Isa Brown vs Amberlink: Understanding the Genetics behind them.

[nicalandia]

Some information about Parent Stock and genetics behind the Phenotype of Production sex linked Brown and Silver based "Hybrids" on


Silver based Parent Stock(Both Sexes)
Genetic make up of their phenotype/

Wheaten at the e locus: eWh
Columbian Restricted: Co/Co
Dominant sex-linked Silver(S/- for females, S/S for males)
Dominant white: I/I
Not red enhanced: mh+/mh+

Brown/Red Parent Stock(Both Sexes)
Genetic make up of their phenotype/Genotype.

Wheaten at the e locus: eWh
Columbian Restricted: Co/Co
Recessive sex-linked gold(s+/- for females, s+/s+ for males)
Not dominant white (i+/i+)
Mahogany red enhanced: Mh/Mh

Terminal/Commercial sex-linked brown cross are:
Columbian Restricted: Co/Co
Recessive sex-linked gold: s+/- for females and S/s+ for males
Heterozygous dominant white: I/i+
Heterozygous Mahogany red enhanced: Mh/mh+

Terminal/Commercial Silver cross are:
Columbian Restricted: Co/Co
Sex-linked Silver: S/- for females and S/s+ for males
Heterozygous dominant white: I/i+
Heterozygous Mahogany red enhanced: Mh/mh+

Males of the both reciprocal cross will show red shoulders, lemon hackles/saddle, mostly white body due to dominant white and columbian restricted.

Isa brown rooster as example(Amberlink rooster looks the same and should have identical stats as in bodyweight and age at maturity)

Due to Mahogany the Amberlink/Silver Brown Pullets will have varying degrees of red showing on the body.

Yes, the Amberlink hen is the sister of the Isa/Dekalb brown, except is not sex linked. While doing an extensive research on reciprocal crosses like this example one can see that of the many egg production genes a few are bound to be sex linked, take this cross for example: The Amberlink is about 5% more productive than her brown sister you will hardly notice any difference in a backyard settings where both crosses will be hard press to reach 300 eggs per year, but when they are on a full production settings that 5% makes a huge difference in a flock of 1000 hens for example.

 

[nicalandia]

Parent Stock of ISA Brown and Dekalb-Amberlink http://ajanlafarm.com/product-range/poultry/grand-parent-stock-egg-breed/

Isa Brown Parent Stock (Isa brown product of the GoldxSilver cross)

Amberlink Parent stock(SilverxGold, not sexlinked for color but even more productive than the Isa browns)

If you look closely the Reds lack dominant white while the Silvers look completely white, but that is due to Columbian restriction combined with sex linked Silver and dominant white.

From this and many freely available info online one can confirm that the Grand Parents of the Isa brown and Amberlink/Silver brown are both exceptionally good egg layers and that the Silver line in particular is more productive.

 

[nicalandia]

Also the Myth that these are one time only "hybrids" and "their productive performance is only because of their parent and grand parents are totally unrelated" is really unfounded, You would think that a when a Hyline Brown Parent Stock(Sire) is crossed with a Hyline W-36 Parent Stock(Dame) to produce a recent addition to the Hyline product line called: Hyline Sonia and it's reciprocal cross named Hyline Pink(W-80 Parent stock Sire mated to Silver/Brown Parent stock Dame) that the Egg production would be off the charts due to "Hybrid" vigor, well these lines have been Maxed out in term of performance that there is really no more room for any type of Hybrid vigor, as the performance of both the Sonia and Pink line(both lay tinted eggs) is the average of both parent lines.

 

[nicalandia]

Hy-line brown(Isa Brown counterpart) and Hy-line Silver brown(Amberlink counterpart) Grandparent and Parent Stock information:

Not much info on Dekalb amberlink parent stock is available but we can extrapolate the numbers to a high degree of certainty the female weight and egg production using the available date from the ISA Brown parent stock info: http://www.ltz.de/en/parent-stock/lohmann-brown.php

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Grand Parents
Silver Columbian Sire at 70 weeks of age: 2.71 Kg average.
Silver Columbian dame average body at 70 weeks of age: 1.89 kg.

