Cochins and colors

[Eduardo]

I want to start breeding cochins. Ideally I wanted to get all colors. But do I have to get a pair of each color? or can I get one color rooster, like white and one hen for each color? How does this affect the fenotype.

 

[DANNY]

In a lot of cases it destroys phenotype. Some is ok like a black rooster and a blue or plashed hen.

 

[Eduardo]

My guess was and this is just a guess because i'm no genetist. That if I had a White Cochin and bredd with any other cochin, the color would come thru, guessing that white is recessive.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Here is the result of a barred cochin cock over a white cochin hen. I understand it's called an incomplete dominant coloring. In other words...neither color was dominant.

So you can get some pretty screwed up colors. If you are trying to keep the colors clean, you need to separate them. Except you could have a blue/black/splash pen.

 

[Eduardo]

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Now that's a beautiful hen! And I guess colors are co-dominant. I will have to narrow it down to two colors then. I can't have too many roosters, the noise would drive the family crazy.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

NO. Colours are not co-dominant, at least not as a general statement.

All the genes work together in creating the phenotype, and there is an order of dominance among the alleles of each gene, but no gene is dominant over another gene.

If a bird carries dominant white, the colour is often leaky, however, a completely white bird is possible. Recessive white is better at creating a more completely white bird. White acts by turning OFF the placement of pigment into the feathers. A bird can be genetically blue, or bbr or barred or red or silver pencilled or crele or ... but if there are also two copies of recessive white, the bird will be white with no indicator of the hidden colours and patterns present. Since recessive whites are usually bred together for more whites, there is no selection in process for the hidden colours, so the birds end up a messy mix of genes that are not true to any specific variety. Breeding to a non-white changes the offspring from cc (recessive white genotype) to Cc, and all the hidden genes come into play.

There are colours that can be mixed together, and ones that don't pair well. I don't know enough about cochins to know which all colours can be penned together--check some of the OEG sites--they are really good at that type of information. I believe it has to do at least partially with matching the E-alleles.

For any breed, blue, splash and black can be paired.

 

[racuda]

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So if producing white birds and two individuals with only one copy of recessive white each are mated, will the offspring be 25% some color? If this is true couldn't over time one's breeding stock be culled to have only birds with two copies of recessive white?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Not sure I completely understood your question. If two non-white birds, each carrying one copy of recessive white are bred, 25% of offspring will be recessive white. Recessive white to a bird carrying one copy will give 50% recessive white offspring. Recessive white to recessive white gives 100% recessive white.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

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How much do you want for her? LOL

I LOVE HER....

 

[racuda]

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The basic premise of my question was wrong. Your answer here is very clear.