Mutt possibilities?

[MomMommyMamma]

Just for fun...

I've been looking at my flock and having a lot of fun trying to figure out what chicks from various rooster/hen combos would look like. I'm currently considering putting my Columbian Wyandotte rooster in with his hen and also a black Jersey Giant. Would I get dalmatian looking chickens? In looking at these chickens of mine, I'm thinking that I would get relatively large chickens that would probably be black & white splashes. Does the rooster carry dominate genes always? Where can I look to see what traits are dominate in different breeds?

 

[RAREROO]

No the rooster doesnt always carry the dominant genes and no you wont get dalmation looking birds from crossing columbian and black, you would get mostly black chicks with maybe some silver leakage.

 

[Illia]

^ Exactly what RAREROO said

If you want true dalmation-type chickens, go for either Splash birds, like this splash Araucana -

Or the more uniform Spangled birds, like this Hamburg ( Not my bird! )

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Quote:
I'm not really looking for spotted/mottled chickens. I'm more interested in understanding the traits and what is dominate. I'm surprised that from a rooster that is, say, 85% white with black accents plus a solid black hen, I would likely get black chicks with silver leakage. I'm not sure what "leakage" means in chicken feather terms. More info is appreciated.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

Quote:
How do you get splash birds (in terms of breeding, not where do you buy them

). Love the Hamburgs!

 

[Illia]

Quote:
You can only get splash if you have blue birds around. If you have hatchery stock, which I'm assuming you do, hatcheries have very few breeds they offer in blue coloring. Usually they only sell Blue Andalusians, Blue Silkies (I think?) and Blue Cochins (again, not 100% sure)

Otherwise you're going to have to buy, because you cannot create it.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
I'm not really looking for spotted/mottled chickens. I'm more interested in understanding the traits and what is dominate. I'm surprised that from a rooster that is, say, 85% white with black accents plus a solid black hen, I would likely get black chicks with silver leakage. I'm not sure what "leakage" means in chicken feather terms. More info is appreciated.

Thats just how it is genetically speaking, its not like you just cross black with white and get black and white colored birds. The "White" color in the Columbian Wyandottes genetically isnt even White, its called Sexlinked Silver. There are three genes that can color a bird white: Sexlinked Silver, Dominant White, and Recessive White.

So say you cross a Columbian Wyandotte with a black bird, Black in general takes dominance over most any pattern so pretty much any patterned bird crossed with black is going to give predominantly black offspring with varying amounts of leakage. ( Leakage is either Silver or Gold coming through in streaks in certain areas of the black birds body. Usually in the pyle areas.

So now say you have a dominant white bird like a White Leghorn and cross it with a black bird, this is going to give you something similar to a damation color as the bird will be mostly white with random black dots all over. Look up California Whites to see what I mean. They have this color and are a cross of California Grey roosters on White Leghorn hens.

And then now say we have another solid white bird like a White Rock, Giant, Java, Cochin ect. In a recessive white bird, another color is being masked under the white, its usually black. So with white Giants who would be masking black, breeding a white Giant to a Black Giant will give all solid Black Giants but each of them will be carrying one copy of Recessive White ( This is called Split White), so breeding them together will give about 25% White Giants, 50% Split Whites, and 25% Blacks that didnt get the gene at all but you wouldnt be able to tell the spilts from the pure blacks) Crossing the Splits back to a White will give half Splits and Half Whites.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
How do you get splash birds (in terms of breeding, not where do you buy them

). Love the Hamburgs!

Splash only combs from breeding
Blue to Blue (gives 25% Splash)
Blue to Splash ( gives 50% Splash)
Splash to Splash ( gives 100% Splash)

You can not just "recreate" Blue or Splash, you have to breed in a bird that has the Andalusian Blue gene. A Blue bird has one copy, as Splash bird has two copies.

 

[MomMommyMamma]

VERY interesting! Where are you learning all of this?

I have no hatchery birds. They are all from private breeders. Also have no blue birds. I had one blue Ameraucana but she died. I am hoping to get some hatching eggs for them in the spring. The closest I have right now are BBS Orpingtons.

 

[Chickanmanfromarkansas]

If you are interested in Splash, Cackle Hatchery offers Splash Cochins and Splash Polish. Also, I think they have Splash Old English Game.