Male Striping in Wheaten male hackles

[Buffchickenbuff]

I see pictures of male wheaten Cubalayas that would be Light Brown if found in Leghorns. I see pictures of wheaten males that are duckwing (BB red)( and without the stripe) and others that have the stripe in their hackle. Evidently, this means that the wheaten male may or may not have striping in their hackle - depending on the breed of course. But does striping in the hackle of wheaten males affect the color of the female, or the darkness of the red in the male?

 

[tadkerson]

Genetics 101

There are genes in a bird that are called "autosomal red" that can make a red bird a darker red color. My anecdotal work with autosomal red indicates it may be caused by more than one gene; one recessive and one dominant; do not quote me on this because I do not have the data to make a definitive statement. I produced silver columbian restricted birds that had red backs due to an "autosomal red gene"(s). The birds I produced also carried mahogany which may have increased the intensity of the red color.

Kimballs work with Cubalaya indicated the cubalaya carry a gene called dark ( DK*DK) that produced the cinnamon color in wheaten cubalaya. Non cinnamon colored wheaten (wheaten game bantam) are DK*N and do not carry the dark allele. The dark gene could be classified as an autosomal red gene; it may be one of the autosomal red genes I mentioned earlier. According to Kimball, the salmon faverolle also carries the dark gene. Faverolle are silver so the dark gene is expressed differently on a silver bird. Kimball did not describe hackle color in the birds.

Some people say that the darker red cubalaya carry mahogany but they do not. Mahogany will cause black spangling on a red breast in males. Many people forget mahogany is a weak restrcitor and therefore will remove some black on the breast of a black breasted red male.

I can not answer the question about the expression of black hackle color in wheaten males and if there is a gene that is causing the black hackle color and how that gene may effect the color in females. There are genes that can effect hackle color in males and females but the genes are not found in the wheaten cubalaya. There is a gene called melanotic which will darken the wheaten color of a female but the males will be black, This would work to produce darker brown females but the males will be black. This is a good lesson on how genes are expressed differently in males and females.

When you compare a light brown leghorn which is wild type ( E*N) at the E locus with a wheaten ( E*WH) at the E locus you are comparing the expression of two different alleles( genes), Hackle color is controlled by the E locus allele and the gold or silver allele. " A guess on my part is that the depth of hackle color is dependent upon the interaction of the E locus and gold allele. Then other genes may modify the interaction." I have no research to back up this statement so take it as my two cents.

Tim

 

[Buffchickenbuff]

Thank you for your reply. This is the picture I was thinking of:



This picture was posted another thread. I hope it is okay for me to use it. You can see the striping in his hackle, and he is a light color, whereas in Old English the wheaten male does not have the stripe in the male hackle, and the male is darker.

I assume this bird is a wheaten?? (I could be wrong) It would appear then that the wheaten may or may not have the stripe??