Color genetics thread.

[Wappoke]

...

I'm not sure I understand all that.

The only thing is if it's recessive, BOTH of the ofspring had green eyes... so... if it was recessive only 25% of the babies would have green eyes? But 100% had green eyes so it make me wonder if I bred the parents again, would all the babies have green eyes again?
It's confusing. But I want to breed the parents again and see what happens.

The probabilities (percentages) in genetics work out very well if large numbers of offspring are produced. If you crossed the parents and produced 100 offspring and 28 out of 100 had green eyes, this would be close to 25%. If you were to breed the parents and hatch 25 of the chicks- all of the chicks may have normal colored eyes- then you hatch another 10 and 3 of the chicks could have green eyes. You never know what will happen with the numbers.

It all has to do with probabilities. If you flip a coin- the possibilities are head or tails (no coin standing on edge). You have a 50% chance of tails or heads. If you flip the coin it could land on heads 5 times then land on tails the sixth flip. If you flip the coin enough times, the possibilities will approach 50 heads and 50 tails.

 

[Amy King Hanson]

I have a customer who is hatching some of my fertile eggs. For fun I'm giving her 2 Salmon Favorelle eggs. In her coop I have a Blue Copper Marans rooster and a Blue Cochin rooster. I'm not sure of her color genetics but I'm curious of the possibilities of what the blues will effect offspring. Here are their pics.

This is her back in July. She's basically the same but fuller.

My Blue Copper Marans rooster

And my Blue Cochin rooster

 

[Violetsfeathers]

I see. I guess for some reason I thought the % was out of the eggs that hatched.

 

[junebuggena]

I have a customer who is hatching some of my fertile eggs. For fun I'm giving her 2 Salmon Favorelle eggs. In her coop I have a Blue Copper Marans rooster and a Blue Cochin rooster. I'm not sure of her color genetics but I'm curious of the possibilities of what the blues will effect offspring. Here are their pics.

This is her back in July. She's basically the same but fuller.


My Blue Copper Marans rooster


And my Blue Cochin rooster

With the Marans rooster, the chicks will be sexlinked, since Salmon Faverolles are silver base color. But you won't be able to sex the chicks by coloring till they are feathered in.
Both roosters only have one copy of the blue gene, so only about half their chicks will inherit it.

 

[Amy King Hanson]

With the Marans rooster, the chicks will be sexlinked, since Salmon Faverolles are silver base color. But you won't be able to sex the chicks by coloring till they are feathered in. 
Both roosters only have one copy of the blue gene, so only about half their chicks will inherit it.

Thanks! I had read that Salmon Favorelles were silver based but she didn't seem very whitish. So if Sexlinked works, will the hens be silver based?

 

[junebuggena]

Thanks! I had read that Salmon Favorelles were silver based but she didn't seem very whitish. So if Sexlinked works, will the hens be silver based?

Females will be black/blue and gold. Males will be black/blue and white, with some red through the shoulder as they mature. But you may not be able to see the coloring differences till they are nearly completely feathered.

 

[Wappoke]

Thanks! I had read that Salmon Favorelles were silver based but she didn't seem very whitish. So if Sexlinked works, will the hens be silver based?

In chickens, there are three loci ( gene locations on a chromosome) that control the basic color of the chicken. The three are the autosomal tyrosinase locus ( recessive white (C*C) or color (C*N), the autosomal extension locus ( black, wheaten, wild type, brown, birchen,etc,) and the sex-linked silver locus. All other genes dealing with plumage color modify the expression of the genes found at the previously mentioned three loci.

At the tyrosinase locus, the two most common alleles found in chickens are the wild type color allele and the recessive white allele. There are two other rare recessive alleles found at the tyrosinase locus; autosomal albino and red eyed white. Chickens that carry one or two dominant color alleles C*N/C*N are some color other than white.

At the extension locus, a bird can carry several alleles, the most common are extended black E*E, birchen E*R, wild type E*N, brown E*B and wheaten E*WH or E*Y.

At the sex-linked silver locus, the two most common alleles are gold S*N or silver S*S.

The salmon faverolle carries two tyrosinase alleles for color (C*N/C*N), two light wheaten alleles at the extension locus (E*WH/E*WH) and silver at the sex-linked silver locus; males are S*S/S*S and females are S*S/ W. Males can carry two S while females can only carry one S.


Any time you cross two chickens the female offspring will inherit one sex-linked allele from the father and no sex-linked alleles from the mother. If the father only carries silver alleles- all the female offspring will be silver. Some males carry a silver and a gold , therefore some female offspring will be silver and others gold. If a rooster carries two gold alleles then all the female offspring will be gold.

Concerning the salmon faverolle, there is a difference in the plumage color of an unmodified gold, light wheaten hen and an unmodified silver, light wheaten hen (salmon faverolle). If you had the two side by side you could see the difference. The difference is very apparent in the males. Silver males have silver hackles (salmon faverolle) and gold males have red hackles.

Blue copper cross (The copper in the male is an expression by the gold allele.)

In your case, the female offspring will inherit the gold allele from the father ( blue copper) and as adult females, they will have a plumage color similar to female black coppers or blue coppers. As chicks , they will be black or blue with white or gray on the belly- some white gray may extend into the chin. The birchen allele is normally dominant over the light wheaten allele, therefore the chicks will look like black or blue copper chicks.

The male offspring produced from the cross will inherit a silver allele from the mother and a gold allele from the father. The males will be basically silver because the silver allele is incompletely dominant to the gold allele. The male chicks will look like the female chicks. The adult males will have a silver birchen adult plumage with red on the back and some red in the silver hackles.


Blue rooster cross

The cross with the blue rooster will produce black or blue offspring. The adult plumage will be a basic black or blue. The blue male rooster parent could be silver or gold so you do not know what the female offspring will inherit. The male offspring will be silver because the female parent is silver.

 

[Violetsfeathers]

I have a blue Cochin bantam rooster with some copper colored leakage. And I want to breed him with my barred Cochin bantam hen. I was told the babies would be sex-liked. Barred boys and non barred girls, is this true?

 

[junebuggena]

I have a blue Cochin bantam rooster with some copper colored leakage. And I want to breed him with my barred Cochin bantam hen. I was told the babies would be sex-liked. Barred boys and non barred girls, is this true?

Correct.

 

[Amy King Hanson]

Your partridge cockerel appears to be black and does not have the typical black breasted red primary color pattern. Females have the secondary color pattern because the pattern gene is expressed in females producing the black penciling on a red/gold background color. In males, the partridge (penciling) is not expressed because the pattern gene is hypostatic to the brown E locus allele; this simply means the pattern gene does not work in males to produce the black patterns on the feathers. He could be carrying both the brown gene and the pattern gene and pass one copy of each on to his offspring but he is also carrying genes that cause him to be black.

He should have red in his hackles, back and in his wing bay.


If you use the blue or black cochin to breed with the white cochin the first generation offspring (F1) will be blue or black.

If you then backcross the white female parent to one of the F1 males some of the BC1  (first backcross) offspring will be white and some will be black and some blue depending on if you breed her to a blue male or if you breed her to a black male. 

Here is an updated picture on my not so Partridge but brown rooster. He is HUGE! He towers over ever one!