Breeding hens with spurs?

[phasianidae]

I have one Australorp hen that has one-one inch spur on each leg. If I breed her to rooster who has no known spured hens in his ancestry, what is the likelyhood of her daughters having spurs? Any info greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[BrattishTaz]

I don't know but why would you want a spurred hen?

That has been bred against.

 

[phasianidae]

Because I am a genetics nut

I know they would be mutts but I think it is kind of unique, and it interests me.

 

[BrattishTaz]

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I share your interest in the science of it but I am forever spurring myself on my roos.

 

[Illia]

That's actually something I want to know myself too, because I've got two hatchery Polish hens w/spurs and I'm breeding them to a male with no known spurred females in his past. . . I'm figuring I'll end up with some sort of stubs in the offspring but how much I'm not sure. I'll find out in a couple months I guess.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

No idea, but really the big is how genetic are the spurs in the hen's makeup. Are they going to pass off as dominant or recessive? Did she come from a spurred hen herself, or what...But if its a dominate trait and genetically able to be passed along, I have no idea on accuracy but I'd say if you got 50 chicks off the pair, you'd have around 10 with decent sized spurs, 30 with decent noticable stubs, and 10 with the typical hen stub bump and maybe 1 or 2 with good spurs like the Hen...

 

[BrattishTaz]

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I was going to tell him/her to contact you.

You are the genetics guru around here.

 

[gallorojo]

From Crawfords Poultry Breeding and Genetics--

""Spurred females are not common among heavy chicken breeds, but they are found quite frequently among Mediterranean breeds. Bauer(1931) was unable to find any abnormalities in the ovaries or endocrine glands of spurred females. His spurred females reproduced and grew as well as did his nonspurred females.

Others have also shown that spurred females perform well(Tandon and Iyer, 1954). However, Fairfull and Gowe(1986) found that spur length was negatively correlated phenotypically with egg production, egg weight, specific gravity and Haugh units, and positively correlated genotypically with part-record egg production.

Seasonal and dietary influences were not significant in influencing spur development in females, but the incidence of spur formation and spur length did increase with age(Christmas and Harms, 1982)

Goodale(1925) showed that spur development in females had a genetic basis and by selection he developed a strain in which half of the females developed spurs. He suggested that inheritance was recessive. Tandon and Iyer(1954) also showed that this trait was inherited, but their crosses gave mixed and not very helpful results.

Significant strain differences have been shown for this trait (Christmas and Harms 1982; Fairfull and Gove 1986). Experience of the author(Sommes, unpublished) and correspondence with an American Pit Game breeder whose females are spurred, indicate that when spurred females are crossed to light breeds(Leghorn, Polish and Sebright), most of the female offspring develop spurs. Further genetics investigation is warranted.""

 

[Illia]

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No, I'm just someone who talks a lot - The genetics credit goes to people like Henk69.

 

[phasianidae]

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Thank you.