Color genetics thread.

[Violetsfeathers]

Pictures of the prospective parents?

Peanut, buff brahma bantam hen

Huckleberry, blue Cochin bantam cockerel
He has some gold on the back of his neck feathers

You can see the gold in this pic

 

[junebuggena]

About 50% will inherit the Blue gene. About 50% may inherit the hen's columbian restrictor, resulting in mostly buff/gold/red coloring. The rest will likely be solid Black or Blue, so,e may have varying amounts of gold/buff leakage.
The pea comb of the Brahma will be dominant over the single comb of the Cochin.

 

[Violetsfeathers]

About 50% will inherit the Blue gene. About 50% may inherit the hen's columbian restrictor, resulting in mostly buff/gold/red coloring. The rest will likely be solid Black or Blue, so,e may have varying amounts of gold/buff leakage.
The pea comb of the Brahma will be dominant over the single comb of the Cochin.

Cool

 

[Violetsfeathers]

What if I bred this white Cochin bantam hen

Marshmallow, she has a couple gray/black feathers here and there but only if you look for them under the other feathers.

So what would I get if I bred her with that blue Cochin roo, Huckleberry.

 

[junebuggena]

Cochins should be recessive white. If the rooster is carrying recessive white, then 50% of the chicks could be white. If he has no recessive white, then Blue and Black are the only options for that pairing.

 

[Wappoke]

Yes, it certainly sounds like time is the biggest factor. It sounds like to truly understand the quality of each "new" bird you add to a flock (that you didn't produce yourself from your own known breeders) this cross>back cross process must be followed. Otherwise although a given indicivial may appear to be an ideal breeder, if he/she was just a lucky "good one" out of less than ideal parents then that individual's suitability as a breeder may be misinterpreted. Is that correct? And rather than wait all that time (12-18 months) while the roo or hen is getting older and risking illness, etc might it be acceptable to simply breed "best to best" and cull all that don't fit the breeding goal in order to refine the genetics through selection that way? Or will that never truly breed out the negative (for that given breeding goal) genes and assure reinforcement and "locking in" of the traits one may be pursuing? Thanks again for your sharing of knowledge about this fascinating subject.

Any trait that is controlled by a set of genes can be inherited by the offspring. You are correct about back crossing. If you cross an ideal breeder with a less than ideal breeder, the offspring may or may not be ideal- then you back cross to the ideal breeder to obtain a better trait in the back cross offspring. Always breed best to best and produce large numbers of chicks. You may produce 50 chicks but only keep three birds from the 50. Cull the rest. It takes time to produce a superior line of a breed- breeders work for years to consistently get a specific trait.

When doing experimental crosses, I would get two breeding cycles in a year.

 

[Wappoke]

What if I bred this white Cochin bantam hen

Marshmallow, she has a couple gray/black feathers here and there but only if you look for them under the other feathers.

So what would I get if I bred her with that blue Cochin roo, Huckleberry.

Black ( blue) male parent x white female parent = F1 offspring

F1 male x white female parent = BC1F1 offspring

If you want more whites, back cross an F1 male offspring to the female white parent and some of the BC1F1 offspring will be white.

Also the pea comb ( in the brahma cross above) is not expressed by complete dominance ( only takes one allele to be expressed). The pea comb allele and single comb allele at the P comb locus will produce an incompletely dominant trait.

This is evident when a pea comb breed is crossed with a breed that has a large comb. It is less evident in the offspring if a pea comb breed is crossed with a very small comb breed.

The pea comb and single comb traits were studied very early in the world of genetics and Bateson came to this conclusion. I have also made P comb and single comb crosses and all the hybrid offspring I produced did not have the standard pea comb- the hybrid offspring exhibited a comb that was neither pea nor single but a combination of the two.

The reference is below.

Bateson, W. (1902). Experiments with poultry. Rep Evol Comm Roy Soc, 1, 87-124.

 

[Violetsfeathers]

Cochins should be recessive white. If the rooster is carrying recessive white, then 50% of the chicks could be white. If he has no recessive white, then Blue and Black are the only options for that pairing.

Would splash count as white? Cuz the blue is half splash half black so if he gave the splash gene to the white gene would that chick be white?

 

[Violetsfeathers]

Black ( blue) male parent x white female parent = F1 offspring

F1 male x white female parent = BC1F1 offspring

If you want more whites, back cross an F1 male offspring to the female white parent and some of the BC1F1 offspring will be white.

Yes but what color will the F1 offspring be?

 

[junebuggena]

Would splash count as white? Cuz the blue is half splash half black so if he gave the splash gene to the white gene would that chick be white?

Splash is not white. Splash is the result of two blue dilute genes. Blues only have a single copy of the blue dilute gene. Your rooster is Blue, therefore only has one copy of the gene to pass. Blue/Splash is a dilute for black pigment. White is a gene that removes black pigment. Two very different genes at work.