Help! My purebred Sumatras don't have the right comb

[tazlina87]

Hello! I have had Sumatras for about 4 years now, and I have been letting them do their thing (they are almost entirely free-range), and I usually end up with about 30 Sumatra chicks between 3 hens and one rooster. I bought them as a quad originally, so I am unsure if they are related.

Because my rooster is about 4 or 5 now, I decided to keep back a son of his. From my late fall batch, I currently have two young roosters. Problem is... they have large, spiky combs! All of my starting Sumatra stock all have cute pea combs. You can see my young boys below here:

They are definitely from my rooster and one of his hens (he won't breed other breeds of hens) and he is the only rooster I have. Is it just an undesirable comb type that cropped out (perhaps from related parents)? Thanks!

 

[Pyxis]

Pea comb is dominant, so a pea combed bird can be carrying single comb. What this means is that both your rooster and at least one of your hens is carrying it and is throwing it to the offspring. You don't want to keep and breed the single comb offspring.

Also, a lot of times you can tell which pea combed birds are carrying single comb because the pea comb is not formed as well as it would be if they were carrying two copies of it, and not one copy of pea and one of single. I have such a bird myself and her pea comb is definitely not great.

 

[tazlina87]

Interesting! I didn't know that the pea comb was dominant. I have seen roosters with combs that are closer to their head, whereas my rooster's comb seems to be more prominent. Thank you for the answer!