Golden pheasant genetics question

[cscarney]

Hi everyone.

So I have a question regarding golden pheasant color genetics. I bought a young pair last fall at Ohio National last fall that were listed as yellow golden pheasants. They were still in juvenile plumage, but had the paler color I associate with yellow goldens.

Fast forward to this summer, I have great egg fertility from them (12/12 hatched), and the male is getting his adult plumage.....He is a peach splash (which I think is an attractive mutation), and the female is a yellow....So, given that I have a peach splash cock crossed onto a yellow hen, what are the likely outcomes for the offspring? At this point they are about a month old and look like yellow goldens based on their juvenile plumage....

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Quailobsessed]

I'm not really sure what mutations they would be (some yellows and some peaches?), but I would love to see pictures of them
Hopefully someone else will chime in and help. I'm keen to hear

 

[Midnightman14]

following that's an interesting combo I doubt you would get any peaches though unless the yellow golden had a peach parent.

 

[cscarney]

Thanks for the replies! I'll try to get pix tonight if it stops raining and the run isn't too muddy....

I'm not expecting peach or peach splash out of the offspring, though given that the cock looked like a yellow until he got his adult feathers this summer I guess anything is possible. I am curious about the genetics behind the colors, especially given the fertility issues peach is reputed to have due to the close breeding needed to get the color.

 

[Gotbirdsohyeah]

I don't understand genetics,but first you need to know exactly what your breeders are.if they were listed as yellow golden and you got a peach splash,that throws the yellow golden's out the window.
Much easier to keep all birds pure,no guessing at what you get,got whatever.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[cscarney]

When we talk about genetics we run into phenotype (what they look like) vs. genotype (what they really are genetically). The hen LOOKS like a yellow golden, but who knows. The cock looked like a yellow as a juvie, but the adult feathers are peach splash (anyone know if peach splash mimics yellow golden in juvenile plumage??)

If it is sex linked genetics (as is barring in chickens), then a cock needs two copies to express the color/pattern (so barred rock cocks have two copies of the barring gene), but hens only need one.

If peach is truly a somatic recessive, then the offspring (the F1 of the peach splash-yellow parents) would be split for peach splash (each carrying one copy of the peach splash gene that isn't expressed because it's recessive to yellow). The way to test this would be to breed the F1 daughters back to the peach splash cock.

I've been combing through the internet and really haven't found much on pheasant genetics, except for a reference here and there that yellow has been crossed into peach at times to improve vigor/fertility. So any info about the inheritance of golden pheasant colors would be appreciated!

 

[007Sean]

Could you post close-up photos of the parent birds...head, back, breast and legs?

 

[007Sean]

When we talk about genetics we run into phenotype (what they look like) vs. genotype (what they really are genetically). The hen LOOKS like a yellow golden, but who knows. The cock looked like a yellow as a juvie, but the adult feathers are peach splash (anyone know if peach splash mimics yellow golden in juvenile plumage??)

If it is sex linked genetics (as is barring in chickens), then a cock needs two copies to express the color/pattern (so barred rock cocks have two copies of the barring gene), but hens only need one.

If peach is truly a somatic recessive, then the offspring (the F1 of the peach splash-yellow parents) would be split for peach splash (each carrying one copy of the peach splash gene that isn't expressed because it's recessive to yellow). The way to test this would be to breed the F1 daughters back to the peach splash cock.

I've been combing through the internet and really haven't found much on pheasant genetics, except for a reference here and there that yellow has been crossed into peach at times to improve vigor/fertility. So any info about the inheritance of golden pheasant colors would be appreciated!

Peach, Peach Splash and Yellow all look similar in feather color and pattern when hatched....Peach and Peach Splashes will have a light gray color with diffused stripes, where as the Yellow's will have very distinct stripes and more white/yellow down.
Within a month, the Peach and Peach Splash will start getting a 'mottling' of white feathers, where as the Yellows will not and retain the barring of the feathers in both cocks and hens, until the cock birds start getting their adult colors.

 

[cscarney]

Aha, that helps regarding juvenile feathering! Thank you!

The offspring are about a month old now so I will watch closely to see what sort of feathering shows up.

I will get pix of the adults soon, I promise. I'm still cleaning up after the thunderstorms that hit earlier in the week, and runs are still muddy messes....

 

[007Sean]

What you say is true...except you don't know the lineages...there is also homozygous dominance, heterozygous recessive, codominace, polygenic traits and epistasis involved as well as dihybrid and trihybrid influences to consider....can get very complicated real fast.

If peach is truly a somatic recessive, then the offspring (the F1 of the peach splash-yellow parents) would be split for peach splash (each carrying one copy of the peach splash gene that isn't expressed because it's recessive to yellow). The way to test this would be to breed the F1 daughters back to the peach splash cock.