Silver - dominant or recessive?

[Love2read]

ROFL! Sounds about right for genetics in general. I really thought nothing could possibly be more complicated than mouse genetics though. I guess I was wrong. ><

 

[Kev]

white JG are supposed to be recessive white, as far as I know.

Your cream chicks with black spots are JG crossed with production reds.

The gene that makes JG black is basically dominant. Your white JG are genetically black chickens, except they have the recessive white 'blocking' the feathers from having any color.

Dominant white works on black pigments but not so much on red/gold pigments. This is why your production reds are red with white on tails and necks, this is dominant white.

So what you essentially did was cross a black chicken(white JG) with birds that have dominant white. This will throw black chicks.. except the dominant white from the reds turned the black down to white with some spots... which btw is a very classic look of dominant white crossed with other color chickens. However, the PR are not pure for the dominant white gene, so half of their chicks will come out black. They will end up looking similar to black sex links which is essentially the same kind of color cross of a RIR crossed over a black chicken(BR but they are a solid black chicken with barring added for ease of sex linking at hatch) So the light colored with spots and the black chicks are PR crosses.

Silver is a sex linked dominant gene. All it does is suppress the red/gold pigments. For example, the only difference between a light and buff brahma is the former has Silver. That's it, every other genetics are the same between them.

Gold is the gene that lets the red/gold pigments show up. To use the brahma example, the buffs are Gold, the lights are Silver.

Same with Red duckwing vs Silver duckwing.

ALL chickens are either Gold or Silver. The only rare exception are a sex linked albino, which nobody has so this can be ignored as it is an extreme exception.

You cannot tell by looking if a solid white or solid white chicken is gold or silver. They have the gene but it is masked.

Only the pure white with blue legs have the chance of being pure JG. Any other color, including blacks, spotties etc are crosses. Recessive white chicks can hatch white, cream, silvery, smoky. A few recessive white lines can throw chicks so dark they look black though.

 

[Kev]

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.

No, dominance is between alleles. Silver and gold are alleles. Black, whites are NOT alleles with silver.

the issue is solid black or white masks silver or gold the same way recessive white masks whatever pattern or color the bird has.

A solid black or white chicken can be Gold or Silver. You just can't see it.

 

[Kev]

Great resources for chicken genetics. It can be a lot to take in but with time and some hands on it gets easier.

http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm

http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,

Also this author has a couple of wonderful books on color genetics and the genetics of the extremities. http://www.chickencolours.com I have the color genetics book and it is well worth the price Just wonderful! The 2nd half of the book is a pictorial atlas of different chicken colours with each picture captioned by the genetic formula for that color. I look forward to buying the genetics of extremities book which deals with the other parts of the chicken than the plumage. You can find Jerry, who is handing USA distribution here:
http://www.seramacouncilofnorthamerica.com/breeder-directory.html
Best Regards,
Karen