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

[ChickForLife]

Would this be a blue silkie and a gold laced polish?

 

[EverV]

Okay, so I am not an expert, but here's what I know about making sex links. I've "dumbed it down" because the "dumbed down" version is the only one I know.

RSL:
Gold over silver makes gold hens and silver roosters.
like an RIR roo over a White Leghorn hen makes white roosters and red hens. distinguishable by color at birth.

BSL:
Nonbarred over barred = barred males and non barred females.
So a RIR over a BR would work.
Distinguishable by head spot (males) at birth.

TYSM! Very helpful.

 

[Amer]

Ok. Is every gene like that, where there are different mutations, or are some always dominant and some always recessive?

Some only have one mutation. For example, lavender.
Non-lavender Lav+Lav+
Lavender lavlav
Plain and simple.

They are GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! I've never seen RIRs with that dark a coloring before. Could you describe the process of selecting birds for breeding? How many hens an how many roos do you keep? How much do you usually narrow down a hatch of chicks? (for example, if you hatch 10 chicks, how many do you usually keep for breeding?)

In a perfect world, you’d hatch about 100 and keep 10 percent of your offspring. But I have yet to be that fortunate, and keep more like 25 percent out of 20.
I keep a male and a backup and about 5 females.

Oh god. I'm going to stay away from mottling for now. Seems scary. For genes other than colors- do they work separately/differently? Do they have the same little code things of letters/symbols also?

Mottling isn’t that scary. For most purposes you just need to remember that mo (mottling) is recessive to Mo+ non-mottling. There may be different genes for mottling, but they almost all behave the same. Non-plumage-color traits behave the same as plumage-color traits.

How do color splits work? I had been talking about genes for things like extra toes, feathered feet, crests, combs, etc.

Color splits, like lavender. EELav+lav means a bird is black split for lavender. The bird is carrying the recessive gene for lavender, but it is black because it has the dominant non-lavender gene.
Color splits, like paint. If the gene is incompletely dominant, it expresses both genes on the same bird. EEIi+ is paint. It shows both black and white because I (dominant white) and i+ (not dominant white) are being expressed on the same bird.

If (ey) is a mutation thing why does it mean recessive wheaten? So it's not something like E^wh is dominant and e^lav is recessive or something? (don't know if "lav" is correct for lavender, just a example)

Because it would be hard to confuse e^wh and E^wh.
Lavender is not on the e locus.

Lets say I have a lav split for buff, that would result in a light cream color correct? Would that still be written as Lav+/lav or would it be something else because we know it has buff.

Or would a Lav bird split for buff, and a lav bird split with black both be Lav+/lav

Also @LadiesAndJane Idk if you can or not but maybe you can answer some of the questions on here.

Lavender can’t be split for buff, but you can have a buff bird with the lavender gene (though then it really wouldn’t be buff.)
black with the lavender gene is EElavlav
buff with the lavender gene would be E^whE^whCoCoDbDbMhMhDiDilavlav. Buff is not caused by one gene.

Ohhhhh Thank you! Would it be the same for other recessive genes, like recessive white? Like White+/White+ would mean the bird doesn't carry recessive white?

C+C+ means the bird doesn’t carry recessive white, so yeah, you’re on the right track.

does the / separate e ach of the parents?

It seperates the alleles, I’m just too lazy to type it.

I believe it's the two seperate allels it inherets, cause you know like on a punnet square it gets one from each parent...... I could be wrong though. That's just what I thought it meant.
View attachment 2443044

Yup! Exactly!

what does e+ and E+ mean? Is it e+ is recessive and E+ is dominant? What do they mean?

What do these things mean..... View attachment 2443049

e+ is recessive. It means duckwing, the wildtype color.
E+ doesn’t mean anything because the + indicates that it is wildtype, which isn’t true for E, (which is black and dominant over all the genes in the e locus.)

Sorry if I'm being annoying, but what do these things at the bottom mean?
Also what's the difference between a "silky single comb", and a "single comb"
View attachment 2443061

Those are genes that don’t change the feather color.

This might be a big question cause I have heard about how confusing it is, What is the difference between dominant and recessive white? Do they look different? Or is one just recessive and the other dominant?

Belong is the best explanation, but I’ll add that dominant white also dilutes the leg color and is incompletely dominant, so one gene will cause paint.
vvvv

They are on a different locus from each other. Recessive white is on the "C" locus, and dominant white is on the "I" locus. They also behave differently.

Recessive white covers the whole chicken. No matter what other genes the chicken has, the chicken will be solid white with c/c.

Dominant white only covers black pigment, not red pigment. A solid white chicken with dominant white would be a solid black chicken if it didn't have dominant white. An example showing how dominant white doesn't turn red pigment white would be a hatchery red sex link chicken (leghorn x RIR). The RSL inherits dominant white from the leghorn parent and red coloring from the RIR, and is a red chicken with a white tail and neck. The dominant white turns the otherwise black neck and tail white, but the red coloring is unaffected.

