Color genetics? And comb identification!

[Miriah132]

Hi all! So I posted a few weeks back asking how to tell a pea comb from a single comb in young chicks and I think I figured it out! This would be a pea comb correct?

As for color genetics, how does the silver gene work? I have 6 mixed chicks out of my own flock and can not remember which eggs each chick came from! I do know which ones come from my SLW, they all have rose/walnut combs and easy to differentiate. However, I have some other chicks that I’m not completely certain who they came from. The two possible moms are my silver leghorn and my Easter Egger(unknown genetics). Here are some pictures.

All the chicks are out of the same EE rooster who has a peacomb.

So how should I be able to tell my leghorn mix chicks from my Easter Egger chicks? From what I can tell, all the chicks have pea combs, muffs, and green legs. Please help!

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Can I see that chick's comb from the front as well. The few bumps I see make it look like a single comb. Most of my pea combed kids looked like they were flat until they were 2-3 weeks.

 

[Sneebsey]

All three birds are Silver, so that gene won't help you to differentiate between the chicks from the two hens, as all will be Silver. Your cockerel may be hiding gold, if there are any gold chicks, but again, that won't help as both hens are Silver.

Both your EEs look to be impure for pea-comb, so you can't really use comb-type to differentiate either, as they likely have single comb offspring as well as pea.

Some pictures of the chicks as they feather in may help to identify any that likely belong to one hen or the other. We will probably see a few that are pure for Colombian, as both EEs appear to have a copy of that, and those will definitely be from that pairing.

 

[Miriah132]

Can I see that chick's comb from the front as well. The few bumps I see make it look like a single comb. Most of my pea combed kids looked like they were flat until they were 2-3 weeks.

This is the only other picture I have at the moment. These chicks are almost 4 weeks old.

 

[Miriah132]

All three birds are Silver, so that gene won't help you to differentiate between the chicks from the two hens, as all will be Silver. Your cockerel may be hiding gold, if there are any gold chicks, but again, that won't help as both hens are Silver.

Both your EEs look to be impure for pea-comb, so you can't really use comb-type to differentiate either, as they likely have single comb offspring as well as pea.

Some pictures of the chicks as they feather in may help to identify any that likely belong to one hen or the other. We will probably see a few that are pure for Colombian, as both EEs appear to have a copy of that, and those will definitely be from that pairing.

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense! I didn’t know my EEs were considered silver too, that makes things a lot more complicated lol I’ll try to get some pictures of the chicks feathering today. I think I know for sure one is a leghorn mix. It’s a very dark color with little specs of silver through it. The rest are all white with a lot of black on them.

 

[Sneebsey]

Yes, that's pea, but as your cockerel is pea-combed, you can expect to see that in his offspring, regardless of whether the mother carries it or not.

They're both Silver; if they were gold, all the white in their plumage would be reddish; they just have the colombian restrictor pushing all the black plumage up toward the neck and down to the tail. They are both impure for the gene, which is why you see black pigment expressing along the back. As they are impure for the gene, however, they may well produce chicks that are the same pattern (basic wildtype plumage) as the Leghorn hen.

 

[Sneebsey]

This hen (Snowball) is pure for Colombian, as both her mother and father had one copy of the gene. See how two copies is more effective at pushing the pigment into those specific areas? As both parents are impure, you will likely see around 25% from the EE hen expressing this type of plumage, and you will know that they are hers, however 50% will have the black across the back, like your two, and 25% won't get it at all. With your Leghorn hen, 50% will get one copy, and 50% won't get it at all.

 

[Miriah132]

That makes a lot of sense! Thank you! I’m going to get some pictures of them in just a moment