How to understand the chicken calculator

[Fisherlmiranda]

This may be a very silly question, but I want to understand the chicken calculator. The genetic calculator. I have all pure breed chickens, and if I want to cross say a marans, with a salmon faverolle, how do you know what genes to enter for each breed. Also how can I learn about breeding for egg colors? I have CCL. I have 2 hens and a rooster that came from Myers hatchery and the hens lay a light blue egg. I just purchased 3 hens from a local breeder who is getting out of CCL to do silkie. And I'm very happy with the color blue they are laying. Should I hatch out chicks from the new hens and my rooster, keep a rooster from the hatch and cross it back to the new hens to get bluer eggs?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Okay have had this along time and it still valid hope it helps

 

[Chicalina]

me too. I cannot make head nor tail of the calculator!

 

[britesidefarm]

I’m very interested in learning this too

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

me too. I cannot make head nor tail of the calculator!

Hopefully we will get someone to hop on here and help us

 

[Bird_Lover_17]

This may be a very silly question, but I want to understand the chicken calculator. The genetic calculator. I have all pure breed chickens, and if I want to cross say a marans, with a salmon faverolle, how do you know what genes to enter for each breed. Also how can I learn about breeding for egg colors? I have CCL. I have 2 hens and a rooster that came from Myers hatchery and the hens lay a light blue egg. I just purchased 3 hens from a local breeder who is getting out of CCL to do silkie. And I'm very happy with the color blue they are laying. Should I hatch out chicks from the new hens and my rooster, keep a rooster from the hatch and cross it back to the new hens to get bluer eggs?

Hi, I was curious about this topic earlier this year. I discovered this playlist and it helped me out.
**THIS IS NOT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL**
The playlist

 

[NatJ]

Also how can I learn about breeding for egg colors? I have CCL. I have 2 hens and a rooster that came from Myers hatchery and the hens lay a light blue egg. I just purchased 3 hens from a local breeder who is getting out of CCL to do silkie. And I'm very happy with the color blue they are laying. Should I hatch out chicks from the new hens and my rooster, keep a rooster from the hatch and cross it back to the new hens to get bluer eggs?

The genes that control the shade of blue do not seem to be well understood. So you pretty much just breed from the ones with the best colors--exactly like you're suggesting.

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

Hi, I was curious about this topic earlier this year. I discovered this playlist and it helped me out.
**THIS IS NOT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL**
The playlist

Thanks I'll take a watch!

 

[NatJ]

This may be a very silly question, but I want to understand the chicken calculator. The genetic calculator. I have all pure breed chickens, and if I want to cross say a marans, with a salmon faverolle, how do you know what genes to enter for each breed.

One of these calculators?
https://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html

The second one lets you choose breeds at the top, but it's missing some colors for some breeds. (I don't think it's got your marans or your salmon faverolle, for example.)

A basic explanation: for the hen and the rooster, there is a list of genes.
Each gene has an abbreviation, and those are in a list down the left side of the page: E, Co, Db, Pg, and so forth.
Then there's a drop-down box with choices for each of those genes. Some have just two or three choices, others have lots of choices.
Anything with + at the end is considered the wild-type: what the wild ancestors of chickens had. It's also the default when you open the calculator. When talking about what genes a breed has, it's common to not list the wild-type ones, just the ones that differ from that.

Sometimes I just start changing genes and look at the pictures--may not help me do a specific cross, but does teach me things about what the genes do.

Sometimes I google for the color genetics of a particular breed, but that only works sometimes.

For the specific breeds you named:
Marans--depends on what color.

Salmon Faverolles-- as best I can tell from google, people are still arguing about some of the details of that one! They agree on this much:
--E (top spot in the calculator): E^Wh/E^Wh Wheaten
--S (10th down from E): S/S Silver (male) or S/-- Silver (female)

I found someone saying it had Mh/Mh (Mahogany), and someone else saying it did not, and someone else saying it had that and another gene.... At that point, I gave up for now

 

[Fisherlmiranda]

One of these calculators?
https://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html

The second one lets you choose breeds at the top, but it's missing some colors for some breeds. (I don't think it's got your marans or your salmon faverolle, for example.)

A basic explanation: for the hen and the rooster, there is a list of genes.
Each gene has an abbreviation, and those are in a list down the left side of the page: E, Co, Db, Pg, and so forth.
Then there's a drop-down box with choices for each of those genes. Some have just two or three choices, others have lots of choices.
Anything with + at the end is considered the wild-type: what the wild ancestors of chickens had. It's also the default when you open the calculator. When talking about what genes a breed has, it's common to not list the wild-type ones, just the ones that differ from that.

Sometimes I just start changing genes and look at the pictures--may not help me do a specific cross, but does teach me things about what the genes do.

Sometimes I google for the color genetics of a particular breed, but that only works sometimes.

For the specific breeds you named:
Marans--depends on what color.

Salmon Faverolles-- as best I can tell from google, people are still arguing about some of the details of that one! They agree on this much:
--E (top spot in the calculator): E^Wh/E^Wh Wheaten
--S (10th down from E): S/S Silver (male) or S/-- Silver (female)

I found someone saying it had Mh/Mh (Mahogany), and someone else saying it did not, and someone else saying it had that and another gene.... At that point, I gave up for now

So theres not a list for each breed and color variety, you just have to preform research to under stand the color genes for each breed. Is what I'm understanding from your response?