Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[Wisher1000]

Whatever could have made you think to "con-duck" an elementary genetics lesson.....

I hope it is going to be a progressive series. This is a good first lesson, very elemental and builds a good foundation. I need the next few lessons badly!

 

[CanuckBock]

Massive nest Pearl is building...all the straw from the pen is heaped up in one spot...​

I have taken the two eggs and placed them in Buster the Bator. Want to know if Piper is doing his job on fertilizing plus it is still icing up over night and don't want the eggs killed. We'll know a few more things in about 7 to 10 days.

It is a mixed blessing these swan eggs...heading into cold weather so does one want cygnets, but heck...they're cygnets...what am I saying!

Sweet and sour...

Quote:
Originally Posted by vehve

I usually just do ribs in the grill on low heat, no boiling, glazing them with BBQ sauce throughout the cooking.

We had horse steaks yesterday, that was a new experience, delicious. Today was rabbit.

Karin was in charge of cooking today, turned out excellent.

I hope the health issues are just a scare, and it's better to be on the safe side.

Not enough energy to read through the genetics, have to come back to that.

Ribs...nope, slow boiled, simmered more like it...but not so much they turn to mush or fall off the bones... This time I decided to experiment a bit and took the simmered ribs and cut them down once more to about four bones per chunk...then into the crock pot with BQ sauce...to simmer for another three hours...

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Then into the oven to crisp up.

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We like the fat to be gone and the meat to be spoon (not fork!), spoon tender...sorta the consistency of pulled pork I guess...was delish! I quite amazed myself and will do this up again...was nummy and there is enough left for another feed today.

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Uh, yeh...bunny and pony are not common place on our menus here...sorta like them as is, where is in my books...but whatever you enjoy I suppose!

I have tried canned seal flipper and cougar amongst other items--like smoked eel, lots of different seafood when we lived on the Coast...so I guess that is enough adventure for moi! Whinny and Hoppy are safe residing here if they wanted to...heh heh heh...

See...that dang word again...GENETICS scares them off running...sigh!

Whatever could have made you think to "con-duck" an elementary genetics lesson.....

I hope it is going to be a progressive series. This is a good first lesson, very elemental and builds a good foundation. I need the next few lessons badly!

Oh you brat you...let's see, I bin teaching genetics of sorts since...oh 2000 round abouts when HyBlade the red dog from two blues arrived here.

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Playing with rubber duckies and plushy toys for quite some time now...Boo Dilution and Gender in Birds...other types of colour genetics and such...

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Just having the childhood I never had you know!

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All sorts of posters for the Exhibition Poultry Clubbers...

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Displays at schools, shows, and sales...

Yeh...I'm always ready to crow about the poultry fancy, eh?
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Here's something new I did up today...the wallet and purse bird gender demo!

Had to stop and pick up fresh GREENS for PearlaGirla...

The veg garden is looking a bit pea-ked...​

And I went hunting for something both purse and walletable...yeh, I know...stranger things have happened!

So I was about to give up (did find a clothespin bag...nice one for five bucks for those Italian clothespins I bought recently!) when I saw the gift bags...

AH HA! That would work...will MAKE it work!

So BOY bird wallet at the top left & the GIRL bird purse on the bottom right...I switched out a blue bow for the pink one...yeh!
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'Kay...gonna need some help.

Yeh, I know I need help in other things but this round I am asking for some input on bird gender linked genetics.

Trouble is in all my extensive library of genetics books...would anyone before me have made up a list of gender linked genes...Uh NO>>>why would one what to do that! Why list all the gender linked genes...ha ha ha....

So I went slowly thru the publications and tried to harvest all the gender linked info I was able to. I laughed at myself, went through and found seven gender or sex linked bird genes and made up the cards for the male's wall. Took pics...sit down to post and think..."Where's the CHOCOLATE?"...so AGH! Had to do up another business card and re shoot the photo...so here is the revision with EIGHT genes as gender linked in birds.

This is the latest edition DRAFT photograph at least until someone tells me, "Hey Stupid! You forgot...XXXXX!!"

Boy Bird on the Z chromosome...
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So for Wisher's sake...the Z chromosome holds the following potential gender or sex linked genetics in BIRDS:

- Barred or Cuckoo - B - series
- Chocolate - Choco - series
- Dwarfism or Bantam; dw - recessive bantam | rg - recessive bantam | Z - dominant bantam
- Id inhibitor of dermal melanin
- K - K-series - late feathering
- Female Lethal; Bernier Lethal | Prenatal Lethal | Lady Killer
- Silver / gold - S - series; Silver plumage / gold plumage
- White skin / yellow skin - W - series

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Now of course the Girl Bird's purse...the W chromosome...that holds NOTHING so that one was about up to my speed for today!

Girl Bird on the w Chromosome...​

The girl purse is "M" "T"...like my concentration skills in my skull sometimes!

