Can I test my rooster?

[Spangled]

The chicken calculator wont work even if you knew the birds genetic makeup because it assumes the birds are "pure". There are too many genetic variations for the calculator to show an exact result when using mixed breeds.

What? I use the calculator all the time and it looks like to me that the calculator in no way assumes the birds are pure for anything. Good grief, if you're correct, what have I been doing all these years with that calculator?

Granted I must know what alleles are in my chicken (or have a good guess), but if I do, then I can use the calculator and it gives me all the possibilities and percentages down in the results.

I can't use the calculator to guess what is in an unknown mixed-breed without doing test matings, but with test matings and the calculator, I can figure out all sorts of stuff and have. If I have a mixed breed that I know what two breeds I mixed to get that chicken, I can figure out what could be in that chicken. I do that a lot.

I used that calculator when I was trying to figure out my Black Copper Marans and if they were pure at the e allele based on the results of my test breedings. I found that some where pure and some weren't. Some either were ER/eWh or ER/e+ or ER/eb. None of those are pure and yet I could work with those and get results on the calculator by clicking on the proper buttons. Or I thought I was getting good results and working with pure breds (by looks) but mixed by background.

I don't know. But you just rocked my world by saying that the calculator assume the birds are pure.

Now when I breed him to my production Red hen,his son when full grown looks like him but with an odd difference that I didn't expect from the hen's genes,he has a black breast and some green in the wings!so is there a way to test the genetics by breeding to certain colors or breeds of hens?

I would guess that either your rooster or your PR hen is e+/? somewhere along the line to get a black breast, but I'm not too familiar with e+ (wild type). I think to test him, you would have to buy some e+/e+ pullets and then raise them and then breed him to them -- test breed. At least one of the chickens that you are testing should initially be a known quantity as a e+/e+ pullet would be. e+/e+ (wild type) is the "basic" bird, non-mutated, so it's often an easy one to do test matings with. Production Reds are not necessarily pure breeds. They could be Rhode Island Reds with all the alleles lining up perfectly pure, but Production Reds can be a mix of some sort, with even just one allele hetero, like Mahogany, and things will get confused right away. For that reason, it's a lot less accurate to do test matings with Production Reds.

I think test matings to figure out what your fella is would be a whole lot of work for little to no return. But I don't know what you're ultimate plans are.

And my genetics knowledge is now exhausted.

By the way, that's pretty interesting that the little hen from your mating had all red feathers. Usually they would have a black tail. I wonder how that happened. (But then, I don't know much about tail genetics, but it looks like you mated two black-tail red types of chickens and ended up with an all red hen. Maybe that happens all the time, but it doesn't ever happen in my flock.)

 

[sekeyslaks]

What? I use the calculator all the time and it looks like to me that the calculator in no way assumes the birds are pure for anything. Good grief, if you're correct, what have I been doing all these years with that calculator?

Granted I must know what alleles are in my chicken (or have a good guess), but if I do, then I can use the calculator and it gives me all the possibilities and percentages down in the results.

I can't use the calculator to guess what is in an unknown mixed-breed without doing test matings, but with test matings and the calculator, I can figure out all sorts of stuff and have. If I have a mixed breed that I know what two breeds I mixed to get that chicken, I can figure out what could be in that chicken. I do that a lot.

I used that calculator when I was trying to figure out my Black Copper Marans and if they were pure at the e allele based on the results of my test breedings. I found that some where pure and some weren't. Some either were ER/eWh or ER/e+ or ER/eb. None of those are pure and yet I could work with those and get results on the calculator by clicking on the proper buttons. Or I thought I was getting good results and working with pure breds (by looks) but mixed by background.

I don't know. But you just rocked my world by saying that the calculator assume the birds are pure.


I would guess that either your rooster or your PR hen is e+/? somewhere along the line to get a black breast, but I'm not too familiar with e+ (wild type). I think to test him, you would have to buy some e+/e+ pullets and then raise them and then breed him to them -- test breed. At least one of the chickens that you are testing should initially be a known quantity as a e+/e+ pullet would be. e+/e+ (wild type) is the "basic" bird, non-mutated, so it's often an easy one to do test matings with. Production Reds are not necessarily pure breeds. They could be Rhode Island Reds with all the alleles lining up perfectly pure, but Production Reds can be a mix of some sort, with even just one allele hetero, like Mahogany, and things will get confused right away. For that reason, it's a lot less accurate to do test matings with Production Reds.

I think test matings to figure out what your fella is would be a whole lot of work for little to no return. But I don't know what you're ultimate plans are.

And my genetics knowledge is now exhausted.

By the way, that's pretty interesting that the little hen from your mating had all red feathers. Usually they would have a black tail. I wonder how that happened. (But then, I don't know much about tail genetics, but it looks like you mated two black-tail red types of chickens and ended up with an all red hen. Maybe that happens all the time, but it doesn't ever happen in my flock.)

Oops I forgot to include her tail!she IS all red but half of her tail is green/black!Sorry about that!

Your right about the work but I don't mind,I love experimenting.My plan is to make my own breed eventually.Is there another breed I could test breed with instead of my PR?I have done other breeds with him too!whenever I crossed him with my Barred Rocks,it seemed like the rooster's were barred like their mom's and the hens looked like bearded female sex-links!And I crossed him with a all-white EE hen and the resulting chick was all-white,and my wild-type EE hens had some pullet's that were also wild-type looking with deep red in their hackles and beards.

 

[englishcockers]

I am definitely a student when it comes to genetics,for weeks now I've been studying the calculator but I feel like I need more education on it which is why I opened this thread.So I can find out clues to my rooster's genetics from the experts on here and learn a little in the progress! I am interested to know some of the terms on here like "pure and impure" and heterozygous.I don't what these mean.

I'm kind of sorry I used the term "impure". You are getting some good information. Genetics is pretty simple when one is dealing with one trait. With each additional trait it gets more complex. Some things you may or may not know: The fact that your bird's son has a black breast indicates that dad is heterozygous for the gene which restricts the black. Co? Db? Without one of these restrictors wildtype, wheaton, partridge, or birchen males would have a black breast. That's why I said figuring out the e locus would be tricky. Pea comb and Bue egg genes are very close on the same chromosome. The effect of this is that 95% of time they are inherited together, but 5% of the time they can split. If your boy's daughters lay blue or green eggs, chances are the egg color trait will follow the pea comb. The genes for pea comb and beards are dominant. (beards incompletely) What you know from his offspring is that he has two copies of each of these genes (homozygous) (unless with such a small sample you just happened to get the result you got by accident) If he had only one copy (heterozygous) only half of his offspring would exibit each trait.

 

[englishcockers]

Brown leghorns or Welsummers would be e+

 

[rainbowrooster]

If you are serious about learning genetics in poultry don't ignore the value of some good books. There are a few gene list I have seen on the net that lists a great number of genes with their symbols and how they effect chickens. The lists and books are great because you can refer back to them as questions arise. You don't have to get all wrapped up in learning the symbols at first. If you learn a dozen genes and the E locus you will be an expert compared to most folks.

 

[sekeyslaks]

If you are serious about learning genetics in poultry don't ignore the value of some good books. There are a few gene list I have seen on the net that lists a great number of genes with their symbols and how they effect chickens. The lists and books are great because you can refer back to them as questions arise. You don't have to get all wrapped up in learning the symbols at first. If you learn a dozen genes and the E locus you will be an expert compared to most folks.

Books are usually my first resort!

That's a great idea!

 

[sekeyslaks]

Brown leghorns or Welsummers would be e+

I'm glad you said Brown Leghorns,I was planning on getting some!