Color genetics thread.

[Chicken5555]

I do cuckoo olive eggers. The mother appeared to be some wheaten colored easter egger. The father was a Golden cuckoo marans. Mine are ER based, so the offspring are ER/EWh and look cuckoo. If you have blue, you should be split for blue barred and black barred. They don't really look barred, just lightly when the blue is in the mix.

ER/Ewh hen:



I'm also playing around with blue golden cuckoos, this a a cockeral. The barring is vague, but seems inhibited by the blue gene.

Blue golden cuckoo marans:

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing! I wasn't even thinking about the Barred Rock being black at the E locus but what you said reminded me of that. I might want to look at other breeds for my rooster. Your olive eggers are lovely by the way.

 

[Chicken5555]

I do cuckoo olive eggers. The mother appeared to be some wheaten colored easter egger. The father was a Golden cuckoo marans. Mine are ER based, so the offspring are ER/EWh and look cuckoo. If you have blue, you should be split for blue barred and black barred. They don't really look barred, just lightly when the blue is in the mix.

ER/Ewh hen:



I'm also playing around with blue golden cuckoos, this a a cockeral. The barring is vague, but seems inhibited by the blue gene.

Blue golden cuckoo marans:

Your olive eggers are lovely. If I want something other than black at the E-locus I might have to look at getting a golden cuckoo marans. But I don't really want more olive eggers.

 

[Wappoke]

Hey all. I'm thinking about breeding some barred easter eggers. I'm not interested in sexlinks, just pretty barred bearded green layers. A Barred Rock rooster would work for that, right? What would a barred rock rooster over a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana look like? Would she be barred? Not black and white of course, but would the barring gene from the Barred Rock cause the same interruption in pigmentation one would expect from a chicken with extended black at the E locus? Thanks.

female offspring inherit barring from the father

male offspring will carry one barring gene from the father

offspring will have a black or blue ground color but they will show some white through the black or blue (not associated with barring)

most barred rocks are sex-linked silver, therefore some white (usually small amounts) expressed in hackles etc.

if you backcross a black barred male offspring to the blue wheaten female you will get some barred wheaten. The barred wheaten ground color will not express barring very well. Some of the offspring will be gold wheaten and others silver wheaten. Some will be blue wheaten and others wheaten. That is if you hatch enough chicks. You need an E locus that has some stippling in the female like brown or wild type so that the barring will show.

 

[Chicken5555]

female offspring inherit barring from the father

male offspring will carry one barring gene from the father

offspring will have a black or blue ground color but they will show some white through the black or blue (not associated with barring)

most barred rocks are sex-linked silver, therefore some white (usually small amounts) expressed in hackles etc.

if you backcross a black barred male offspring to the blue wheaten female you will get some barred wheaten. The barred wheaten ground color will not express barring very well. Some of the offspring will be gold wheaten and others silver wheaten. Some will be blue wheaten and others wheaten. That is if you hatch enough chicks. You need an E locus that has some stippling in the female like brown or wild type so that the barring will show.

I see. That is a wide rage of variation. I might just cross the barred rock rooster with my black Ameraucanas and leave it at that until I have more space for another project.

 

[newlinta]

The chicks down color would indicate the chick was dominant white or wheaten, The color in the chick would indicate the bird is carrying one dun allele or is chocolate (if it is a chocolate or dun color in the nonwhite areas) and may be mottled and according to the information, the E locus should be birchen. But the down is not birchen so the chick has to be wheaten. 

The thing that is bothering me is the down color of the chick.  If the chick was dominant white his feathers would be white- if the chick was wheaten, then there would be very little black pigment in the feathers (not the wing) coming in next to the wing and on the back.  The chick has to be a melanized wheaten because the chick did not have birchen down. The chick could be dun but will have to wait and see; same for chocolate color. 

The chick down color and your description of the pen parents makes this a real puzzle. It is possible the bird is a wheaten/birchen heterozygote. In this case, for some reason, the wheaten down color was dominant. Or two of your birds are split (heterozygous) for wheaten/birchen.

The first set of feathers on a bird are not always a good indicator of a phenotype- matching down color and adult plumage are better at determining genotype. Mottling ( small amounts) will sometimes show in juvenile plumage and disappear in adult plumage.