EGG KEY:
Blue phenotype = genotype one black and one silver/white block.
Silver phenotype = genotype of two silver/white blocks.
Black phenotype = genotype of two black blocks.

MATERIAL LIST:
- Easter eggs: 2 large blue, 4 medium blue, 2 medium “silver” (green), and 2 medium “black” (pink or purple even). Make sure all the eggs will be large enough to hold combinations of 2 to 3 blocks.
- Lego (nfi) blocks: Size four pegs with two across: 10 blue, 10 silver/white & 10 black.
- Lego (nfi) blocks: Size two pegs by one peg across: 6 blue, 2 silver/white, and 2 black.
- Black permanent felt pen to mark phenotype on outside of big and medium sized eggs.

Until next time…Blue Bird Says,

Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
APA-ABA Youth Program Advisor for Canada
West Central Alberta Exhibition Poultry Club

So off we go again...whee hee hee...

Jest another day in pear-a-dice, "Right Fixins!"​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Wisher1000]

Tara, try this site out, it has been helpful to me...

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

I believe that part III could have helped you with your list of "non-autosomal" traits.

 

[LindaB220]

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Yah...bread machine...do you want the one that makes a loaf shaped like a loaf of bread or a round cylinder loaf making machine?

Anyway enough about the birds! Things going on besides just THE BIRDS...
But not to retired Princess Warriors...Fixins, always in the middle of the goings on...inspecting! She has NO FEAR!

Unless of course she is a tad cold and needs to sit wrapped up in her sucky suck blankie...then she don't seem so TOUGH!

Yeh, nice BLANKY Fixins...did yer "Mommy" put that on you to keep you cosy??

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Lovely Fall colours...​

And still warm enough for the Bikers to be out...but not for too much longer!

The large building in the background is the Ronald McDonald house for sick children...a nice charity that helps out families in need. ​

So that be that fur now.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

Hi Tara, how's life in the cold. Still nice balmy 80's around here. I'd ideally like a bread shape machine but who knows what the best price will be. I'll be keeping an eye out. Love Fixin's. Queen of the Hill. When my gdaughter Nikki had to stay in ICU for a month with lung damage her Mom and Dad stayed next to the hospital in Austin Tx Ronald McDonald's house. I went down to stay a few days and stayed with her. Deluxe. They even supplied meals. Super nice people. The kindness that is shown to the parents in Austin was incredible.. People let big brother John stay at their house to keep his school days going and make it a more normal life. A lot of times Jenny and Jack transposed nights staying at the Home to stay home with John.. It was a very bad time. Nikki has Downs and her little lungs were shredded when someone (a nurse) punctured her lung twice with a feeding tube. Her heart stopped twice. Jenny had already called me and I was on the way down for the funeral. Took my clothes and everything. That was 6 yrs ago and she took about six months to get back to normal. She will always have a weakness because of her condition but still full of vinegar. She has an IPad that she reaches for when she gets home from school Don't Nobody bother her when she is in cartoony heaven. She 13. yo

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara, try this site out, it has been helpful to me...

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

I believe that part III could have helped you with your list of "non-autosomal" traits.

Thank you Wisher...I dove right in to see if the site (yah--someone else with the same mindset!) contained any nuggets I had not included and indeed, I found THREE!

The only real negative to this site is that it is in bad need of updating. I thought I had heard the originator had passed away but the family had kept the site up as a kindness and a tribute?? Not sure if that is true or??

The thing about research is that you have it published and it is meant to be superceded by new discoveries. It is a very good site but has some things that just don't seem to jive...lots that are good too though! Hopefully one can figure out which is which, eh?

Here are three items I did not have in my bird gender Chromosome Z listy list...

Brown eggshell color inhibitor

pr

This recessive gene results in a lack of protoporphyrin pigment (the brown eggshell pigment) even in hens with polygenic brown eggshell color. It can be employed to remove undesirable tints from eggs of white shelled strains.​

Brown eye

br

Not much is known about this gene and there may be a dominant inhibitor of brown eye. Many of the melanin-influencing genes have an effect on eye color.​

Sex-linked dilution

BSd

Females that are hemizygous for BSd (having one BSd gene) have light blue and barred plumage as do the heterozygous males, however, homozygous males show a dosage effect and are essentially white. These homozygous males resemble dominant whites but differ in that they are epistatic to pheomelanin while dominant white is not.​

I was SO trying to jog my memory about egg colour and eye colour...I thought I recalled something about those and them being gender linked...and indeed...but controversial it seems...sigh!

Firstly, if anyone is able to substantiate the sex-linked dilution BSd , please do! I have only ever seen this mentioned on this site and cannot validate that it exists with any other authorities. It has me pondering as there is some new research about more "whites" in birds but I thought that was more about "recessive whites" and not dominant...no matter. I cannot validate it exists, so best I leave it off the list until I learn otherwise.


