Delaware genetics for dummies?

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sport can be used with several different meanings. Usually it is when an unexpected outcome is produced from a known mating. It can be a true mutation, but is far more likely to be the result of two recessives genes pairing up--recessive genes can hide for generations.

 

[joletabey]

Kathyinmo, Cynthia said something about the non-Columbian silver- it's back there in the Delaware thread someplace. I don't remember it exactly either. But I think it was in describing their color in English, not the genetic code? Wish my memory was better.

 

[kathyinmo]

SO, removing all the, "nots," ... we are left with this. Is this correct?
Female
E^wh/E^wh--wheaten
CoCo--columbian
ChaCha--charcoal
S--silver
B cuckoo--barred

I still don't get the, "Columbian," thing though.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
With all due respect if it were "two recessive genes pairing up" it would not be a "Sport". I don't know what it would be but it would not be a sport. Any other meaning would be wrong, hence the definition.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Perhaps I didn't explain quite what I meant.

Let's say you have a line of black birds that have been bred for quite a few generations, producing 100% blacks, then after one hatching you look into the incubator and see a lavender or a white chick. We now know enough about genetics that we can say "two recessive genes paired up." Several generations ago they would have considered it a mutation--the chicken genome had not been mapped, and there was a lot about genetics that was not known or was incorrect (as shown by more recent research).

 

[popcornpuppy]

Okay, now we're getting some where. I started a post many months ago asking about Delaware chicks with black markings around their eyes that I was seeing in catalogs. Serious Bill was explaining the genitics in that thread and said it was like making a cake. She said the silver is like white frosting on a chocolate cake. So, where did the silver sports come from. There seems to be different opinions so far as to whether or not it was an accident?

here is the link to the old discussion:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=233791

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Columbian restricts black pigment by pushing it to the extremities of the bird. Red pigment is extended into the areas where black was removed. The silver gene dilutes red pigment to white. Charcoal puts black back into the hackle. Barring removes bars of colour from the feathers--you don't see it on the silver (white) feathers, only on the ones that are coloured.

 

[joletabey]

Sonoran Silkies - OK! We're cookin'! That made sense to me. Thank you!

 

[speckledhen]

What I said was silver-based, Columbian-restricted, Kathy. I think that's correct. Gene designations don't make sense to me. They never will-I seem to have a mental block in that area. And I don't even try to figure them out. I just have it set in my mind, per standard, what a Delaware ought to look like and cull for those traits. So, I won't be able to really contribute to this conversation. We have some very knowledgable folks who can do that far, far better than I!

 

[Ridgerunner]

With the Silver gene and the sex-linked barring, would a Delaware hen with certain males produce a sex-link chick? I'd think the Delaware hen mated with a red rooster such as the RIR, New Hampshire Red, or like I'm trying to do, Speckled Sussex, would produce a red sex-link chick? The male offspring would be yellow/white chicks with barring and the females, reddish with no barring, although I doubt you would be able to see the barring clearly in the chicks, just the color difference. With the Columbian gene, I'd think the adult males would have a barred black tail and the hens a solid black tail. Totally unsure what would happen with the hackles but I hope to find out this spring.

I'm asking, not stating as a fact.