Ear Color Genetics

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’ve found very little info on ear color genetics.

This rooster and hen were in my American game bantam breeding project. The rooster is a F1 cross with a junglefowl hybrid. The hen is something around a F3 or F4, line bred offspring of that same rooster. The white ear was becoming reenforced, where the breed standard calls for a red ear. I sent the pair off farm a year ago to a farm with no chickens.

The pair has produced several red eared stags this past spring. I’m evaluating them now and will probably bring some home. Only one stag has a white ear from this brood. A couple have a slight tinge of white on what’s otherwise mostly red.

What’s going on genetically here where a rooster and hen with very white ears are making mostly red ears?

As a side question, how does one count the number of points on a comb? For example, does the stag in the last pic have 6 points or 7?

 

[RememberTheWay]

I

I’ve found very little info on ear color genetics.

View attachment 3901272View attachment 3901273

This rooster and hen were in my American game bantam breeding project. The rooster is a F1 cross with a junglefowl hybrid. The hen is something around a F3 or F4, line bred offspring of that same rooster. The white ear was becoming reenforced, where the breed standard calls for a red ear. I sent the pair off farm a year ago to a farm with no chickens.

The pair has produced several red eared stags this past spring. I’m evaluating them now and will probably bring some home. Only one stag has a white ear from this brood. A couple have a slight tinge of white on what’s otherwise mostly red.

View attachment 3901274View attachment 3901275View attachment 3901276

What’s going on genetically here where a rooster and hen with very white ears are making mostly red ears?

As a side question, how does one count the number of points on a comb? For example, does the stag in the last pic have 6 points or 7?

Could be completely wrong on counting points but both appear to have five. I didn't think that technically the tiny ones in the front and back are counted but I could be getting things mixed up.

Following for answers on the ear lobe question though

@NatJ maybe they can help?

 

[NatJ]

Could be completely wrong on counting points but both appear to have five. I didn't think that technically the tiny ones in the front and back are counted but I could be getting things mixed up.

Following for answers on the ear lobe question though

@NatJ maybe they can help?

I have no idea about the point counting, and not much idea about the earlobe color.

Crossing red earlobes with white earlobes can give earlobes that show both colors, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. I can't say why those birds are producing chicks with earlobes of those colors, and I can't tell how to work toward the correct coloring either (other than what works in many other situations: hatch large numbers of chicks, breed from the best, eat the others. That is not exactly a unique or earlobe-specific idea )

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have no idea about the point counting, and not much idea about the earlobe color.

Crossing red earlobes with white earlobes can give earlobes that show both colors, but that is about the extent of my knowledge. I can't say why those birds are producing chicks with earlobes of those colors, and I can't tell how to work toward the correct coloring either (other than what works in many other situations: hatch large numbers of chicks, breed from the best, eat the others. That is not exactly a unique or earlobe-specific idea )

The only thing I know to do is pick the best cockerels of this spring 2024 group and line breed them to pullets that are of the same general line but distant cousins. Let the cockeral breed the cousin, then his red-eared daughter, then his granddaughter, and see if that reenforces the trait.

I’ll have to check to see if any of the cousins have red ears. The cousins are of the group I split off into my “teacup Cracker” line that I’m breeding to ABA red junglefowl bantam standards. So generally they have the iridescent white ear (the RJF standard actually calls for a red ear as well, but it accepts white and where iridescent white is more authentic to wild RJF, that’s what I prefer for that line).

 

[nicalandia]

Ear Color genetics is Polygenic(some genes affecting ear color are Autosomal and at least two Sexlinked)

https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article-pdf/13/6/470/35395840/genetics0470.pdf

"SUMMARY 1. Earlobe color has a complex factorial basis. 2. Breeds having the same earlobe color may differ considerably in their genetic constitution with respect to this character. 3. Individuals of a single breed and strain may differ in some of the minor genetic determiners. 4. The Jersey Black Giant and White Leghorn breeds differ in at kast three factors determining earlobe color, one sex-linked and two autosomal. 5. It was possible to estimate roughly the position upon the sex chromosome of the sex-linked factor. 6. The autosomal factors for earlobe color showed no linkage with those for any autosomal character; which the crosses permitted testing. 7. There was no evidence of any linkage between the factors for earlobe color and egg color."

 

[DarJones]

Thank you Nicalandia, I came here to post that ear color is sex linked. I've seen it in my crosses of Silver Laced Wyandottes with Blue egg laying Brown Leghorns. A rooster with white/red earlobes (meaning heterozygous with 1 white and 1 red gene) may produce only red ear males and only white ear females depending on the hen with which he is crossed. The hen's Z/W chromosomes determine which way it goes.

Personal preference, I like white ears but it is not standard on Silver Laced Wyandottes. I still like the look.

http://selectedplants.com/miscan/hen16.jpg