Now on to egg shell "pr"...

According to Sigrid's book on Chicken Extremes...

page 121:

Hi Tara, how's life in the cold. Still nice balmy 80's around here. I'd ideally like a bread shape machine but who knows what the best price will be. I'll be keeping an eye out. Love Fixin's. Queen of the Hill. When my gdaughter Nikki had to stay in ICU for a month with lung damage her Mom and Dad stayed next to the hospital in Austin Tx Ronald McDonald's house. I went down to stay a few days and stayed with her. Deluxe. They even supplied meals. Super nice people. The kindness that is shown to the parents in Austin was incredible.. People let big brother John stay at their house to keep his school days going and make it a more normal life. A lot of times Jenny and Jack transposed nights staying at the Home to stay home with John.. It was a very bad time. Nikki has Downs and her little lungs were shredded when someone (a nurse) punctured her lung twice with a feeding tube. Her heart stopped twice. Jenny had already called me and I was on the way down for the funeral. Took my clothes and everything. That was 6 yrs ago and she took about six months to get back to normal. She will always have a weakness because of her condition but still full of vinegar. She has an IPad that she reaches for when she gets home from school Don't Nobody bother her when she is in cartoony heaven. She 13. yo

I'll stick to room temperatures thanks! LOL...We have been around 17 to 20 C, so that is 62 to 68F. Nice enough for a fall time range for outside in the daytime! The mornings are cold and sometimes with ice on the ponds though...no avoiding that but makes the leaves change colours and helps set us up for what is to come! Get conditioned for the cold and the trees need NO leaves to handle snow load better...good all round I suppose!

I had no idea that Ronald McDonald's House was so prevalent all over. Excellent! There are indeed some very nice, kind and generous heroes amongst us, eh!

I had a school bus rider with Downs...he was just awesome and he always was happy and I giggled so many times and felt utter joy to be in his company! IPad...in fact I was at the school for our year beginning paperwork doing some copying and in he came with his teacher aids. He has moved to another area, so not on my bus any more...I miss him! Well...quite frankly, I was aghast at just how well he used his smart phone/tablet thingy...sorry, I don't have a cell or smart phone or whatever! Landline and desktop or laptops...they fill my needs perfectly so I just quit getting new technology once those were here...they work well for me and my lifestyle (old dawg, no new tricks thanks!). He could use that computer incredibly well and he was quicker at indicating what he wanted to do next ON the tablet than speaking! He has alled me "Auntie" from the moment our eyes first met and he had my heart melt instantly from that day onwards. Very kewl people and they simply have such an enviable outlook on life...it never seems to keep them down and they are like our "Hill <billy?> Queen" Fixins...they BITE the day...bring it on and watch out for all the vim and vigour and complete enjoyment that just seems to be an aura around them. Happy gushes from their inner souls! Yeh...disabled...hardly...more like WE are the ones with the disabilities, eh? Can't see the glory in living life to the max.


Got some pretty much growed up ducks to move out this evening to the Duck Barn...so I had better get quacking on that!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara love your teaching aids, I would especially love to play with the bride and groom duckies, and all the pink and blue fluffies.. Fixins looks slightly embarrassed to be caught wrapped in her blankie with maybe 300,000 BYC members looking on. Don't tell her that part.

 

[vehve]

Tara, I have a genetics question for you, Karin is considering some eggs. What would you get colorwise with a Wheaten-Cuckoo Marans mix roo crossed over a Cuckoo Marans or a Black Copper Marans?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Question on dwarfism or the bantam gene.

Could you maybe explain further: dw - recessive bantam, rg - recessive bantam, and Z - dominant bantam?

I have been wondering about it lately in my bantam project. I've been informed that the bantam gene is sex linked to the male but I'm wondering about all the different crosses between bantam males with large fowl hens and all the chicks receiving the bantam gene... however, if you take one of those females and cross her with a large fowl (no bantam gene) does she pass on the bantam gene that she has?

If you have a bird with a bantam gene that is not expressed, does he still pass it on?

What is the difference between the two recessive bantam genes you listed and what is a dominant bantam?

 

[drumstick diva]

Duh, too many questions, my brain is racing on a hamster wheel - no good can come of this.

 

[Northie]

I took a genetics class years ago and I have to say... There's still a piece of me that whimpers and wants to shrink away when punnetts squares come up. Tediously calculating out the probabilities in a multi gene cross. Oh the peas...
However that is fading now that I've got something real to look at and tinker with, I find myself returning to the big eyed kid full of wonder that I use to be

Quietly hoping to see more of your winter preparations and/or set ups. Are you heating your coops? Water? We just added a wind barrier over top of the wire in the out door run. Cheapo shower curtains from dollarama did the job pretty well and if they shred up in the wind they're easy to replace. I'm sure the clerk was wondering what the hay I was going to do with 7 of them... But she didn't ask.