Anyone Want To Talk About Genetics!?!

[DemeterAD9]

That really helps clear up things!

Now onto feather pattern. Wyandotte focused meat bird project, I’ll be placing 3 Wyandotte hens (BBS, GLW, SLW) along with a few other girls (barred rock, bresse mixes) with a cockerel who’s mom was a Cornish cross and dad was a BJG X SLW (looked like a BJG with a rose comb and a bit of silver in his neck feathers). He is white with a bit of leakage, presumably with hidden baring and maybe a lacing gene in there. I expect a fair bit of white in his offspring but seeing as he has one gene of dominant white and one (I believe) extended black, some of them may have color (guessing black mostly). Some of them that have color other than white could show barring and perhaps some lacing? Of course I’ll find out all in due time but it’s fun to try and guess. Also I expect mostly rose combs with a few singles as he has a single comb gene, as does the SLW judging from her other single combed son.

Here he is with his grandma/future lady friend.

 

[NatJ]

That really helps clear up things!

Now onto feather pattern. Wyandotte focused meat bird project, I’ll be placing 3 Wyandotte hens (BBS, GLW, SLW) along with a few other girls (barred rock, bresse mixes) with a cockerel who’s mom was a Cornish cross and dad was a BJG X SLW (looked like a BJG with a rose comb and a bit of silver in his neck feathers). He is white with a bit of leakage, presumably with hidden baring and maybe a lacing gene in there. I expect a fair bit of white in his offspring but seeing as he has one gene of dominant white and one (I believe) extended black, some of them may have color (guessing black mostly). Some of them that have color other than white could show barring and perhaps some lacing? Of course I’ll find out all in due time but it’s fun to try and guess. Also I expect mostly rose combs with a few singles as he has a single comb gene, as does the SLW judging from her other single combed son.

Here he is with his grandma/future lady friend.
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Your guesses definitely sound like possibilities. I think you're right about the combs. I don't know for sure about the colors.

Do you have a preference about what colors you want? I could see you getting some that are solid black or nearly so, some with silver & black patterns, and some of either that are white because Dominant White turns the black parts into white.

It shoulds like you have a bunch with the silver gene, and not many with gold (Gold Laced Wyandotte being one that obviously does have it.)

If your breeding male has a barring gene, you could see barring in both sexes of chicks. If he has no barring gene, then barring could only come from the mothers of the chicks, meaning any chicks with barring would have to be males. I don't know if Cornish Cross tend to have the barring gene or not, so I don't know if your cockerel could have it or not. He certainly would not have gotten the barring gene from the other side of his ancestry, the BJG x SLW (I'm reading that as Jersey Giant, not sure if you meant black or blue but neither one would have barring, and Silver Laced Wyandotte. If you meant something different for one of them, please do set me straight.)

 

[NatJ]

I've had clean legged birds produce birds with some stubble on the legs, which I find weird. Usually molts out, sometimes it doesn't.

I've had some too, and I've noticed that feather stubs are a disqualification in at least some clean-legged breeds. Maybe all, but I haven't checked for all of them. So I figure they must be moderately common, if they're that easy to find and that important to make rules about

 

[SourRoses]

I would love to learn more about the genetics behind physical form.
There's so much to the build of a bird... I read a bit in Brian Reeders book but it just made me want to understand more.

For example, I have an issue with short backs in my main project line.
At least, they look short to me. I want an elegant long back.
But my eye can't really see the smaller increments of length, which I'm guessing is the starting point to selecting for it (a bit at a time?).
I have one hen who segregated out with a longer back, but what is the inheritance pattern... Will all her chicks have slightly longer backs? Some? How do I tell? If I used a measuring tape (?) where would the start and end points be so I'm not including the neck or tail?

 

[MysteryChicken]

I would love to learn more about the genetics behind physical form.
There's so much to the build of a bird... I read a bit in Brian Reeders book but it just made me want to understand more.

For example, I have an issue with short backs in my main project line.
At least, they look short to me. I want an elegant long back.
But my eye can't really see the smaller increments of length, which I'm guessing is the starting point to selecting for it (a bit at a time?).
I have one hen who segregated out with a longer back, but what is the inheritance pattern... Will all her chicks have slightly longer backs? Some? How do I tell? If I used a measuring tape (?) where would the start and end points be so I'm not including the neck or tail?

What's you're breeding project? Either I forgot about it, or haven't heard of it.

