Are side sprigs hereditary?

[Bo Garrett]

Dominant genes express themselves in the instance of one copy of the allele where as in most instances recessive genes such as Andalusian Blue are co-dominant resulting in a dilution of the black color if both copies of the blue dilition gene are present then splash which is the case with side sprigs. It is a recessive gene which makes it difficult to know when it is there because the normal comb is dominant but when two parents carring the gene mate a percentage of the offspring will carry both recessive alleles resulting in the side sprig.
This is also the case with lethal alleles contained in Japanese and araucanas, each of these breeds contains a lethal allele which will result in about 25% of the offspring dying in the egg. If this gene were dominant none of the genes would ever get passed on because the carriers would die as well. The carriers however do survive because the defective allele is recessive and cannot be expressed with out both copies being present. This is sometimes refered to as recessive-dominant. Not trying to be argumentative David, just stating fact with proven examples of recessive genes and how they must be combined to be expressed.
I do totally agree that test mating is difficult and I would not recommend it unless you were willing to cull many birds.

Respectfully,


Bo

 

[dak]

Does anyone have more example pictures of side sprigs?

 

[kathyinmo]

If you hatched, say a dozen roosters (from the same mating), and only one did not have a side sprig..... would you use him?