Cross Breeding Cochins and a big surprise!

[SherrKa]

My partridge cochin rooster bred with a white cochin and to my surprise I got a black cochin with the shiny green tints seen in the partridge. How is this possible? I know nothing about chicken genetics.Any ideas?

 

[my sunwolf]

Your white has recessive white genetics. And to put it very basically, partridge is black with gold overlaid. The chicken calculator says that all offspring of that combo (Partridge X Recessive White) will be black. In my experience, the roosters from this mating may have some sort of leakage in their hackle and saddle feathers due to the gold in the partridge. Hens will be solid colored.

 

[nicalandia]

Your white has recessive white genetics. And to put it very basically, partridge is black with gold overlaid. The chicken calculator says that all offspring of that combo (Partridge X Recessive White) will be black. In my experience, the roosters from this mating may have some sort of leakage in their hackle and saddle feathers due to the gold in the partridge. Hens will be solid colored.

I agree

 

[big medicine]

I agree that your hen is recessive white. Recessive white basically works like a switch that turns off a birds genetic colors, and can cover any myriad of colors. These white birds will produce their naturally genetically coded colored chicks when bred to a bird that not does not also carry recessive white. Your hen could likely be any common( or uncommon, or possibly mixed, for that matter) Cochin variety color masked by the recessive white. Black would be a good bet though as it is probably the variety with the best type and size with which to improve those traits in the whites.

Speaking of the calculator. http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

Pick any color example, scroll down toward the bottom of the list of genes till you get to C recessive white. Switch it from C+/C+ to c/c and see what happens.

 

[SherrKa]

I sure appreciate your answers to my question. It sure made no sense to me. I am going to have to study up on this some, it sounds very interesting. The little black hen is absolutely gorgeous I have to say, I just love her.Now that I have her I am wondering is this just a fluke on my part or can you actually buy black Cochins the same as her? This batch of babies was not planned and I got a surprise or two from it. One of the other chicks had the same partridge roo for a father and an Americauna for a mother hen. She has the body of a partridge and the neck and face of an Americana. She lays eggs that are green but have a brown under tone...a mix of colors of both it seems...not very pretty. But she is. I also got two roosters from this batch and they both look like the father, very handsome! Any way this genetic thing is very interesting and makes me want to study if more.

 

[SherrKa]

Very interesting1 Thanks

 

[SherrKa]

One rooster from this mating does have a tiny tuff of white feathers at the base of his tail feathers, I noticed.

 

[donrae]

I sure appreciate your answers to my question. It sure made no sense to me. I am going to have to study up on this some, it sounds very interesting. The little black hen is absolutely gorgeous I have to say, I just love her.Now that I have her I am wondering is this just a fluke on my part or can you actually buy black Cochins the same as her? This batch of babies was not planned and I got a surprise or two from it. One of the other chicks had the same partridge roo for a father and an Americauna for a mother hen. She has the body of a partridge and the neck and face of an Americana. She lays eggs that are green but have a brown under tone...a mix of colors of both it seems...not very pretty. But she is. I also got two roosters from this batch and they both look like the father, very handsome! Any way this genetic thing is very interesting and makes me want to study if more.

Cochins do come in black.


My bantam cochin girl who was determined to brood in the feeder

Chicken genetics is a slippery slope, let me tell you! You start learning a little, then a little more, then you want to start a breeding project to actually SEE how a specific cross works, and then bring in other stock to improve, and that spawns another project, and on and on and before you know it you're coming up with the most creative places to house breeding trios and your family is talking about staging an intervention

But don't let that stop you from learning!