Help with colors in breeding...

[catwalk]

Thanks, tadkerson! I was thinking about pea comb hybrids when I typed my question!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Co dominance is most often expressed on the cell level and not in gross morphology ( feathers,etc). For example in henny feathering. With henny feathering- the henny feathering gene is turned on in males and produces an enzyme called aromatase- this protein converts testosterone (male hormone) to estradiol (estrogen or female hormone). If a male is heterozygous (has only one henny featheing gene) for henny feathering he produces 1/2 the amount of aromatase in his skin as a male bird that has two henny feathering genes. So you do have co dominance in cellular activity but not on the gross morphology level. A male with one henny feathering gene or two henny feathering genes has henny feathering so the gene is considered dominant in males.

Pea comb is supposed to be incompletely dominant but from my working with heterozygous pea combed fowl it is the only thing I can think of that appears to be codominant. The top of a male comb looks like a large pea comb and the bottom of the comb appears to be a single comb, same thing on females. So both genes are being expressed.

Tim

Tim, I love it when you explain the cellular level workings of genes! There is so very little of that information out there (that I've found), and you do an incredible job of explaining it.

I have to say though, that your description of the henny feathering sounds more like incomplete dominance than co-dominance.

I, too, had thought that comb genes were as close as I could come to co-dominance. For example, the spikes and protuberances on some rose combs, the trifid spikes that can occur on silkies, the various combinations of comb genes and how they express (walnut, split single, buttercup, walnut + duplex, etc.)

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Am I color blind or is that roo in your picture a blue? It looks blue to me. Very cute birds

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
It is quite possible to have a couple of genetic lines when working on a project so that you can minimize inbreeding. For example, if you are trying to introduce mottle to a breed, you need to cross a mottled bird from a compatible breed to your breed. But there is no reason you cannot use several mottles and several of your breed and have parallel sets of F1s being produced. You can then cross F1s from one set with F1s from a different set together to get F2s.

If you were working on a dominant gene you could cross the F1 offspring back to a purebred that wasn't used in the project creation instead of back to mother/father.

This is not to say that it is always done this way--it really depends on hte space available and the number of birds one wants to work with.

 

[chicksngoats]

Quote:
I'm pretty sure its black, but then again, I'm not a pro. It's tail feathers have a sort of an irridescent greenish sheen to them.


Thanks for the info on the generational breeding, I think I'm started to understand this a little bit. And I think I'm going to start with the basics like High Roost suggested and work with that, but just wanted an idea of what happens when I mix some of the different colors together.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Keri78]

I have a black frizzle girl that is obviously the result of two frizzles bred together and trust me you wouldn't want to potentially do this to any of you baby chicks! She is REALLY REALLY tiny and is bald under her wings so when she flies(doesn't do it much at all anymore) she goes straight up and into a backwards tumblesalt and then nose dives!!! I couldn't figure out why she couldn't fly when she was a little baby chick until everyone else started getting their feathers and she had a heck of a time getting full coverage and even now they are overcurled and not full like my other fluffy frizzles. Don't chance it...just wait until you can get smooth coated ones in the right colors. I also had another white frizzle baby that was very similar and cross beaked...that was tramatic for us and him and after weeks of feeding him oatmeal mixed in with his feed he eventually got into a fight with another baby roo and had no way to defend himself b/c of his beak....so sad. He was sweet while we had him but he only lasted 4 weeks. My Hubby jokingly says that these are the direct results of women trying to create "cute chickens"!!!(lol) But, in our denfense they are sooo cute when they turn out right!