Chicken combs. How to breed for different types?

[NatJ]

Does anyone know if walnut combs can be on a hen as well as a rooster?

If you mean pea comb + rose comb, that a geneticist will call a walnut comb, then yes they definitely can be on both males and females.

Chanteclers are an example of a breed with walnut combs on both males and females.

If you mean a comb that looks like a walnut, and you do not care what genes are involved, it is more likely on males than females just because of size (a rooster's comb is more likely to be as big as a walnut, while a hen's comb is more likely to be smaller.) Silkies are a breed with a comb that looks like a walnut (especially in males), but I've read that they can sometimes look like that by having just the rose comb gene and some modifiers, with no pea comb gene at all.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

If you mean pea comb + rose comb, that a geneticist will call a walnut comb, then yes they definitely can be on both males and females.

Chanteclers are an example of a breed with walnut combs on both males and females.

If you mean a comb that looks like a walnut, and you do not care what genes are involved, it is more likely on males than females just because of size (a rooster's comb is more likely to be as big as a walnut, while a hen's comb is more likely to be smaller.) Silkies are a breed with a comb that looks like a walnut (especially in males), but I've read that they can sometimes look like that by having just the rose comb gene and some modifiers, with no pea comb gene at all.

Hello NatJ, you are extremely knowledgeable, and I am creating an article about combs, although everything I once thought about combs proves to be incorrect after reading the information on this thread.
Chanteclers have walnut combs? I've seen all over the internet that they have cushion, I am so confused now. And are cushion and strawberry combs completely different technically, or the same but look slightly different?
I thought walnut combs was one unique comb type and not a mix of pea and rose lmao, should I still list it as one comb type in my article? And are there any other breeds besides silkies that have walnut combs?

I'm sorry I don't want to seem like I'm using you, I just really look up to people like you because someday I want to breed chickens and I want to become as knowledgeable as I can by writing articles and learning from others in the process. Thanks so much.

 

[NatJ]

Chanteclers have walnut combs? I've seen all over the internet that they have cushion, I am so confused now. And are cushion and strawberry combs completely different technically, or the same but look slightly different?
I thought walnut combs was one unique comb type and not a mix of pea and rose lmao, should I still list it as one comb type in my article? And are there any other breeds besides silkies that have walnut combs?

I've never fully figured out cushion vs. strawberry combs. Both of them are genetically pea + rose, so they get called "walnut" when you read about the genetics. And when I look at pictures, they look pretty similar to me.

The problem with comb types is that there are two main ways to talk about them: sort them by appearance, or sort them by the genes involved.

Before anyone understood the genes, of course the combs got sorted by appearance. That would be why we find strawberry and cushion listed as different comb types.

When someone figured out the genetics, they used the term "walnut" for the ones that have both the pea comb gene and the rose comb gene. So genetically, cushion and strawberry are varieties of walnut comb. But that's not what they are called in official descriptions of the breeds.

I don't know what other breeds may have combs actually called "walnut" other than Silkies.

 

[Amer]

I've never fully figured out cushion vs. strawberry combs. Both of them are genetically pea + rose, so they get called "walnut" when you read about the genetics. And when I look at pictures, they look pretty similar to me.

The problem with comb types is that there are two main ways to talk about them: sort them by appearance, or sort them by the genes involved.

Before anyone understood the genes, of course the combs got sorted by appearance. That would be why we find strawberry and cushion listed as different comb types.

When someone figured out the genetics, they used the term "walnut" for the ones that have both the pea comb gene and the rose comb gene. So genetically, cushion and strawberry are varieties of walnut comb. But that's not what they are called in official descriptions of the breeds.

I don't know what other breeds may have combs actually called "walnut" other than Silkies.

I wonder if strawberry combs have the rough comb gene while cushion has smooth, but that's just a guess, I don't have any facts to back it up.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I've never fully figured out cushion vs. strawberry combs. Both of them are genetically pea + rose, so they get called "walnut" when you read about the genetics. And when I look at pictures, they look pretty similar to me.

The problem with comb types is that there are two main ways to talk about them: sort them by appearance, or sort them by the genes involved.

Before anyone understood the genes, of course the combs got sorted by appearance. That would be why we find strawberry and cushion listed as different comb types.

When someone figured out the genetics, they used the term "walnut" for the ones that have both the pea comb gene and the rose comb gene. So genetically, cushion and strawberry are varieties of walnut comb. But that's not what they are called in official descriptions of the breeds.

I don't know what other breeds may have combs actually called "walnut" other than Silkies.

Thank you so much for the detailed description, now I understand!
So, if cushion & strawberry combs are both technically types of walnut, then how come websites list a walnut comb as a completely seperate variety from cushion and strawberry?

 

[Amer]

Thank you so much for the detailed description, now I understand!
So, if cushion & strawberry combs are both technically types of walnut, then how come websites list a walnut comb as a completely seperate variety from cushion and strawberry?

A silkie comb is often called walnut and I believe it's actually a modified rose comb. But I think some Silkie combs are P/P R/R

 

[NatJ]

Thank you so much for the detailed description, now I understand!
So, if cushion & strawberry combs are both technically types of walnut, then how come websites list a walnut comb as a completely seperate variety from cushion and strawberry?

Probably because those sites are listing combs the way they were sorted before the genetics were understood. That means a comb that looks like a walnut is different than a comb that looks like a cushion or a comb that looks like a strawberry.

Sorting combs by appearance is not necessarily wrong, it just gives a different list than sorting them by the genes involved. If you are talking about mixing comb types when breeding chickens, it is more useful to sort combs by the genes involved. But if you are trying to recognize different breeds, it can be useful to sort them by appearance, especially since the Standard of Perfection for any given breed is likely to refer to the combs that way.