I've watched a video about lacing and read a few articles, but I'm still pretty confused. How is the color of the lacing determined and the color inside the lacing? Is it like the recessive gene makes the lacing and the dominant creates the filling or how in the world does that work? Is lacing a dominant trait? Would this be called blue laced red or something? View attachment 2443091


Also @black_cat sorry if I'm stealing your thread

Those are double blue laced red.
The outside of lacing is always melanin. (Black.) but it can be diluted by blue, white, lavender etc.
The inside of lacing is always eumelanin. (Gold) but it can be diluted by dilute, silver, lavender etc but it also can be intensified by mahogany.
There is no lacing gene. It caused by multiple genes working together.
Basically they expand the eumelanin and restrict the melanin to the edges of the feather.

Lacing is pretty complicated... I'll try to explain it as best I can but I don't know everything about it.

I'll start with the lacing pattern. Sebright/Wyandotte lacing is controlled by 4 genes. Here is the genetic makeup of a laced bird:
e^b/e^b (partridge), Co/Co (columbian), Ml/Ml (melanised), Pg/Pg (laced).
Partridge is the only recessive gene, the rest are dominant.

Changing columbian to co+/co+ (not-columbian) changes the lacing to double lacing, like seen on Barnevelders. Changing columbian to co+/co+ and changing melanised to ml+/ml+ (not melanised) makes the lacing into pencilling.

The lacing border is black if there are no other genes affecting it. Genes that affect black pigment only affect the lacing color. Blue can be used to change the lacing color because blue changes black pigment only. Dominant white can be used to change the lacing color as well since it only affects black. Buff laced polish have white lacing because of dominant white.

I admit I don't know that much about the filling of the lacing... I guess it's controlled by the base color of the bird? I know that genes that affect red control the filling color, but that's about all I know.

For the color of the chickens in the picture, maybe it's called blue double laced red? Never seen that color in double laced birds (just single laced wyandottes), but it sure is pretty

That is right about Wyandotte Cochin lacing, which has the black tail, but not true about Polish and Sebright lacing, which has a laced tail. Polish sebright lacing is E^RE^RCoCoDbDbMlMlPgPg

Would this be it?
View attachment 2443205
View attachment 2443201

If you want a blue laced red Wyandotte, yes.

This a a blue laced red wyandotte and a leghorn? Correct me if I am wrong.
View attachment 2443305View attachment 2443306View attachment 2443308

The Wyandotte is correct, but the Leghorn should be dominant white on a E base. You’re learning!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Right now I'm breeding Project Wheaten Crele Orpingtons, Giant Silkies, & Silkies for show.

Soon I'll be making a new breed, & hope others will help.

 

[Amer]

Is this...
View attachment 2443309

What this means?
View attachment 2443335

Yes

Or would it be this... (changed from the chart I just got.)
View attachment 2443379
View attachment 2443378

The Leghorn is still wrong, but if you want to go the whole hog, add IdIdww down ay the bottom to give them yellow legs.

I still don't understand how you know if each breed had a dominant white or an extension of black or something like that?

Sometimes it’s hard to know if a breed is dominant white and you have to learn on a case by case basis. White birds with dark legs and chicks are always recessive white. If a breed has a “white-laced red” version or something, the white is probably dominant white. The problem is, some breeds, like Silkies, have both. Then you really can’t know. Extension of black is mainly affected by the e locus but it is also modified by other genes like Columbian, ginger, pattern gene, mahogany and melanic.

Would this be a blue silkie and a gold laced polish?
View attachment 2443491View attachment 2443492

Remember to add the crest, feather legs, and rrpp on the Silkie.

 

[Amer]

And on the Polish, switch it to the birchen based version.

 

[EverV]

What would the coloring be if you had a rooster who was, say C+,C+ and a hen who was c+, Lav-? I have no idea if that's possible... is it?

 

[MysteryChicken]

And on the Polish, switch it to the birchen based version.

I was right. Polish are Birchen based, unless they also come Partridge based?

 

[ChickForLife]

Sometimes it’s hard to know if a breed is dominant white and you have to learn on a case by case basis. White birds with dark legs and chicks are always recessive white. If a breed has a “white-laced red” version or something, the white is probably dominant white. The problem is, some breeds, like Silkies, have both. Then you really can’t know. Extension of black is mainly affected by the e locus but it is also modified by other genes like Columbian, ginger, pattern gene, mahogany and melanic.

I was meaning how do I know what each breed has. Ex: Colombian, Melanotic, Extention of black, Dom, white, Rec. white, and others.

 

[ChickForLife]

And on the Polish, switch it to the birchen based version.

How?