Fee gene ins and outs

[Susan Skylark]

Since over half my current batch is composed of fee influenced quail, that is probably a good place to start on color genetics in these rascals. According to the all knowing interwebs it is a dilution gene (like black in horses) basically washing out whatever your other colors might be (a bay becomes a buckskin) and two copies means it has an even greater effect?

I’m not super interested in differentiating between calico, pansy, whatever fee at the moment just discovering it effect on various colors, and if the colors/patterns on the fee chicks are significant to what the underlying color is and whether it is homozygous or heterozygous. I’ll post a couple chick pictures and if any of you experienced quail raisers want to add your wisdom that would be great!

What’s with the mascara? The feet are orange not dark, poor light. This is the only one with the black down around the eyes. Dark yellow with thick black stripes. No idea on him.

This guy has caramel color thick stripes, medium yellow and light feet. Heterozygous fee pharaoh?

Spots on face, darker yellow, black stripes. Heterozygous fee gene, no idea on underlying color?

Light gray stripes, light yellow, a few thin stripes on head, homozygous fee?

Light yellow, thick black bars, head few to no markings, no idea!

Not sure if this is fee influenced but mostly medium yellow chick, light feet, slight reddish tinge over back and top of head. Rosetta homozygous fee?

I could be totally off the wall here too (please let me know!) but I’m a total nerd when it comes to this sort of stuff and love figuring out how it actually works. Also, do quail have any ‘lethal’ genes if you breed A to B? I know chinchillas have a lethal white (can’t be homozygous for the white gene and survive), certain paint horses have something similar, and breeding polled goats will get you all sorts of hermaphrodites and intersex critters, anything like that in quail so I know not to cross F with G or it will be bad? Thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

Southwest Gamebirds has a whole study available on the genetics of the fee. I have not really studied it, but I know that one copy of the gene will wash out the colour, while two copies will remove the colour, and you end up with black and white birds.

As for lethal genes, the ones I know of are silver to silver and Italian to Italian. You will end up with viable chicks, but you will also get a higher percentage of dead in shell chicks and in the case of silvers, poor, blind, little albinos that end up needing to be culled if they don't die on their own.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Thanks for the lethal gene info! With the chinchillas it is a simple dominant gene, one copy the critter is white, two it is dead, so you get 25 percent fewer kits from a white/white cross. I was wondering if the silver thing was an issue, I have two chicks that are all yellow, one was a little weak and the last to hatch, pictured above and doing okay now, the other is sort of spastic, small, and just doesn’t move or shaped right, he’s still alive but just off, pictured first batch. I’ll make sure my breeding pens don’t end up with a male and female of the same color. Is the silver gene(s) related to the Italian (is a silver Italian cross okay?) or is it different? Thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

I believe that silver and Italian are different, so it should be okay to breed silver to Italian. I'm not an expert in the genetics, though, so I could be wrong.

 

[Susan Skylark]

After perusing the sw gamebird info., I believe you are right, and it might take the rest of my life to figure this out! Thanks for the help.

 

[scyllarus]

My understanding is that Italian is a heterozygous fawn. Italian to Italian breedings are not fatal and simply produce Manchurians (homozygous fawn), Italians, and Pharoahs.

As for your chicks, here are my best guesses based on my own chicks:
1. Unsure, looks like pharoah
2. Roux, I think. Egyptian.
3. Italian
4. Italian roux, I think
5. Italian
6. English white

As far as I've seen, your 'normal' chicks (the yellow/brown/black striped babies) are pharoahs. Roux dilutes out black and creates chicks with regular width caramel/ruddy stripes. Fee dilutes out yellow/red and creates chicks with regular width grey and black stripes. Extended brown (Tibetan and Rosetta) darkens the whole chick and may give dark feet. Fawn (Italia and Manchurian) seems to remove the brown and leave thin black stripes on chick down. Yellow areas tend to feather out white, so tuxedos have yellow bellies and English whites are yellow and sometimes have a dot on their heads and backs of the underlying color. I'm not sure of the genes for scarlet/red range, but those seem to create a ruddy brown chick without striping. I think the silver chicks I've hatched are a solid grey without striping, but I'm even less sure than about the rest.

This is just my personal experience/observations, so let us know what you have once they start feathering out!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Thanks! Can’t wait to see what we get, hopefully a few females, our first batch is 4 weeks old and likely 4/5 males with one as yet unsexable, ugh!