Longer backs isn't to hard to breed in. Just need to add in a cross of a different breed with the trait, or an Out Cross(Same Breed, different source), with long back, & breed it into a few birds to establish the base.

 

[LoveMyPeepers]

I deal with genetics as far as breeding show-quality silkies.

I've read places here and others that suggest there isn't in-breeding per se with chickens like there is with other animals, like dogs for instance. That said, it's suggested by some we can breed "siblings" and/or relatives up to five generations. I just can't do that though. I'm constantly bringing in new genes by purchasing hatching eggs from reputable breeders.

As far as genetics, I try to keep only those that have the traits I want. For instance, this little 3-month-old, as beautiful as she is, has a small amount of black feathers in her tail. That is merely a preference of appearance, with or without it, but I'm trying to get away from it. So, will even breed her to a sibling if one of those were purely buff with no bleeding. After that, I'd buy some hatching eggs from a breeder where I can see they have purely buffs without added colors.

She's in the house brooder right now as she wasn't feeling good yesterday but I think she's fine today.

View attachment 4277606

She is so cute!

 

[LoveMyPeepers]

Man, I wish I knew how feather color works. I can track birds back multiple generations (ex: Friend is Silber and Derpy’s kid, Silber was a mix, likely from my first roo Buddy and the RIR Russel, so that means Friend is quarter RIR, quarter Plymouth, and half hatchery Production Red, if I’m correct about who his mother is, which I probably am because she is the only bird with orange feathers like him who was laying brown eggs when he was hatched)
But I don’t know how the color actually works. I just know “ if orange bird with barring, then mother was orange and father had barring.”

Edit: here’s my pretty boy

He is really pretty!

 

[LoveMyPeepers]

I haven't done that much breeding so I don't have too much personal experience, but reading about all this is really interesting!

 

[DemeterAD9]

Your guesses definitely sound like possibilities. I think you're right about the combs. I don't know for sure about the colors.

Do you have a preference about what colors you want? I could see you getting some that are solid black or nearly so, some with silver & black patterns, and some of either that are white because Dominant White turns the black parts into white.

It shoulds like you have a bunch with the silver gene, and not many with gold (Gold Laced Wyandotte being one that obviously does have it.)

If your breeding male has a barring gene, you could see barring in both sexes of chicks. If he has no barring gene, then barring could only come from the mothers of the chicks, meaning any chicks with barring would have to be males. I don't know if Cornish Cross tend to have the barring gene or not, so I don't know if your cockerel could have it or not. He certainly would not have gotten the barring gene from the other side of his ancestry, the BJG x SLW (I'm reading that as Jersey Giant, not sure if you meant black or blue but neither one would have barring, and Silver Laced Wyandotte. If you meant something different for one of them, please do set me straight.)

BJG is short for black jersey giant, easier to abbreviate than to spell it out every time. Same for silver laced Wyandotte. I’m so used to using abbreviated names for all my birds, especially my mutts, that I forget a lot of people won’t know what I mean .

I am not picky about color but white does make for a prettier carcass once plucked. Ideally if I can get a couple nice looking pullets I’ll add them to the general population and use them for breeders next time.

As for the barring in the cockerel, I was told by someone that Cornish cross are all barred. If that is the case then he should be barred because of his mom. I guess I’ll find out sometime on April!

 

[NatJ]

BJG is short for black jersey giant, easier to abbreviate than to spell it out every time. Same for silver laced Wyandotte. I’m so used to using abbreviated names for all my birds, especially my mutts, that I forget a lot of people won’t know what I mean .

I like to double-check abbreviations because there are some that overlap, and occasionally someone accidentally puts the letters in a different order and it's a different one.

(Some of my favorite mixed up ones: BCM is black or blue, copper or cuckoo, usually Marans; BA is Black or Blue or Barred, Australorp or Ameraucana or Andalusian)

I am not picky about color but white does make for a prettier carcass once plucked. Ideally if I can get a couple nice looking pullets I’ll add them to the general population and use them for breeders next time.

I think you've got a good chance of getting a bunch of white chicks from that set of birds, and not too many other colors.

As for the barring in the cockerel, I was told by someone that Cornish cross are all barred. If that is the case then he should be barred because of his mom. I guess I’ll find out sometime on April!

I've never thought much about what other color genes might be hidden by the white feathers on Cornish Cross. I'll be curious whether your cockerel does or doesn't actually have the barring gene.