Confused about Rhode Island Red combs

[Zenbirder]

Quote:
Yes, I believe Barg is right on the genetics, the rosecomb hen would carry the genes from a single comb parent and a rose comb parent. She expresses the dominant rose comb, but can pass on either set of genes. If she had a rose comb rooster all the chicks would be rose comb. If she had a single comb rooster the chicks would be mixed, some rose some single.

 

[pipermark]

First of all you posted the answer to your question, YES they APA recongnises 2 RIR rose comb and standard comb. That by the way is the only difference between the 2, leg color, body conformation all are the same.


If these are truly RIR, and if they are a deep mahogony color they very well might be. I would not mix the 2. True RIR are not all that common, I would try and get a rooster a rose comb rooster and a standard rooster, heres why.

Combs are one of the hardest things to get right on a bird. Even if you have 2 rosecombs, they may not produce excellent rose comb offspring. If you are crossing rosecombs with Standards, you make it that much more difficult to prodcue birds with proper combs.

 

[barg]

Quote:
Ahh, so then Rose comb and other comb factors are not true dominant but are partial domanent and stack?

Good to know.

 

[EweSheep]

Good to know too!

 

[Blisschick]

You would probably want a few singles in your flock anyway if you have rosecombs, since the rosecomb gene has been linked to low fertility rates. Wyandottes in general have suffered from this problem. I was also told that if you breed a single combed roo to a rosecombed hen, you would get less single combs with that mating.

I myself have never seen a rosecombed RIR before. All I have ever known of is the single combs. They would just look wrong to me.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Thanks for all the input and info, I'll pass it along to the girl that bought the RIRs (I just picked them up and delivered them to their new home).

"First of all you posted the answer to your question..."

No, the Q was:
"Is one comb type *better* than the other?
... so what comb type rooster would be best? Or one of each?"

I guess it will depend on which comb type *she* prefers and which rooster she is able to locate.

Personally, I prefer the rose comb, but since they aren't my birds...

Thanks again,
Lisa

 

[billson1]

i have 2 rose comb hens and 1 rose comb rooster and yes i get both single comb and rose comb the guy i bought them from has multiple champons every year i do not know if the parents of these are rose or single though

 

[poppycat]

The offspring of the chicks will depend on whether their parents with rosecomb are homozygous or heterozygous

Homozygous means both copies of the gene are the same.
Heterozygous means that the bird has a copy of the gene for both rosecomb and single comb. The rosecomb trait is expressed, but the recessive single comb gene is still passed on.

Heres the first possible cross R=rosecomb gene, the dominant trait, s=single comb gene, the recessive trait
Rs x Rs (heterozygous birds with rosecombs)
25% of the offspring will be RR, homozygous rosecomb
50% of the offspring will be Rs, heterozygous rosecomb
25% of the offspring will be ss, homozygous single comb.

The next cross:
RR x Rs (both with rosecomb, 1 homozygous, 1 heterozygous)
50% of the offspring will be RR, homozygous rosecomb
50% of the offspring will be Rs, heterozygous rosecomb

The next cross:
RR x ss (both homozygous, one with a rosecomb, one with a single comb)
100% of the offspring will be Rs, heterozygous rosecomb

And last but not least;
Rs x ss (heterozygous rosecomb with homozygous single comb)
25% of the offspring will be Rs, heterozygous rosecomb
75% of the offspring will be ss, homozygous single comb.

Way too much information, I know.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Thanks! There's no such thing as 'too much information'.
So, nobody gets middle-of-the-road 'big funky combs' from crossing the rose x straight RIRs ?
Just one or the other?

Thanks,
Lisa

 

[barg]

Some dominant genes augment a feature rather then replaceing a feature and that seemed to be what pipermark was saying about combs.
Personally I understand the way dominant, recessive, sexlinked recessive etc traits work, but I don't know if Rosecombs are a modifieing gene or one that is fully dominant.

An example of an augmentation gene that is dominant is Grey, in budgies: if the bird is blue and has grey, the bird is grey, but if the bird is green and has the gene, the bird will be grey green.

In both cases the grey is dominant so you will see it even with a single gene, but does not completly change the color of the bird.

Rose combs may be the same way... I don't know.
Hopefully pipermark or someone else will chime in one way or the other.

Again, sorry about the spelliung errors