Thank you so much for your detailed response! I wish I could give more information about the breeders/pen this chick came from. Here's a few updated pics...

 

[Channel WHEN]

I'm hoping someone here can help me understand a little more on color genetics. The photo above is mom and dad to some eggo's that are due to hatch on Monday. I've been trying to use the chicken genetics calculator to guess what the chicks will look like( because patience is a virtue I do not have). From what I understand the pea comb is dominant and straight comb is recessive, so unless dad is Pprr most chicks should have pea combs???? Also from what I gather from the internet mottling is recessive so the chicks would be inheriting moms red coloring but be carriers for mottling which leads me to my biggest question. Just what is dads coloring??? This part I'm very confused about. Also wondering about whether any chicks will be bearded. Please help it's pretty much hurting my head to think about on my own.

( Also you can't see in that picture his chest and stomach feathers are blue)
Edit: found a picture of just dad by himself

 

[junebuggena]

I'm hoping someone here can help me understand a little more on color genetics. The photo above is mom and dad to some eggo's that are due to hatch on Monday. I've been trying to use the chicken genetics calculator to guess what the chicks will look like( because patience is a virtue I do not have). From what I understand the pea comb is dominant and straight comb is recessive, so unless dad is Pprr most chicks should have pea combs???? Also from what I gather from the internet mottling is recessive so the chicks would be inheriting moms red coloring but be carriers for mottling which leads me to my biggest question. Just what is dads coloring??? This part I'm very confused about. Also wondering about whether any chicks will be bearded. Please help it's pretty much hurting my head to think about on my own.

( Also you can't see in that picture his chest and stomach feathers are blue)


Edit: found a picture of just dad by himself

Dad has two genes for base color, a silver (dominant) and a red/gold. He has duckwing/partridge patterning. He has a Blue gene. And he may also have Mahogany.
Approximately 50% of his chicks will inherit the blue gene. About 50% of his chicks will inherit the silver base color. Most chicks will be 'chipmunk' marked as chicks. No telling for sure how the patterning genes will inherit.
The pea comb is dominant, so at least 50% of chicks should inherit it, along with a copy of the blue eggshell gene. The pea comb gene and the blue eggshell gene usually inherit together. Muffs is also a dominant trait, so at least 50% of chicks will be muffed.
The genetics for the calculator for the Speckled Sussex hen should be e+/e+, Co/Co, MhMh, mo/mo & leave all the others unchanged.
The rooster should be e+/e+, Mh/Mh, S/s+, Bl/bl+, leave everything else unchanged.

 

[junebuggena]

Granted, it's not going to show every possible outcome, since it's mostly guess work when it comes to the rooster. It's impossible to know what else he may be carrying.

 

[Channel WHEN]

Dad has two genes for base color, a silver (dominant) and a red/gold. He has duckwing/partridge patterning. He has a Blue gene. And he may also have Mahogany.
Approximately 50% of his chicks will inherit the blue gene. About 50% of his chicks will inherit the silver base color. Most chicks will be 'chipmunk' marked as chicks. No telling for sure how the patterning genes will inherit.
The pea comb is dominant, so at least 50% of chicks should inherit it, along with a copy of the blue eggshell gene. The pea comb gene and the blue eggshell gene usually inherit together. Muffs is also a dominant trait, so at least 50% of chicks will be muffed.
The genetics for the calculator for the Speckled Sussex hen should be e+/e+, Co/Co, MhMh, mo/mo & leave all the others unchanged.
The rooster should be e+/e+, Mh/Mh, S/s+, Bl/bl+, leave everything else unchanged.

Thank you for explaining that to me!!

I've been so confused about chicken genetics.
I'm thinking about picking up a couple of books just so I can understand what all is going on.
(The calculator helps a lot too. Bless the souls that made it.)

 

[Chicken5555]

Thank you for explaining that to me!!

I've been so confused about chicken genetics.
I'm thinking about picking up a couple of books just so I can understand what all is going on.
(The calculator helps a lot too. Bless the souls that made it.)

I've been trying to makes heads or tails of chicken genetics for half a year and I get still get thrown for a loop on most of my birds! LOL

Hey, we're from the same state! I'm sort of close to Myrtle Beach, where about are you?