Dominique question

[hippichick]

I recently hatched out Dominique chicks from eggs that I got from someone I get a good bit of birds from. I've gotten Dominique chicks from this breeder, and they all have pea combs. My oldest from her are about 5 months old, and have younger ones also-all with pea combs.

My chicks that I hatched from her eggs are about a month old. I was noticing this morning that some of them have straight combs, not pea combs. Not all, just some.

Is this something that happens often, and why?
Is it kinda like the Silkie thing where sometimes you get straight combs?

Any Dominique experts out there? I'm new to this breed, so any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paula

 

[Karlachix]

According to the below website it appears that they should have a pea comb with a "spike" that sticks out from the back. They include a page with good and poor examples of the combs.

http://www.dominiquechicken.com/

 

[hippichick]

Thanks, Karla.

Very interesting website. I know what kind of comb they are supposed to have, and most of the ones I have do have the correct comb, but some have a straight comb.I am wondering if the straight comb is something that happens often in this breed.

Paula

 

[Year of the Rooster]

They are not suppose to have Pea Combs. They are suppose to have ROSECOMBS. The "point" mentioned before is a characteristic of the rosecomb. The ones with single combs may still be Dominiques, but received two alleles for the single comb.

 

[hippichick]

I understand. And I saw on this website that they have Rosecombs, not peacombs. I get the two confused. Thanks for clearing that up. So, I can breed two Dominiques who have Rosecombs, and still possibly get chicks with straight combs?

Paula

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
Yes, it is a possibility depending on if the ones with Rosecombs are also recessive with the Single Comb. The single comb is recessive to other combs so a bird would need to copies. Let's say R = rosecomb s = single

RR = pure rosecomb

Rs = Heterozygous for Rosecomb and single comb.

ss = single comb.

Inorder to see if your Rosecombed Doms are recessive for the single comb you could breed them to the single comb. You would then get 50% hetero rosecomb and 50% single comb IF the rosecombed parents carried the recessive allele for single comb. If not, then all offspring will be Rs.

Does this help?

 

[Karlachix]

They are not suppose to have Pea Combs. They are suppose to have ROSECOMBS.

Thank you for straightening me out on that! I'm still learning.

 

[hippichick]

Yes, it helps very much. Thanks so much for the info. Very interesting. Turns out my 17 year old had a test on this stuff today, so she helped explain it too. Appreciate it.

Paula

 

[hippichick]

Quote:
Thank you for straightening me out on that! I'm still learning.

I'm still learning too. This genetics stuff confuses me to no end. It really seems like common sense when you think about it. Problem is, I tend to overthink things.

Paula

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Yep! No problem!

We're all here to learn and teach.