Lemon Orp Roo x Australorp Hen...what would i get?

[kangareaux]

Anyone know? Feel free to discuss genetics involved in this. (esp as far as lemon is concerned) I may or may not understand what you say but I'll certainly enjoy trying.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m not real familiar with lemon but I can give you what I think it is, partly to give you a bump and partly to subscribe to this thread. I generally enjoy it when someone corrects my mistakes on genetics. That way I learn.

I’m pretty sure you will get all black chicks the first generation, though leakage is always possible, maybe even probable. Still, pretty solid black.

I think lemon can be duckwing, partridge, or wheaten based. I don’t think it matters which as long as it is not extended black or birchen. It should have Columbia to suppress some of the black and make it more solid lemon. The rooster would need to be pure for gold, no silver.

The thing that makes him lemon instead of reddish is a recessive “Inhibitor of Gold” gene. It’s recessive so while he will pass on one copy, it won’t have any effect on his offspring unless it pairs up with an “Inhibitor of Gold” from the hen. With a Black Australorp, it won’t.

The Australorp is based on expended black. That will trump the duckwing, partridge, or wheaten the offspring get from the rooster. That’s why the chicks will be black. If memory serves, the Australorp should have silver, not gold. That really doesn’t matter in the first generation but it will in the next.

Since the ”Inhibitor of Gold” is recessive, one way you’ll see any effects is to cross the offspring. I don’t know how many chicks you’d have to hatch since three recessive genes would have to pair up, the duckwing, partridge, or wheaten, the gold, and the Inhibitor of Gold. Probably somewhere in the range of 1 in 64 chicks, but that could be off. And that’s just the odds. Reality doesn’t always follow the odds. I’ve had odds that should have been 1 in 8 turn out to be 2 in 4 from one hatch then zero for 17 in the next. Crazy.

Another option is to breed the lemon rooster back to one of his daughters to greatly improve the odds of seeing the effects of the lemon. This should improve your odds of seeing the effect of the lemon to maybe 1 in 8 chicks. Maybe not exactly 1 in 8 but quite a difference.

I think I’m pretty close on this but we’ll see if someone more knowledgeable responds.

 

[donrae]

I think you're going to waste that pretty lemon color cause you're going to get black chicks, for the most part.

Sorry, that's about my genetics knowledge of lemon--black trumps it. Also interested in seeing what the gurus say.

 

[kangareaux]

Thanks. I don't have any Lemon hens, and was just curious what would happen. He's in quarantine right now (He's new) but my girls are already VERY interested in him. Ran over to the cage and checked him out immediately. Also, they are the only girls his size. He's massive!!! (Just SOOOOO pretty!)

 

[kangareaux]

Thanks. I don't have any Lemon hens, and was just curious what would happen. He's in quarantine right now (He's new) but my girls are already VERY interested in him. Ran over to the cage and checked him out immediately. Also, they are the only girls his size. He's massive!!! (Just SOOOOO pretty!)

correction. I have lemon babies, but it will be a loooooong time before they are old enough and big enough to be his girlfriends.

 

[kangareaux]

or....I DO have a wellsummer that is getting quite large. Hmmm..... wonder what would happen there....