Single comb chick from two rose comb birds? **More questions, page 3**

[HBuehler]

It is quite common in breeds like Wyandotte since one of the biggest Wyandotte breeders-not a hatchery is very upfront in stating they use single comb birds in the breeding pens...and yet people still flock there and pay very high prices for those single comb high quality cull chicks

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
When you say test cross the parents, you mean in future test cross other prospective parents right? Different birds altogether. Not these ones? Cause if these ones have popped out a single comb chick then they MUST both be splits? Split meaning only having one copy of whatever gene, right? Sorry if this sounds like a doofy question, I'm just making totally sure I'm not misunderstanding any of this...

I think they were assuming that you had more than one pair of parents.
If you just have a pair of birds, hen yes, both have to have the gene.

If you have one rooster, but multiple hens, then you know the rooster has the gene, and would test the hens to see if they do.


If both parents are rose combs, but hatched out a single combed chick, then they both have a recessive and the percentages are: one in four will be a single comb, 2 will have the gene for single come but physically look rose combed, and 1 will be pure for rose comb.

Sue

 

[Gypsy07]

All the information so far has been very interesting. And useful. Thank you everyone!

Of course, I still don't know if this chick is actually a Leghorn cross or not! The hen whose eggs I was collecting is the ONLY adult laying hen of this breed that I have, and the only bird in my flock who lays small cream tinted eggs. As it's easy (or so I thought!) to tell her eggs apart from everyone else's, she wasn't segregated from the rest of the flock in any way. I just picked her eggs out of the nesting box each day. But I also have three Leghorn adults and two pullets who haven't (or so I thought!) started laying yet. I'm now thinking there's a reasonable chance that I may have lifted and incubated a very small Leghorn egg by mistake.

In case this all sounds awfully haphazard, this isn't part of a serious breeding programme. Just a very early experiment...

Time will tell I guess. Just have to wait and see how s/he feathers out. That should clear things up...

 

[hoppy]

Quote:
In order to get a single comb out of rose comb parents, both parents have to have the recessive for single combs.

Sue

So... If both parents have the recessive gene for single comb, does this mean that all their offspring that turned out rose combed would still have the recessive gene?

Or would you get like 25% chicks pure for rose comb, 50% with rose comb but with the recessive gene, 25% single combed?
And all the ones with rose comb you'd have to test mate them to find out if they had both copies of the gene or just one?
Or am I way off base with that?

Would single combed offspring still have a rose comb gene or would that have disappeared?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm totally new to this. Very interested to learn more!

(edited for typos)

single combs in your rosecombs are not necessarily a bad thing. in wyandottes they have found that breeding rosecomb to rosecomb results in decreased fertility. that is why they use the single comb to improve fertility.

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
Thank you so much for the further info. I only have one hen and two roosters. I mean, of this breed! I have 26 other hens, I'm not actually keeping two roosters to a single hen!

So IF I do have two parent birds with the recessive gene for single comb, 75% of the offspring would be rose combed but all the chicks that WERE rose combed, only a third of them would be pure. The other two thirds would still have the recessive sigle comb gene. And the only way to sort them out would be test matings. So what would I be test mating them with? And what all possible outcomes would there be?

And what about the chicks from the original parent birds that were single combed.
Would they have a dominant gene for single comb and a recessive one for rose comb?
Or is that totally wrong? I'm still trying to get this sorted out in my head!

Sorry for all the extra questions, but this really is fascinating. And MUCH more complicated than I realised!

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Thank you so much for the further info. I only have one hen and two roosters. I mean, of this breed! I have 26 other hens, I'm not actually keeping two roosters to a single hen!

So IF I do have two parent birds with the recessive gene for single comb, 75% of the offspring would be rose combed but all the chicks that WERE rose combed, only a third of them would be pure. The other two thirds would still have the recessive sigle comb gene. And the only way to sort them out would be test matings. So what would I be test mating them with? And what all possible outcomes would there be?

And what about the chicks from the original parent birds that were single combed.
Would they have a dominant gene for single comb and a recessive one for rose comb?
Or is that totally wrong? I'm still trying to get this sorted out in my head!

Sorry for all the extra questions, but this really is fascinating. And MUCH more complicated than I realised!

No, a single comb bird, has 2 recessives for single comb. They cannot have another dominant gene, or they would not have a single comb then. That is why, you have a rose comb bird that has 1 recessive for single comb, and 1 dominant for rose comb, the dominant gene expresses itself over the recessive gene.
And that is about all I know about genes! LOL

Sue

 

[wclawrence]

Quote:
When you say test cross the parents, you mean in future test cross other prospective parents right? Different birds altogether. Not these ones? Cause if these ones have popped out a single comb chick then they MUST both be splits? Split meaning only having one copy of whatever gene, right? Sorry if this sounds like a doofy question, I'm just making totally sure I'm not misunderstanding any of this...

I think they were assuming that you had more than one pair of parents.
If you just have a pair of birds, hen yes, both have to have the gene.

If you have one rooster, but multiple hens, then you know the rooster has the gene, and would test the hens to see if they do.


If both parents are rose combs, but hatched out a single combed chick, then they both have a recessive and the percentages are: one in four will be a single comb, 2 will have the gene for single come but physically look rose combed, and 1 will be pure for rose comb.

Sue

right

 

[TurtleFeathers]

I asked about these same issues about a year ago - here's the thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=304522

 

[Gypsy07]

Quote:
Thanks for the link. More info for me to puzzle over!

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
In order to get a single comb out of rose comb parents, both parents have to have the recessive for single combs.

Sue

Or would you get like 25% chicks pure for rose comb, 50% with rose comb but with the recessive gene, 25% single combed?
And all the ones with rose comb you'd have to test mate them to find out if they had both copies of the gene or just one?
Or am I way off base with that?

That is correct.



Would single combed offspring still have a rose comb gene or would that have disappeared?

Single combed chickens cannot carry copies of the rose comb gene(RR)