Dominant White Leghorn crosses (purebreds)

[VintagePark]

Hi all I have a dominant white rooster and have been putting him over brown and black hens. Not sure of his “under” colour only that he is from a white line

Chicks hatching are all yellow down which I have read isn’t indicative of The mature feathers once they grow in. I’m wondering if the resultant chicks will be (blue/Pyle/splash) on the F1 generation or if there is More to it then just cross a Dom White to Black/Brown

Getting my head around chicken genetics is much harder then I anticipated lol

 

[Sneebsey]

Dominant white is incompletely dominant, therefore you will likely see splodges of colour in the feathers as they grow in; you will usually be able to see this in the down already, if you look closely.

Dominant white is unrelated to blue/splash. Pyle is possible in the future, but will require breeding back to the brown leghorn hens to get them pure for wild type, and for red Pyle, the mahogany gene will have to be introduced.

The chicks from your black hens ought to be pure for extended black, but all are impure for dominant white; when bred back to the hen, half the offspring will be black, or bred back to the cockerel, half will be pure for dom white.

 

[VintagePark]

Thank you so much

My main interest in breeding Pyle. I have the black for eggs and that’s about it but thought id hatch some eggs. So to gain Pyle I need to x the F1 gen of Dom white x brown back to the brown hens ?Or cross siblings to each other ?

 

[Sneebsey]

I'm unsure regarding inbreeding ratios but I've heard that sibling crosses are the most risky. I'm unsure if they need to be pure for dom white or single factor to create the Pyle appearance, so I'd start by breeding back to brown.

 

[The Moonshiner]

It can be tricky because of the whites unknown genes underneath.
Chicks from your first cross can vary. I've never had any that didn't get a few splotches of black. You will see that on the chicks. The variation comes in with the red. It doesn't show on chicks and takes a couple months to really start coming in. Usually getting more with age till puberty.
I've hatch chicks with about as much as pyle's have and have hatch some with next to no red.
Basically the only thing you want from the whites is the white genes. Luckily it shows with just one copy so that makes things easier.
If it was me I would do the first cross then never go back to the whites ever.
You need to go back to the browns with your F1s. You keep breeding back to browns to get pure for the wild type and to breed out anything the whites may have snuck in.
Of course from your second cross on you only use chicks with the white gene.
At some point you will have to breed siblings together so you can get the white gene from both parents to be pure for dominate white and breed true for it.
When you do that is up to you. You can breed a few generations back to browns to get all that locked in then it would just be the matter of crossing siblings and separating the single and double gene white offspring.
Or you can start crossing your first generation crosses and work on getting the double gene whites and the pure for wild type plus getting rid of anything else all at the same time.

 

[VintagePark]

Thank you for the detailed response !

When I picked up the white male the breeder said he would breed blues in the F2 generation so perhaps he knew what the breeding under the white is ? His pens where only white though from this rooster.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thank you for the detailed response !

When I picked up the white male the breeder said he would breed blues in the F2 generation so perhaps he knew what the breeding under the white is ? His pens where only white though from this rooster.

Sounds like he assumes or knows he carries blue.
It makes sense since the F1s would get dominate white which would cover blue. After that generation some wouldn't get white and then the colors would start showing up.
It won't affect your project since dominate white acts the same with blue as it does black and covers it.

 

[Trish1974]

Is it possible to tell if a chicken (any breed) is dominant white or recessive white without test breeding it?