Color genetics thread.

[tao chick]

I have a question about yellow skin. I have Brabanters and just received one with green legs and a yellow beak. The normal is "bone" colored beak and slate legs. I read one place that yellow is recessive (I know yellow is not a gene, but I wanted to simplify) but I don't know if it's a simple issue or one more complicated. Any ideas?

 

[Kev]

I have a question about yellow skin. I have Brabanters and just received one with green legs and a yellow beak. The normal is "bone" colored beak and slate legs. I read one place that yellow is recessive (I know yellow is not a gene, but I wanted to simplify) but I don't know if it's a simple issue or one more complicated. Any ideas?

Yes it is a simple recessive gene. Crossing a white skin with a yellow skin will give all white skinned offspring. At the same time, that is the issue of dealing with recessive genes- you can't tell by looking if a bird is carrying it or not.. until you get little surprises like the green legged brabanter which happened to inherit the hidden yellow skin gene from both parents.

if you are breeding them and want to clean the stock out of the yellow gene 100%, the best way is to single mate a brabanter with either a yellow or green legged bird(doesn't matter what breed or mix it is, the only thing to be sure of is yellow or green leg color) and ideally hatch at least 10ish chicks. Any yellow/green legged chick is proof the bird being tested is a yellow carrier.

Alternatively if you have a brabanter pair or a group breeding and some greens show up, it is proof the rooster and at least one of the hens is a yellow carrier.

However just because a group of un-tested stock doesn't seem to throw any green does not mean they are all 'pure' whites. For example, if the rooster is pure white and the hen(s) are carriers then all of the chicks would look good with slate legs and horn beaks, yet a lot of them would be yellow carriers.

Group of one pure white roo with several pure white hens with a single or two yellow carrier hens would throw mostly pure white chicks with a variable percentage carrying yellow skin. This is much more common and is usually how a hidden recessive can float down for generations without detection. This is also often the case where someone will hand wave it off without really understanding by calling it a "throwback".

 

[tao chick]

Yes it is a simple recessive gene.   Crossing a white skin with a yellow skin will give all white skinned offspring.  At the same time, that is the issue of dealing with recessive genes- you can't tell by looking if a bird is carrying it or not.. until you get little surprises like the green legged brabanter which happened to inherit the hidden yellow skin gene from both parents.

if you are breeding them and want to clean the stock out of the yellow gene 100%, the best way is to single mate a brabanter with either a yellow or green legged bird(doesn't matter what breed or mix it is, the only thing to be sure of is yellow or green leg color) and ideally hatch at least 10ish chicks. Any yellow/green legged chick is proof the bird being tested is a yellow carrier.

Alternatively if you have a brabanter pair or a group breeding and some greens show up, it is proof the rooster and at least one of the hens is a yellow carrier.

However just because a group of un-tested stock doesn't seem to throw any green does not mean they are all 'pure' whites.   For example, if the rooster is pure white and the hen(s) are carriers then all of the chicks would look good with slate legs and horn beaks, yet a lot of them would be yellow carriers.

Group of one pure white roo with several pure white hens with a single or two yellow carrier hens would throw mostly pure white chicks with a variable percentage carrying yellow skin.  This is much more common and is usually how a hidden recessive can float down for generations without detection.  This is also often the case where someone will hand wave it off without really understanding by calling it a "throwback".

Thank you! So this green legged pullet will give a recessive yellow to all of her offspring, right? I have a white skinned rooster in my mixed flock. He should be pure for white.

 

[Kev]

Thank you! So this green legged pullet will give a recessive yellow to all of her offspring, right? I have a white skinned rooster in my mixed flock. He should be pure for white.

Correct. Breeding the two will prove if he is pure for white or not, fun experiment!

 

[Chicken5555]

I want to create a hybrid chicken that has 2 copies of the blue egg gene, and 2 copies of an incomplete dominant trait from the white laying breed that I've selected for this project.
I plan on using my Ameraucana (plus a few more that I'll be getting soon) and a white egg laying breed (sorry, but I'm not telling you what it is) to do this. To complicate things, the Ameraucana does not have the gene I want from the other breed and the other breed does not carry blue egg genes.

This project will partly be for teaching my kids how genetic expression works, but it is also so that I can create a unique EE variety that breeds true for those two traits.

in summary, the traits I'm breeding for are:
2 copies of the blue egg gene,
2 copies of the (mystery) incomplete dominant gene

Now to the question (It's about time I hear you saying)... how many generations do you think will take to accomplish my goal?

 

[Kindercare]

If your mystery gene is fibromelanosis then I'd like to participate, since I'm working on the same idea. The chicken crossing calculator says it will take >260 chickens over 3 generations to get a single stable blue egg Fm chicken, or...a lot of luck

 

[Chicken5555]

If your mystery gene is fibromelanosis then I'd like to participate, since I'm working on the same idea. The chicken crossing calculator says it will take >260 chickens over 3 generations to get a single stable blue egg Fm chicken, or...a lot of luck

That sounds like it will be an awesome looking group of birds! I have three blue Ameraucana hens with varying degrees of gypsy face due to someone adding the sumatra breed to their bloodlines at some point. But, that's not the mystery gene I'm working with.
Thank you for the estimate. Now I have an idea how many incubators to buy.

 

[Kev]

If your mystery gene is fibromelanosis then I'd like to participate, since I'm working on the same idea. The chicken crossing calculator says it will take >260 chickens over 3 generations to get a single stable blue egg Fm chicken, or...a lot of luck

This is a perfect example of it being necessary to have clear information before attempting to answer.

Fm is one of those not that simple issues to answer as it also depends on feather color, is affected by some genes such as Id, B etc. I've been working with Fm for over 20 years and it keeps proving not an easy or straightforward gene to play with.


and my guess was the Crest gene.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Okay, so both these guys came from Lemon Blue parents. Are they both Lemon Blue or is the darker one considered something else?

And what about this little guy? He also came from Lemon Blue parents (if I kept my eggs straight and I think I did). Is he Lemon Splash or what? He has some blue spots on him. If he were a cat I would call him a Calico.

It is fascinating how so many different colors can pop out.


This is sister, Lemon Splash I believe.

I know I am repeating myself from before but I am still trying to wrap my head around all these crazy Cochin colors.

 

[junebuggena]

Okay, so both these guys came from Lemon Blue parents. Are they both Lemon Blue or is the darker one considered something else?

And what about this little guy? He also came from Lemon Blue parents (if I kept my eggs straight and I think I did). Is he Lemon Splash or what? He has some blue spots on him. If he were a cat I would call him a Calico.

It is fascinating how so many different colors can pop out.


This is sister, Lemon Splash I believe.

I know I am repeating myself from before but I am still trying to wrap my head around all these crazy Cochin colors.

None are properly pattern to be considered "Lemon Blue". For that, they would have to be a gold base color with Birchen pattern, plus the Blue dilute gene. They should be the same coloring as Blue Copper Marans. Those birds aren't anywhere close to being birchen. Looks like some have Partridge and Buff Columbian in their background. Your birds would be considered 'mixed' variety Cochins.