Color genetics thread.

[junebuggena]

Barred roosters will produce barred chicks. There may be some red leakage on males as they mature. All chicks should inherit the pea comb.

 

[Brylandscpr]

What I am asking is can I eventually get to the typical brown red game coloring after segregating the barred chicks out? What My goal is : have a true breeding brown/red that I will re-introduce the barring gene and should get sexable chick down if I work on leg color as well .

 

[junebuggena]

For that to work, and be consistent, and to have enough genetic diversity, you will need at least 6 Brown Red hens. Of the first generation crosses, choose the cockerel that you like best, and then breed him to his half-sisters. Most of those second generation chicks will have the barring gene, and about half will have the Brown Red coloring as well. By the fourth generation, you will have the Brown Red breeding consistently, and the males should all have the two copies of the barring gene. However, Brown Red is a Birchen pattern. They are black at hatching and develop their patterning as they feather in. It's not a good pattern for auto sexing. For that, you need a partridge-type pattern.

 

[Brylandscpr]

Wouldn't the barring factor give a head spot and lighten the legs?

 

[junebuggena]

Yes, if all the males have two copies of the barring gene, but sexing by those factors alone isn't always accurate.

 

[Wappoke]

I know cuckoo marans are auto sexing. My golden cuckoo marans males are light gray and the females are dark.

When the literature refers to autosexing, the ability to sex offspring runs above 95 %. Researchers have sexed black down chicks according to down color and head spot and the best percentage they could sex chicks was 75%. This is why I did not include black down.

If one includes shank color and beak color, then the percentage of chicks sexed correctly can be around 92%.

These were barred rock so the E locus was extended black or an extended black heterozygote.

 

[Wappoke]

What will a barred leghorn roo over Saipan game look ? can i get to "brown red" this way ?

is your Saipan game brown red? Does he have a crow wing or duck wing? Saipan I have seen are wheaten and males have a duck wing. The saipan would have to be birchren at the E locus to produce future brown red offspring.

 

[Chicken5555]

If yo cross a gold laced Polish with a buff laced Polish, the F1 generation will have one copy of each color's gene, right? And if the F1 is bred to a buff laced polish, then (statistically speaking) half the offspring will be buff laced and half gold laced, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[junebuggena]

If yo cross a gold laced Polish with a buff laced Polish, the F1 generation will have one copy of each color's gene, right? And if the F1 is bred to a buff laced polish, then (statistically speaking) half the offspring will be buff laced and half gold laced, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Gold Laced and Buff Laced are both the same base color and have the same pattern genes. The difference is the dominant white gene. The Buff Laced Polish is the same exact color/pattern as the Gold Lace, but with the dominant white gene modifying the black lacing to white. Dominant white only requires one copy to express. All F1 chicks will have one copy of the dominant white, and look like Buff Laced. F1 bred back to Buff Laced will produce some birds with two copies of dominant white, and some with only one copy. There is no way to tell which bird has two copies and which has only one just by looking at them. They will all look like Buff Laced.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Posting to subscribe. I'm studying as much as I can on chicken genetics right now. Very interesting stuff.