Red Columbian Sire at 70 weeks of age: 2.89 Kg average
Red Columbian average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 2.08 Kg and and 295.8 eggs laid in a breeding pen settings(not optimal for maximum egg production)

Parents of the Brown cross
Red Columbian Sire at 70 weeks of age: 2.89 Kg average
Silver Columbian dame average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 1.89 kg and 299.5 eggs laid in a breeding pen settings(not optimal for maximum egg production)

Parents of the Silver brown cross
Silver Columbian Sire at 70 weeks of age: 2.71 Kg average.
Red Columbian average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 2.08 Kg and and 295.8 eggs laid in a breeding pen settings(not optimal for maximum egg production)


F1 cross

Hy-line Brown average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 1.97 kg and 319.5 eggs

Hy-line Silver Brown average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 2.06 kg and 326.45 eggs

Hardly any "Hybrid Vigor" if you ask me, just continuing the trend that the Silvers do lay more than the gold)

 

[nicalandia]

As a bonus I am adding the info found on the Hy-line Sonia(Tinted eggs, perhaps not so popular in the USA but popular on other parts of the world)


Parent Stock
Red Columbian Sire at 70 weeks of age: 2.89 Kg average(same sire as hy-line brown hens)
White W-36 dame(White Leghorn, Extended Black and dominant white) average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 1.6 Kg and and 310.5 eggs laid in a breeding pen settings(not optimal for maximum egg production)

F1 cross production:

Hy-line Sonia average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 2.0 kg and 319.1 eggs

When compared to her half sisters the Hy-line Brown and Hy-line W-36(commercial):

Hy-line Brown average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 1.97 kg and 319.5 eggs

Hy-line W-36 average body weight and egg production at 70 weeks of age: 1.56 kg and 317.1 eggs


Comparing the Sonia with her half sisters(at 70 weeks of age which is one year production from point of lay) you will see that no hybrid vigor can be extracted on such a highly productive lines in highly productive environments at least in egg productivity numbers as there is a clearly evidence of heterosis in the females body weight.


Edit.

All comparison so far have been using the average "Hen-Day" egg production(not to be confused with Hen-housed) publish and freely available.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

It seems at least to me that commercial strain egg layers have reached their maximum potential for first year layers. I’m wondering if the industry will shift it’s focus from getting the most production out of the battery hens in their first year and a half of life and start to breed for disease resistance and possibly laying longevity. Laying longevity would decrease slightly for new flocks of layers yearly. Possibly by timing the forced molting of the layer houses to have a 2-4 weeks gap between each warehouse could result in another 18 months of high egg production from the hens before replacement flocks are brought in. All this being said if longevity of laying is focused upon.

 

[nicalandia]

It seems at least to me that commercial strain egg layers have reached their maximum potential for first year layers. I’m wondering if the industry will shift it’s focus from getting the most production out of the battery hens in their first year and a half of life and start to breed for disease resistance and possibly laying longevity. Laying longevity would decrease slightly for new flocks of layers yearly. Possibly by timing the forced molting of the layer houses to have a 2-4 weeks gap between each warehouse could result in another 18 months of high egg production from the hens before replacement flocks are brought in. All this being said if longevity of laying is focused upon.

I believe we have reached the maximum potential period, as we won't see 365 eggs per year of hens and the trend will focus on more efficient layers, smaller hens that eat less but lay the same, here is a test on using Highly Productive Bantam Leghorn strains with Highly productive White Leghorn strain to produce a smaller hen that lays the same amount while eating less

Alternative Genetics to Improve Egg Layer Efficiency
https://thepoultrysite.com/articles/alternative-genetics-to-improve-egg-layer-efficiency

Excerpt:

"Summary:

This paper reports on the development of a bantam gene pool that has commercial egg production characteristics that can be easily hybridised with elite commercial stocks without compromising commercial performance. The usefulness of these genes has been illustrated by conducting cross breeding experiments and undertaking progressive introgression of the bantam genes into commercial lines. The bantam genes provide a mechanism to reduce metabolic body size without compromising egg mass output and hence improve overall efficiency."

 

[nicalandia]

Here is also a First: https://www.shaver-poultry.com/en/news/dakota-layers-achieves-500-egg-milestone/

"Dakota Layers is the first producer in North America to reach a production level of 500 eggs per hen housed over a period of 100 weeks"

100 weeks minus the 18 weeks it takes for production type hens to start laying this means that those hens achieved 6.09 eggs per week, an outstanding 28 hour per egg laid window.

They use Shaver Whites, which is basically the same highly productive White Leghorn lines the mayor corps use(Shaver Whites, Hyline w36, Isa Whites)

 

[nicalandia]

I was able to get my hands on an adult Isa Brown Rooster and Son of him that is gold based(looks identical to ISA Brown hens) and will be getting a few Isa Whites(White Leghorn type) hens..

 

[Chooks man]

I was able to get my hands on an adult Isa Brown Rooster and Son of him that is gold based(looks identical to ISA Brown hens) and will be getting a few Isa Whites(White Leghorn type) hens..

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did you managed to get your Isa White .love to see some photos if possible .
great information about the different result of the crosses and how the silver proven to be more productive .

chooks man