Breeding candy corns…

[FluckinFarms]

So I have two candy corns, one is very light, mostly white with orange and black and red throughout. The other is dark, mostly black with colored leakage throughout. Was wondering if I breed them will I have a mix of the two or will they come out mostly dark/mostly light? The light one is sooo gorgeous.

I’ll have to get some current pictures but here is one from a couple months ago of the lighter one. (Ignore those two in the back )

 

[NatJ]

Was wondering if I breed them will I have a mix of the two or will they come out mostly dark/mostly light?

My best guess: you will get some dark offspring, some middle, and some light.

 

[FluckinFarms]

My best guess: you will get some dark offspring, some middle, and some light.

They’re still babies themselves so I won’t be breeding until next year, but this is them. Hoping the darker one has more color when her adult feathers come in.

 

[NatJ]

They’re still babies themselves so I won’t be breeding until next year, but this is them. Hoping the darker one has more color when her adult feathers come in.

The light one has white barring, over feather colors of gold & black.
The dark one does not have white barring, and I see the feathers have a lot more black with less gold.

So the white barring will behave the same as white barring in any other chicken: a male can pass it to his sons and his daughters, and a female can pass it to her sons but not her daughters. That's because Barring is on the Z sex chromosome, where males have ZZ and females have ZW. (Yes, chickens have backward sex chromosomes compared with mammals.) A chicken with no white barring cannot pass barring to their chicks, no matter which way the sexes go.

If the lighter one is what Candy Corn Polish are supposed to look like, I'm thinking the dark one might not be a Candy Corn at all. But if mated to a Candy Corn, it might produce some Candy Corn chicks (I'm not positive, but it might.)

For the amount of black vs. gold, and for how dark/light the gold is, chicks sometimes match one parent or the other, or they may come out in between the parents.

 

[FluckinFarms]

The light one has white barring, over feather colors of gold & black.
The dark one does not have white barring, and I see the feathers have a lot more black with less gold.

So the white barring will behave the same as white barring in any other chicken: a male can pass it to his sons and his daughters, and a female can pass it to her sons but not her daughters. That's because Barring is on the Z sex chromosome, where males have ZZ and females have ZW. (Yes, chickens have backward sex chromosomes compared with mammals.) A chicken with no white barring cannot pass barring to their chicks, no matter which way the sexes go.

If the lighter one is what Candy Corn Polish are supposed to look like, I'm thinking the dark one might not be a Candy Corn at all. But if mated to a Candy Corn, it might produce some Candy Corn chicks (I'm not positive, but it might.)

For the amount of black vs. gold, and for how dark/light the gold is, chicks sometimes match one parent or the other, or they may come out in between the parents.

Thank you for explaining! So the markings on her wings are not barring? It’s *possible* she could be a gold lace, as that was the only other type of polish the breeder had. But as a chick she looked identical to my scissor beak that had a lot more gold on her. Now I’m second guessing if that one was even a candy corn

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for explaining! So the markings on her wings are not barring?

Nope, not barring.

Or to be more precise, not caused by the barring gene, which always makes bars of white, no matter what other colors the chicken has.

A few breeds of chickens (like Campines and Penciled Hamburgs) have a pattern of black & gold or black & silver that is sometimes also called "barring," but it is caused by a combination of other genes, not by the gene that is actually named "barring."

It’s *possible* she could be a gold lace, as that was the only other type of polish the breeder had.

I'm not positive, but I *think* Candy Corns are genetically the same as Gold Laced, except that they have white barring over the top. So a Gold Laced might be used to breed Candy Corns, if you cross her to a rooster that has the white barring. And it could make sense for a breeder with both varieties to cross them sometimes, if the barring gene really is the only difference.

But as a chick she looked identical to my scissor beak that had a lot more gold on her. Now I’m second guessing if that one was even a candy corn

Did that one look Gold Laced?