Silkie Sexing Project 2.0

[Chickeria]

The last weigh in is tomorrow! Still waiting on the DNA results, but they should be in by 6/2 at the latest, so everything is still on schedule!

Awesome!
So exciting

I'm very curious to see how the different measurements compare with the final results.

Me, too

 

[NatJ]

Huh. So this, for example, is a pea comb?

View attachment 2690621View attachment 2690622

(It's the same bird)

Age here is ~ 3 months.

Not arguing I just want to get it straight cause I'm so confused. I didn't realize pea combs could have high serrations like this...though I've only really had two breeds with them (Brahmas and Ameraucanas).

Yes, I think that is a pea comb. It is certainly not a single comb.

But it probably has one copy of the pea comb gene, and one copy of not-pea.

Two copies of the pea comb gene will shrink the comb & wattles (like in Brahma.) But if the chicken gets just one copy of the pea comb gene, there can be quite a variety of large, oddly shaped "pea" combs. But the two side sections, with a higher section in the middle, is certainly typical of pea comb.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Yes, I think that is a pea comb. It is certainly not a single comb.

But it probably has one copy of the pea comb gene, and one copy of not-pea.

Two copies of the pea comb gene will shrink the comb & wattles (like in Brahma.) But if the chicken gets just one copy of the pea comb gene, there can be quite a variety of large, oddly shaped "pea" combs. But the two side sections, with a higher section in the middle, is certainly typical of pea comb.

I wonder if they just don't have a name for it yet? Because I know that there's at least one variation of a single comb called a carnation comb (I'm guessing caused by some random mutation or gene not expressed in other individuals) as I've had it pop up in single combed breeds and on researching how the heck that happens...what I found in general was that it can just randomly appear. If that's wrong though feel free to school me, cause I am always open to new info!

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Just got the e-mail that the DNA analysis results are in! Now to just be patient and wait until after I've completed today's weigh in and put in all the data!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Huh. So this, for example, is a pea comb?

View attachment 2690621View attachment 2690622

(It's the same bird)

Age here is ~ 3 months.

Not arguing I just want to get it straight cause I'm so confused. I didn't realize pea combs could have high serrations like this...though I've only really had two breeds with them (Brahmas and Ameraucanas).

Yeah, looks like a pea comb. Certainly not a “pure” pea comb, though. I’m not sure if silkies have any comb modifiers which could give it that spiky look or if it’s just a pea comb with the recessive single comb gene.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I wonder if they just don't have a name for it yet? Because I know that there's at least one variation of a single comb called a carnation comb (I'm guessing caused by some random mutation or gene not expressed in other individuals) as I've had it pop up in single combed breeds and on researching how the heck that happens...what I found in general was that it can just randomly appear. If that's wrong though feel free to school me, cause I am always open to new info!

A comb that has the gene for pea combs and the gene for single combs is usually called a modified pea comb.

 

[Chickeria]

Just got the e-mail that the DNA analysis results are in! Now to just be patient and wait until after I've completed today's weigh in and put in all the data!

Wow that's a tough one to be patient

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Yeah, looks like a pea comb. Certainly not a “pure” pea comb, though. I’m not sure if silkies have any comb modifiers which could give it that spiky look or if it’s just a pea comb with the recessive single comb gene.

Probably not regular Silkies (but maybe). The guy pictured is a broiler Silkie, so there's no telling what's in his genes. I rehomed that particular bird and most of his brood mates, but I remember there being a few with combs like that. The rest had single or what I assumed were walnut combs at the time, but they may have actually been just regular pea combs.

A comb that has the gene for pea combs and the gene for single combs is usually called a modified pea comb.

I thought that that would just result in a pea comb, since single combs are recessive. Are they actually codominant or something? Or are there other things that cause some expression of the single comb gene? Or should I stop asking you questions and do myself some learning haaaaaa

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Probably not regular Silkies (but maybe). The guy pictured is a broiler Silkie, so there's no telling what's in his genes. I rehomed that particular bird and most of his brood mates, but I remember there being a few with combs like that. The rest had single or what I assumed were walnut combs at the time, but they may have actually been just regular pea combs.




I thought that that would just result in a pea comb, since single combs are recessive. Are they actually codominant or something? Or are there other things that cause some expression of the single comb gene? Or should I stop asking you questions and do myself some learning haaaaaa

Yeah, it would still be a pea comb, but modified pea combs in particular are often larger and “messier”. Basically, a modified pea comb is a pea comb, but if you want to be specific than you can call it modified.

 

[NatJ]

I thought that that would just result in a pea comb, since single combs are recessive. Are they actually codominant or something? Or are there other things that cause some expression of the single comb gene? Or should I stop asking you questions and do myself some learning haaaaaa

I think "incompletely dominant" is the right term.

Someone a long time ago did experiments on chicken combs: single, pea, rose, and walnut (pea + rose). That person decided that rose and pea were dominant over single. There's a set of illustrations that shows up all over the internet explaining it, and they show the heterozygous pea comb, not the smaller homozygous one. So I think the experimenter either did not figure out that pure pea comb is smaller, or did not care.

Here's a typical basic-biology page with the same illustrations I keep seeing:
https://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/genetics_chicken.html
The pea comb is clearly not a tidy little one like Brahmas or Ameraucanas have!

Basically, a modified pea comb is a pea comb, but if you want to be specific than you can call it modified.

Depends on who you are. I call it "heterozygous pea comb" when I want to be specific.