Quote:
Hi Geebs! The only problem here is, how do you know if you have a bunch of carriers though? The birds will have small tell tale signs, like odd points in the combs, wavey combs, feather shafting in the breast feathers and sometimes backs, and flopped combs in the hens. Unless you maintain a closed flock, and never introduce a new bird, well you may be ok. So, in theory, all of your hens could carry the gene for it, and if you have a clean roo, you will not have the Carnation pop up. Then you see some eggs or a new studly roo you just have to have! If Mr. Studly is a carrier, and you breed him to your carrier hens with normal combs...WHAMO! You are going to have a flock of Carnations!! The trouble is, most people obsess over their roo's combs, but the hens go unchecked or unnoticed. Even in the standard, they say the hen should not be penalized for a "flopped comb" while she is laying. I really feel strongly, that the flopped comb in the hens so an indicator of her carrying the one gene. I will not breed any more pullets or hens, laying or not, with a wavey or flopped comb! I also believe, that more people have this problem than they realize, or will admit! They keep cranking out eggs and chicks, and the problem is progressing at a rapid rate. I can't tell you how many e-mails I've gotten confirming this, and from all over the country! One gal also claimed to have them in her Barnevelders! So, all I can say is to make sure you check your ladies, and when in doubt, single mate your birds. When I can finally get an entire small flock not showing or producing the problem, I will close the flock...period.
Debbi, a little something to think about on the pretty Carnation Comb, Say you have a yard full of tainted female and a clean male, you breed these and get yard full of clean comb off spring, Pick out the best male and put over the hens and hatch 100s chicks and most end up with carnation comb because the young male was tainted from the original hens basically giving you a double dose of Carnation. The only way to eliminate this problem after your research is sharpen the Axe.
Yes! You have that right! I should've been more clear there in saying, ONLY using the main roo with no problems. The cockerel offspring will carry the one gene, so if bred back to the carrier mother, you will express carnations in their offspring, as now you have birds with TWO GENES. Even though you may get lucky enough to have one hen in that hypothetical flock, that does not carry the one gene and does not express the comb, the young cockerel will pass on one gene to the young. So to clear ALL the hens, you would have to test mate them all to be sure. Therein lies the problem with this; who has that much money, time, and space??
blech. They're sayin no snow for at least a couple of weeks tho...so I'll take it. Maybe it will cure my temptation to start hatching eggs already haha!
