Comb curiousity

[iamrobotbug]

Our two olive egger/whatever they are chicks are now hens and laying eggs, and are finally old enough that they can be told apart by their combs. I’m curious as to which comb type they have, because they don’t like exactly like the ones on the comb type charts, so I figured I would ask on here for any insight! One is covered in tiny bumps (pea? Rose?) and the other is like a single wavy squiggle. Pictures are included

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I’m curious as to which comb type they have, because they don’t like exactly like the ones on the comb type charts

That's because they didn't get one or the other in this crossing and those cross combs which do not match a standardized comb type.

They do look like rose cross pea. And maybe straight cross pea for the taller one. When making crosses such as OE, there can be quite the variety of how certain genes express themselves in the offspring. Beautiful birds... I LOVE being able to tell them apart.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll go through it this way. Two genes form the base for all combs, the rose and the pea. The rose gene is a dominant gene, the pea gene is partially dominant which confuses it some. In this a Capital "R" is the dominant Rose gene, a lower case "r" is the recessive not-rose gene. Same for the Pea. An absence of Pea or Rose gives you a single comb. Having both Pea and Rose gives you a walnut or cushion comb.

Since Pea is partially dominant, if you have two Dominant Pea genes you get the full Pea effect. If you have one dominant and one not-dominant Pea at that gene pair you get what I call a Wonky Pea. You get some Pea effects but not the full effect. I think this might be going on with yours. Most sites I see don't mention that the Pea is partially dominant, not fully dominant.

PP/rr = Pea Comb
pp/RR or pp/Rr = Rose comb
PP/RR or PP/Rr = Cushion or Walnut comb
pp/rr = Single comb
Pp/rr = Wonky Pea
Pp/RR or Pp/Rr = Wonky walnut or cushion.

That's the simple part. Now it gets complicated. There are the modifying genes. I have no idea how many there are. You have some that might cause a Vee or Buttercup type of comb. You have some that make the comb big, little, or in-between. Some make the comb stand up or fall over. Some even determine how many points there are on a comb that has points. A comb might have spikes forward or maybe back. I have no idea how many other modifying genes there are, probably a lot. With these modifiers any basic comb can get pretty weird.

I don't know what is going on with yours. I'd guess that one has a wonky walnut. The one with a wavy comb might be a wonky single. Probably with some weird modifiers in the mix with both. I could be totally wrong.

 

[Indigo a la mode]

Oh my gosh, I love squiggle girl in the second photo. Look at that expression!

 

[Gray Farms]

They have modified pea combs. Resulting form pea x single comb crossing.

 

[iamrobotbug]

Thanks everyone! I thought maybe they were a cross or two comb types but wasn’t sure that that was how it worked

 

[EggSighted4Life]

They have modified pea combs. Resulting form pea x single comb crossing.

That's right... I forgot that term, but it works pretty well.

Modified Pea comb!