Silver - dominant or recessive?

[Love2read]

Is the silver gene dominant or recessive?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Silver is dominant over gold. Other things, like black, are dominant over silver. So it depends on what you are comparing Silver to.

 

[Love2read]

Is the gene itself dominant or recessive (or co-dominant)? Meaning, do you only need one copy of the gene (dominant) to produce more Silver or do you need two copies of the gene (recessive)?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Silver is dominant over gold. That is also a sex linked gene. The rooster has two copies of a gene at that location but a hen has only one. For the female there is no dominance or recessive, it’s whichever gene shows up.

For the male, silver is dominant over gold. If the rooster has two copies of gold, he will show gold provided other genetics don’t interfere. If the rooster has one silver and one gold or two silvers, he will show silver. There is no co-dominance with this gene. Silver is dominant over gold.

 

[ArrowWoodGreen]

Ridgerunner, I really appreciate your depth of knowledge. Would you please tell me the best resource to learn more about genetics and breeding. I'd like to get started on that road but having difficulty finding information about breeding. I'm not wording my searches correctly because the returns are usually about breeds of chickens, not about breeding. Many thanks!

 

[junebuggena]

Chicken genetics are very confusing. There are color genetics, then there are pattern genetics, and then there are inhibitor/dilute genes. Some breeds have dominant white genes, other breeds only have recessive white genes. There are lots of good threads on this site about genetics in general and for individual breeds.
Silver is dominant over gold/red based colors only. Black is dominant over silver. Dominant white is also dominant over silver. Silver is dominant over recessive white.

 

[Love2read]

Oy...I breed mice and rats and thought THOSE genes were hard to figure out! ><

I have no idea what the Gold color is, lol. Never heard of it. So now I'm even MORE confuse, ha ha.

I asked because I have a White Jersey Giant roo and my hens are both White Jersey Giant and Production Reds. I hatched out some eggs and got a variety of babies. I assumed that all of the Silver ones would be pure Giants, but wanted to make sure. It turns out that my Giants are Dominant White based, which is odd, because I read that they're supposed to be Recessive White. I got them from Cackle Hatchery, so they are pure bred and not BYB mutts.

I figured out they're Dominant White because I got some white chicks with black spots from the Giant/Red cross eggs (the Giant girls weren't laying yet, so I know those chicks were definitely from my Red girls).

Anyways, I want to focus on pure Giants, so I wanted to make sure my Silver chicks are ACTUALLY Giants and not mutts. Is this a correct assumption?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chicken genetics are a mess. It seems that every time I think I’ve learned something someone comes up with an exception. How one gene affects colors can totally change by what else is there. You generally cannot tell by looking what is there though there are exceptions to that. When you see a black chicken you assume it is based on Extended Black but it could be Birchen with Melanizers.

There are several genes that can give you white on the feathers. Barred or mottled can give white places on individual feathers that also have other colors. I’m sure there are others. Silver can give you solid white feathers but that is only on the ground color. Pattern feathers (on the tail, hackle, and wings) can be different colors, often but not always black. Silver and gold are the two choices for the gene at that specific gene pair. Silver gives white base color, gold gives red base color. But there are a lot of genes that can override either gold or silver.

There are only two ways to make an all-white chicken that I’m aware of, either Dominant White or Recessive White. If Recessive White pairs up then that pretty much overrides everything else and turns the chicken totally white. If Recessive White does not pair up it pretty much has no effect. Dominant White will turn feathers that would have been black otherwise to white. You can still have other colors on a chicken based on dominant white, usually red.

Your White Jersey Giants are either Recessive White based or Dominant White based. They may or may not have Silver or gold. Silver is not necessary in an all-white chicken. For an all-white chicken you are not looking at silver. You are looking at either Recessive or Dominant White.

What I think is happening is that your Giants are Dominant White based on Extended Black. Your Production Reds have Gold and something other than Extended Black or Birchen. So the offspring of the Giant rooster and production red hens should be split for Extended Black/? And should be split for Dominant White. In theory that will give you all white chicks but in crosses where genes are split you often get leakage. Leakage is where some color that should not be there is coming through in random feathers. From what I’ve seen males are more prone to leakage than females but any of the crosses can leak.

I think you are safe to assume that any chicks with leakage are not really pure Giants (though someone can come up with an exception) but not really safe to assume that if you don’t see any leakage, especially in females, that they are pure Giants. They probably are pure but not 100% sure.

 

[Love2read]

I think I'm starting to understand it a bit better now. The explanation helps a lot, thanks!

For confirmation, here are some pics of chicks I've gotten...

These just hatched 2 days ago, most of the eggs were from Reds, but a few were from Giants:

Upclose of a couple of the spotted chicks:

A spotted chick from an older hatch:

(Her spots are big enough to see there is no barring.)


Another hatch...this one was mostly Giant eggs, but some were Red too:

I kept most of the Silver babies from that last batch in hopes of them being pure Giants. Although, I won't deny that I'm kinda tempted to keep some spotted ones too...they're so cute, lol. I did keep that older one because she was the only hatchling from a failed batch. She's attached to me and follows me everywhere. Likes to roost on my shoulder too, ha ha. So I made an exception.

 

[MysteriaSdrassa]

ridgerunner is right,,chicken genetics is,,,,,

and a little of

and then a lot of

and ocasionally

when it does come out right