how do chicken genetics work ???

[wnthunting]

Just wondering how chicken genetics works... when breeding chickens... does a baby chic always get certain traits from each parent?? Such as egg color from the hen or feather color from the rooster? Anybody know ???

 

[magicpigeon]

Yes. There are recessive and dominant traits such as feather color, skin color, egg color.... etc...
Chickens can be sex linked....
Temperament, such as aggressive roosters, can be inherited
etc. etc. etc.

 

[Cattitude]

Oddly enough, I've been playing with the Chicken Calculator [ http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html ] to figure out approximately how many generations it would take to breed a color variation into a line. This particular calculator is for color and pattern *only*. If there are that many genes just for these attributes, imagine how many genes for every attribute our chickens possess!

 

[Illia]

Actually the updated, new version of the Chicken Calculator also has traits like comb-type, leg color, crest, vulture hocks, etc. You can even add in a gene, too, such as, say, blue eggs.


But yes, each parent contributes their genes, however not all genes are given equally. In Sex-linked breeding, the male often gets more of his fathers' genes than the female, and thus, the male will inherit the gold of the father and the silver of the mother, while the female inherits only the silver of the mother. (Females cannot carry both)

 

[pastorwalt]

The female can only inherit silver or barred from her father, not her mother,
since females have only one copy of that chromosome and male birds two. (birds are opposite of mammals)
So, a silver rooster to a gold hen produces silver hens and roosters with both a gold and silver gene
A RIR rooster to a barred hen produces black hens and barred roosters with only one copy of the barred gene
Playing with the chicken calculator is fun and educational

 

[gumbii]

the chicken calculator is a great learning to tool... unless you try to figure out malaysian birds... like serama... then it's 2+2=5...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
backwards. Daughters inherit sex-linked genes only from father. Sons inherit from both parents. Yes, females only have one copy of the sex-linked genes.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
That's because most serama are a huge mix of genes.

 

[wnthunting]

Wow... thanks for all the info. Can't wait to see what my brhama rooster and rir hen chics turns out like

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
backwards. Daughters inherit sex-linked genes only from father. Sons inherit from both parents. Yes, females only have one copy of the sex-linked genes.

and Here I am thinking how can get an Educator tag like yours...

I'll never catch up...