Genetics question

[The Sniper]

How do you know the genetic makeup of your birds
If I buy 5 buff orps from each of the 3 major hatcheries in the area, Cackle, Hoover, and Murray, and buy 5 buff orps from a random breeder guy in Texas, how do I know what are the recessive traits in the birds
Will they all be the same genetically and from the same original stock or do they just breed a buff layer hen following the genetics of the buff orps and call it a buff orp
is there a way to determine all the traits of your birds?

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Two ways to know: 1. Knowing their lineage/parentage 2. Breeding them (best if you can do both)

Some birds have easy genetics, ie. Partridge is the most recessive, it won't carry any other base colors underneath eb/eb.

Buff is a complicated color. What are you wanting to breed? Do you want show stock, or are you looking for eggs? Are you trying to breed the color buff into a breed other than Orpingtons?

 

[The Sniper]

I just wanna know how chicken genetics works so I can make some pretty birds

 

[Amer]

All Buff Orpingtons have ancestry from the original buff Orpingtons William Cook mixed in but I'm sure along the way more things were mixed in.
However, more importantly, the genetics of different lines are different because people will take the same genes, the same genetic stock, and select for different traits. For example, hatcheries will take these original Orpingtons and select for egg laying genes and the genes for a smaller size will become more concentrated in the gene pool because they aren't selecting for large size. And vice versa with exhibition breeders.