Genetics question?

[NHMountainMan]

So - I'm a recovering city boy living the rural life and loving every second.
BYC is an incredible resource for newbies.

I have a genetics question. As I peruse the forums, I see a lot of genetic and breeding questions. Honestly - some of the answers go right over my head.

It got me wondering - those that answer those genetics questions - are your answers from experience or do you have an education in genetics?

I am thinking about a self sustaining meat bird process - enough for my family and surplus for local food bank (1 in 9 families in NH suffer from food insecurity). - so at some point I'll be seeking advice.

But for now - experience or formal ed in genetics?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I’m sure some comes from experience. I doubt much comes from a formal education in poultry genetics, but rather from personal experiences or reading about poultry genetics.

 

[nicalandia]

No formal education, but I have memorized every information of chicken genetics I have encountered during my nearly 20 years of studying chicken genetics, I have a highly functional chicken genetic calculator in my head and know every known(and some not known or hypothesized) chicken mutations from A to Z.... I am very good at this but I have very poor people and social skills

 

[centrarchid]

This will not be an issue involving specific mutations. Many loci that have quantitative rather than qualitative impacts on chicken performance will be more important. The mutations that are typically of interest to poultry fanciers are more often than not the qualitative sort.

The production side will have issues where performance of parents is less reliable as predictors as to how their offspring will perform. It takes large numbers of birds and matings over many generations to get changes you want.

 

[NHMountainMan]

No formal education, but I have memorized every information of chicken genetics I have encountered during my nearly 20 years of studying chicken genetics, I have a highly functional chicken genetic calculator in my head and know every known(and some not known or hypothesized) chicken mutations from A to Z.... I am very good at this but I have very poor people and social skills

Thank you. Kind of a chicken rainman?

 

[nicalandia]

This will not be an issue involving specific mutations. Many loci that have quantitative rather than qualitative impacts on chicken performance will be more important. The mutations that are typically of interest to poultry fanciers are more often than not the qualitative sort.

I am well versed in both Quantitative and Qualitative chicken genetics.

Thank you. Kind of a chicken rainman?

Not as smart nor as impaired, Enough to help around here and enough to have a functional family(Wife and Child)

 

[NHMountainMan]

I am well versed in both Quantitative and Qualitative chicken genetics.

Not as smart nor as impaired, Enough to help around here and enough to have a functional family(Wife and Child)

Hope I didn't offend with my attempt at humor!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Thank you. Kind of a chicken rainman?

 

[centrarchid]

It got me wondering - those that answer those genetics questions - are your answers from experience or do you have an education in genetics?

I am both. You are going to need to define questions to get where you want.

 

[PirateGirl]

I would say I do not have a strong understanding of genetics, but I do have a basic grasp on a punnett square/grid and what it means to have 1 vs 2 copies of a dominant vs. recessive gene. This probably comes from high school science class roughly 20 years ago. If you can familiarize yourself with this, it will go a long way towards helping you understand some chicken genetics. If this is all sounding foreign to you, you can find some pretty understandable explanations online. Once you understand these basic concepts, like what it means for a gene to be dominant vs. recessive, you can apply them to lots of things and you will be able to understand quite a bit. Like I said, this is stuff I got in school, so when people start talking genetics on here it's generally relatively easy to follow. Good luck!