In this Breeding thread, we post our Breeding Wishes

[JacinLarkwell]

aha. so if I used Odile, I might be able to get something like a blue egg laying wyandotte?
really, I just want the fun of breeding chicks, really fancy feathered hens/roosters, and more chickens. so I don't really care if it doesn't work out like I planned.

Probably not. This has taken a really long time to get this far. Not a one and done cross

 

[NatJ]

Wyandottes dont have single combs though and breeding that out is near impossible once its in a line

Wyandottes have not-pea combs, which is what matters when discussing the linkage of blue egg gene with pea or not-pea combs.

And that specific project bird does have a single comb, even though Wyandottes are supposed to have rose combs (probaby why her owner mentioned that she will be bred to a male with a rose comb.)

I have a cockerel that kinda' looks like he might have some of that in him... wonder if I bred him with, say like Odile (who lays blue eggs), if I would get blue eggs from the chicks?

If the mother lays blue eggs, then the chicks can also lay blue or green eggs (because they inherit the blue egg gene from their mother.) There might also be some chicks that lay not-blue eggs, depending on exactly which genes the mother has.

of course, I might want to do that with Emily or Odette (emily is a black and white chicken who lays brown eggs, while odette lays white and is a white hen). then I might be able to tell if the male chicken had those genetics.

Yes, that would be a way to test whether the rooster has the blue egg gene.

But if your cockerel has nice silver lacing, he almost certainly does not have the blue egg gene, unless he came from someone who is specially working on a project that involves those traits.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

They literally said in the post they were breeding to their rose comb showing male once she starts laying. Plus the singles are in lots of lines to help with fertility issues

It must of been a post prior that i missed but its a myth about single combs being tied to fertility. But im not gonna go back and forth about that. And I though egg color was tied to pea combs....Apparently thats not true either

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

If the mother lays blue eggs, then the chicks can also lay blue or green eggs (because they inherit the blue egg gene from their mother.) There might also be some chicks that lay not-blue eggs, depending on exactly which genes the mother has.

ooh cool!
like I said, I don't really care if they have blue eggs, because I'[m (why are brackets always in the way?) going to be eating the eggs anyway, and all chicken eggs taste the same

unless he came from someone who is specially working on a project that involves those traits.

and the person who I got the chicks from definitely did not do any projects like that!

 

[NatJ]

It must of been a post prior that i missed

No, it was in the same post, in the very next sentence:

This pretty girl will 100% lay blue eggs. Note that she is straight comb. I will be crossing her to rose comb males as soon as she starts laying. She is 4 months old and should lay her first egg in about 6 to 8 weeks.
View attachment 3299936

 

[DarJones]

Some people could put in some time to good advantage learning about chicken genetics.

Rose comb comes from an inversion on chromosome 7 that flips one of the comb structure genes backward and at the same time whacks a large segment of a gene affecting sperm viability. The inversion is dominant meaning one copy is enough to show rose comb phenotype. The sperm viability gene results in sperm that can fertilize an egg lasting only 3 to 5 days where normally it would last 3 weeks or a tad more. There are two variants of the rose comb inversion, R1 and R2 where R1 affects the sperm motility gene and R2 restores the sperm motility gene while leaving the rose comb inversion. R2 is the most desirable variant since roosters have normal sperm viability. Unfortunately, the R2 variant has been found in very few chicken breeds.

Single comb/pea comb is on chromosome 1 and has a few known variants. Single comb is required to make a rose comb bird. You can't make rose comb without also having single comb on chromosome 1. As for stabilizing rose comb, that is simple to do. All it takes is making the right crosses to determine which roosters are homozygous for rose comb. Alternatively, a rose comb DNA test is being developed in Germany.

I've been working on blue egg laying Silver Laced Wyandottes since getting the first eggs in early 2014. Keith Bramwell was kind enough to provide eggs of his blue egg laying Brown Leghorns and I purchased some Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks from Jerry Foley. It has taken 9 years to get to the point where I have a few chicks that visually are silver laced and Wyandotte shaped and lay blue eggs. I have about 5 or 6 more chicks that so far look similar to the hen pictured. A few of them are rose comb. One more generation along with some DNA tests for the blue egg gene should be the tipping point where they breed true. Could I have achieved these results in less time? Yes, but I would have lost a few critical traits along the way. I want blue eggs, not tinted blue. I retained the zinc white gene for egg color which means my chickens will lay pure blue eggs that are not tinted by porphyrin.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8072931/

 

[HawaiiHomestead]

I fantasize about creating a large form Silver Double Laced Tappit Shetland Party Egger.

Essentially it looks like a SDL Barnevelder, but has the Shetland tuft and a chance to lay brown, blue, or green (speckled) eggs.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I fantasize about creating a large form Silver Double Laced Tappit Shetland Party Egger.

Essentially it looks like a SDL Barnevelder, but has the Shetland tuft and a chance to lay brown, blue, or green (speckled) eggs.

That sunds really interesting!
EDIT: that sunds???? my keyboard is getting bad, need to find a new opne. Now it's the P randomly popping in!

 

[Iluveggers]

Some people could put in some time to good advantage learning about chicken genetics.

Rose comb comes from an inversion on chromosome 7 that flips one of the comb structure genes backward and at the same time whacks a large segment of a gene affecting sperm viability. The inversion is dominant meaning one copy is enough to show rose comb phenotype. The sperm viability gene results in sperm that can fertilize an egg lasting only 3 to 5 days where normally it would last 3 weeks or a tad more. There are two variants of the rose comb inversion, R1 and R2 where R1 affects the sperm motility gene and R2 restores the sperm motility gene while leaving the rose comb inversion. R2 is the most desirable variant since roosters have normal sperm viability. Unfortunately, the R2 variant has been found in very few chicken breeds.

Single comb/pea comb is on chromosome 1 and has a few known variants. Single comb is required to make a rose comb bird. You can't make rose comb without also having single comb on chromosome 1. As for stabilizing rose comb, that is simple to do. All it takes is making the right crosses to determine which roosters are homozygous for rose comb. Alternatively, a rose comb DNA test is being developed in Germany.

I've been working on blue egg laying Silver Laced Wyandottes since getting the first eggs in early 2014. Keith Bramwell was kind enough to provide eggs of his blue egg laying Brown Leghorns and I purchased some Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks from Jerry Foley. It has taken 9 years to get to the point where I have a few chicks that visually are silver laced and Wyandotte shaped and lay blue eggs. I have about 5 or 6 more chicks that so far look similar to the hen pictured. A few of them are rose comb. One more generation along with some DNA tests for the blue egg gene should be the tipping point where they breed true. Could I have achieved these results in less time? Yes, but I would have lost a few critical traits along the way. I want blue eggs, not tinted blue. I retained the zinc white gene for egg color which means my chickens will lay pure blue eggs that are not tinted by porphyrin.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8072931/

Wow, that is amazing! Thank you for the bit on comb genetics! I find chicken genetics fascinating but can rarely follow explanations when people post about it. Congratulations on what sounds like a successful project! I have a “thing” for colorful eggs, so it certainly is exciting to hear that people are working on making/tweaking breeds that will lay colored eggs true!

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I’d also like to see blue laced sebrights and crested D’Uccles.