Do I want to learn about genetics? Yes. Is it very intimidating and scary? Yes.

[cmom]

I breed to the SOP but before covid, I was showing my birds. This is what I use for the breeds recognized by the APA. There are several threads on BYC that have a lot of very good information. I have done experimental breeding's in the past but now I just work with my pure heritage breeds. Good luck and have fun...
https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-anatomy/poultry-genetics-an-introduction/

This is one of my female RIR's on champion row waiting to get her picture taken.

Some of my males. The cockerel in the middle was also a champion.

 

[Amer]

Genetics aren’t at all scary, it just takes a little study and experimentation to understand.
-what genes make a sex linked chick?
Barring, chocolate, silver, and sometimes dermal inhibitor.
-how can a bird be carrying genes for, say, blue, if they're a black bird?
They cannot. Blue is incompletely dominant.
-how do you decode those seemingly random blobs of letters and symbols that mean things? They have a lot of ^ and +? Like E^wh+ as an example of what I'm talking about? (I know that 'E^wh+' probably isn't a real thing but you get the idea.
No it’s not a real thing. The little arrow means it’s a little letter and indicates the mutation if there is more than one gene on a locus, for example

is wheaten but that is too much work to format, so they do E^wh instead. The plus simply means that is the wildtype version of the gene instead of a mutation, for example: e+ (duckwing) /- means that it is a female bird with a sexlinked gene, so it can’t have two alleles, only one.
I'm specifically interested in these to help further my understanding of breeding to SOP and breeding projects/creating 'new breeds'. If I were you I would continue studying the SOP, but would not pursue ‘new breeds.’ I am all for projects, but a new breed cannot become one unless many people are breeding it.
here’s my favorite resource:
http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html
I also find experimenting with the chicken calculator helpful because you begin to see and remember patterns.
My favorite book on genetics is Genetics of the Fowl, but it’s a little older so it doesn’t have all of the recent information on color genetics.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I breed to the SOP but before covid, I was showing my birds. This is what I use for the breeds recognized by the APA. There are several threads on BYC that have a lot of very good information. I have done experimental breeding's in the past but now I just work with my pure heritage breeds. Good luck and have fun...
https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-anatomy/poultry-genetics-an-introduction/
View attachment 2442673
This is one of my female RIR's on champion row waiting to get her picture taken.
View attachment 2442675
Some of my males. The cockerel in the middle was also a champion.
View attachment 2442682

I'm just starting to breed to the SOP, I have the same book.

 

[Amer]

I breed to the SOP but before covid, I was showing my birds. This is what I use for the breeds recognized by the APA. There are several threads on BYC that have a lot of very good information. I have done experimental breeding's in the past but now I just work with my pure heritage breeds. Good luck and have fun...
https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-anatomy/poultry-genetics-an-introduction/
View attachment 2442673
This is one of my female RIR's on champion row waiting to get her picture taken.
View attachment 2442675
Some of my males. The cockerel in the middle was also a champion.
View attachment 2442682

Wow! You really have gorgeous birds! Why haven’t I seen them before?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Well, mendellian inheritance isn't very hard tbh. It's just punnet squares.

Think of it like this; every gene has two parts controlling it - one from mom one from dad. And they're like light switches. They can be ON or OFF.

If a gene is partially dominant it's like the light switches are on opposite ends of a dark room. So a good partial dominant gene is Blue/Black/Splash. If both light switches are off, obviously it's pitch black, turn one on and it's dim - blue. Turn both on and it's bright white - splash.

If a gene is regular dominant, one switch being on is all it takes to express that gene, like blue eggs. If one switch is on, eggs are blue, if both are on eggs are still blue.

A simple recessive I don't have a chicken example of right now. But in rabbits it'd be albinism or rex fur. Both switches need to be on for it it express, like a ceiling light with both a switch and a pull string. Flipping one on is pointless if the other is off.

With that you can start tracking basic genes like eggs color.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Well, mendellian inheritance isn't very hard tbh. It's just punnet squares.

Think of it like this; every gene has two parts controlling it - one from mom one from dad. And they're like light switches. They can be ON or OFF.

If a gene is partially dominant it's like the light switches are on opposite ends of a dark room. So a good partial dominant gene is Blue/Black/Splash. If both light switches are off, obviously it's pitch black, turn one on and it's dim - blue. Turn both on and it's bright white - splash.

If a gene is regular dominant, one switch being on is all it takes to express that gene, like blue eggs. If one switch is on, eggs are blue, if both are on eggs are still blue.

A simple recessive I don't have a chicken example of right now. But in rabbits it'd be albinism or rex fur. Both switches need to be on for it it express, like a ceiling light with both a switch and a pull string. Flipping one on is pointless if the other is off.

With that you can start tracking basic genes like eggs color.

An example of a recessive gene is Mottling, mo/mo. It need to copies to show.
No copies: Mo+/Mo+.

One copy: Mo+/mo

Two copies: mo/mo

 

[The Moonshiner]

Now why didn't moony's tag work...... @The Moonshiner

Listen to Amer. She really knows about genetics and is always super helpful.
As for the other poster, not so much and not someone I want to be in a gentics thread with.

 

[black_cat]

Listen to Amer. She really knows about genetics and is always super helpful.
As for the other poster, not so much and not someone I want to be in a gentics thread with.

Oh, ok. which other poster
is it ok to pm you questions I don't want to bother you but you're very good at this if it's any trouble though it's fine everyone here is very helpful too

 

[PioneerChicks]

I breed to the SOP but before covid, I was showing my birds. This is what I use for the breeds recognized by the APA. There are several threads on BYC that have a lot of very good information. I have done experimental breeding's in the past but now I just work with my pure heritage breeds. Good luck and have fun...
https://poultry.extension.org/articles/poultry-anatomy/poultry-genetics-an-introduction/
View attachment 2442673
This is one of my female RIR's on champion row waiting to get her picture taken.
View attachment 2442675
Some of my males. The cockerel in the middle was also a champion.
View attachment 2442682

Your heritage RIR are beautiful! I have been looking into the heritage type of this breed recently!

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Soooo.................I really want to learn about chicken genetics, especially with colors, as I'd like to get into breeding someday and I need to know these things. Are there any good crash course sources? I also have some specific questions:
-what genes make a sex linked chick?
-how can a bird be carrying genes for, say, blue, if they're a black bird?
-how do you decode those seemingly random blobs of letters and symbols that mean things? They have a lot of ^ and +? Like E^wh+ as an example of what I'm talking about? (I know that 'E^wh+' probably isn't a real thing but you get the idea.
I'm specifically interested in these to help further my understanding of breeding to SOP and breeding projects/creating 'new breeds'.

I'm in a similar situation as you. I found this channel very interesting, they have a whole playlist on things involving genetics

Also thank you for making this thread. All these questions were things I was building up in order to make a thread about all these things. But now you've done it for me!