Science, Volume 36, Issue 2 May , pages 205 - 207


Tim