Blue barred rock roo - 4 months

[halo]

I think we had figured it was the male characteristic feathers that were barred because of the single gene of barring given to him from his mommy. If incorrect, I hope Ill be corrected on this.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

That doesn't sound right, although something about the male characteristics may be involved. Barring is dominant, so it shows up regardless of who the gene was inherited from.

My first blue barred birds were completely barred--sadly I lost them both at somewhere around 6 or 8 months. My best guess as to where they got the barring was from my barred rock hen, although I didn't intentionally set any of her eggs. And I had no other barred birds. Currently the only barred birds I have are a different barred rock hen and a crele silkie. The there is the blue with a barred hackle and another with a barred hackle--he's more black and gold--no standard colour.

 

[halo]

Actually, thats not exactly right. Barring is dominant if the barring gene comes from the roo. If it comes from the hen, the barring gene is only given to the male offspring, not the female.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I think you're confusing terms--dominant means that it takes precedence over other alleles. In this case, if the bird is (B,b) or (B,B), the bird will be barred. Only if (b,b) will the bird not be barred. This is a sex-linked gene as you indicated, and females only have one copy. A hen who is (B,-) will be barred and one who is (b,-) will not.

For sex linked genes, dominance doesn't matter in the hen as there can only be one copy; nevertheless, the B allele is still referred to as dominant. Kind of like red is still red, even if you're looking at a black and white photo of something that is red.

You are correct that hens can only pass the gene to their sons, so perhaps I wasn't clear when I said that it didn't matter which parent it was inherited from. Perhaps if I rephrase it to "barring inherited from the mother looks no different than barring inherited from the father." Barring inherited from both parents does look different than barring inherited from only one. In this case, the white bars are wider, making a lighter coloured bird.

The male offspring of a barred roo crossed to a non-barred hen should look the same as male offspring of a non-barred roo crossed to a barred hen, at least as far as barring goes.

 

[halo]

Thanks for that explanation. I tend to keep things as simplistic as possible. I did wonder if the barred offspring of a male over a non-barred female would be the same as the non-barred male over a barred female.