Color genetics thread.

[junebuggena]

The mottling gene is recessive, so it would take a few generations to really get it properly established into your Silkie lines. You would also have to keep in mind that the silkie feathering is also recessive. None of the first generation birds will look like what you want.
It is not sexlinked, so it makes no difference if you use mille fleur hens with a Silkie rooster or a mille fleur rooster with Silkie hens. A pen of each would produce the most genetic diversity for the line breeding that will be required.

 

[skgray]

Came across the opal color when researching the genetics behind different phenotypes. Asked this on an opal thread here and on the Coop, but have any genetics experts on this thread hear of any updates on opal genetics from test mating results?

 

[jenniferlamar70]

The mottling gene is recessive, so it would take a few generations to really get it properly established into your Silkie lines. You would also have to keep in mind that the silkie feathering is also recessive. None of the first generation birds will look like what you want.
It is not sexlinked, so it makes no difference if you use mille fleur hens with a Silkie rooster or a mille fleur rooster with Silkie hens. A pen of each would produce the most genetic diversity for the line breeding that will be required.

Once I attain the color I'm trying to achieve could I then work at bringing the feathering back into the line? I know this will take along time but I'm really doing it for fun. I've sold most of my other breeds so I can focus on this project. Also when I start trying to reintroduce the silkied feathering will that cause issues with my color?

 

[junebuggena]

Once I attain the color I'm trying to achieve could I then work at bringing the feathering back into the line? I know this will take along time but I'm really doing it for fun. I've sold most of my other breeds so I can focus on this project. Also when I start trying to reintroduce the silkied feathering will that cause issues with my color?

You're Mille Fleur Cochin/Silkie crosses will carry both a copy of the mottling gene and a copy of the silkie feathering gene. Breed the half siblings together, and you'll get chicks with both mottling and silkie feathers. With some careful selection, you'll be able to get the coloring you want and still manage to preserve the features of the Silkie breed.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

You're Mille Fleur Cochin/Silkie crosses will carry both a copy of the mottling gene and a copy of the silkie feathering gene. Breed the half siblings together, and you'll get chicks with both mottling and silkie feathers. With some careful selection, you'll be able to get the coloring you want and still manage to preserve the features of the Silkie breed. 

Thanks so much. Hopefully I'll improve with all this. It's very intricate and is going to take time for me. You have been so much help though.

 

[newlinta]

Ok...any guesses? Bantam Orpington...this is all the info I know...
The pen the eggs came from is put together to produce chocolate(sex linked) silver birchen birds. There are silver based and gold based breeders. The pen has been known to throw mottled chicks occasionally. The owner said he "found out" one of the original hens for the project also somehow carried dun. I hatched all chocolate chicks except this one who was entirely yellow at hatch. Dun mottled maybe?

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[Wappoke]

This is the mom and one of her chicks. Is the chick's father my wheaten Ameraucana? My White leghorn can't be the dad, can he? Because splash is actually black with two genes for blue and black is dominant to wheaten.... but white leghorns are dominant white, so one gene of dominant white would cover up most of the black (or in this case blue) that the chick would inherit from the mom, therefore making it yellow. But why is this chick rusty red with blue coloring under the red?




Either one of these two is the mother of the next two chicks. They lay the same color egg, so without seeing the egg come out, I don't know which is the mother. That said, is there a way to know if these 2 chicks are the offspring of a wheaten Ameraucana or a white Leghorn? The chicks both have dark primary wing feathers if that tells you anything genetically.





Thank you all for your thoughts!

The leghorn is not the father of the chicks. The down color is all wrong for a dominant white cross. The chick is rusty red because the hen is brown at the E locus- the down color is typical of brown chicks. Wheaten chicks normally have a yellow down color and can be dominant over brown but in this case it is not. There are black birds (splash mother)that are brown at the e locus but the under color will be silver/whiteish,

None of the chicks have a dominant white down color.

 

[Chicken5555]

The leghorn is not the father of the chicks. The down color is all wrong for a dominant white cross. The chick is rusty red because the hen is brown at the E locus- the down color is typical of brown chicks. Wheaten chicks normally have a yellow down color and can be dominant over brown but in this case it is not. There are black birds (splash mother)that are brown at the e locus but the under color will be silver/whiteish,

None of the chicks have a dominant white down color.

Thank you (again LOL) for your wonderful explanations.
What do you think about these yellow ones? Their wing pin-feathers are white, so is it safe to say they the White Leghorn's offspring. The mothers are the same ones that are in my last post, along with three blues. Edited to add - or are these also from the wheaten male?

 

[Wappoke]

Thank you (again LOL) for your wonderful explanations.
What do you think about these yellow ones? Their wing pin-feathers are white, so is it safe to say they the White Leghorn's offspring. The mothers are the same ones that are in my last post, along with three blues. Edited to add - or are these also from the wheaten male?

no they appear to have leghorn down color. The ones with the spots are typical of white leghorn out crosses. The ones with the black dots also have a higher probability of being female. better than 50/50, if I remember correctly it is 7 out of 10.

 

[Chicken5555]

@Wappoke Thank you!