How difficult is it to get rid of beard genetics?

[TwistedTayy]

I am working on a breed project and I am considering adding Russian Orloffs in but I want to breed out the beards. All chickens in the project are beardless except one hen. Im going to buy some hatching eggs either way but if I end up with a hen I was thinking of adding her in the pen if its not too hard to breed out the beards. Ive read many posts on making them fuller or adding them. Is it like a 50/50 chance? either will have or won't?

 

[Amer]

Beards are a dominant gene, so when you cross a bearded bird in the offspring will have beards but the beards will be very easy to breed out.

 

[TwistedTayy]

Beards are a dominant gene, so when you cross a bearded bird in the offspring will have beards but the beards will be very easy to breed out.

So it’s basically something that will get less over generations? I can handle that. I was just curious so I can make breeding plans for it. Thanks!

 

[NatJ]

So it’s basically something that will get less over generations? I can handle that. I was just curious so I can make breeding plans for it. Thanks!

Assuming the hen is pure for the beard gene, and the rooster has no beard:
all offspring have 1 copy of the beard gene. They have a visible beard.

Breed those offspring to non-bearded chickens, and they should produce half chicks with beards, and half chicks with no beards. If you keep only the chicks with no beards, you should never again see beards in your stock.

 

[3KillerBs]

Assuming the hen is pure for the beard gene, and the rooster has no beard:
all offspring have 1 copy of the beard gene. They have a visible beard.

Breed those offspring to non-bearded chickens, and they should produce half chicks with beards, and half chicks with no beards. If you keep only the chicks with no beards, you should never again see beards in your stock.

Or breed them to each other and 1/4 of the chicks will have no beards.