Cross Breeding: A over B or B over A--is there a difference?

[Sonoran Silkies]

If a trait is not sex-linked, it does not matter which breed supplies the hen and which supplies the cock. Genes that determine body type are not well documented--a few, such as dwarfism are, but the ones that give leghorns and cochins and plymouth rocks their different "shapes" are not.

 

[TimG]

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It would not matter which sex you use from which breed. You should, of course, pick individuals from either breed that display the traits you are hoping to breed for.

There are old wives' tales that suggest things like "for good egg laying, use a rooster that came from a good egg layer". This is sometimes misunderstood as "the rooster passes on egg laying ability", but that's not the case. The truth is that a rooster who came from a good egg layer is likely to have good egg laying genes and since his offspring get half their genes from the father, you ought to use a good rooster. It's just as true that the offspring get half their genes from the mother, so you ought to use a good hen.

The reason people have mentioned sex-linkage is because what I said isn't exactly true because there are some sex-linked genes; a hen doesn't really get exactly half its genetic makeup from its mother. I haven't read anything that puts any of the size and type genes in the sex-link category.

Hutt's Genetics of the Fowl is available online in its entirety and has chapters on breeding for size.

 

[catwalk]

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Are you kidding me? It's briliant!