tails vs. no tails breed cross - weird quirk of genetics?

[burntumber]

I've crossed a pure Langshan roo with pure Speckled Sussex hens. These were hatchery birds so this is how I know they're pure. Example of the two breeds:

The results of the cross are these bizarre tail variations...

Long tails, medium tails and no tails- and when I say no tail, I mean not even a tuft. These kids are around 7 weeks old, now.

Can someone explain what happened to their tails??? Langshans have very long tails and Speckled Sussex have medium tails. Neither breed is a "no tail" breed.

It doesn't appear to be sex-linked as there seem to be pullets and cockerels of each type. I could be mistaken, though- it just appeared that way when I tried to sex them by their face and then by their tail type- it seemed incongruent.

I'm just really curious about this tail business!!

No Tail:


Medium Tail



Long Tail:
imageshack has decided to have brain farts while I tried to upload this pic, so you'll have to take my word for it- the tails are lllooong and straight.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Do the no tail ones have the tail bone or any sign of it or does it just drop off?

 

[burntumber]

I never thought to feel for a tail bone. Could the tail bone be missing in the no-tails, then? I'll check and let you know.

Why would it be missing?

 

[burntumber]

So I checked and the no-tails have no tail bone structure at all.

 

[Kev]

That's interesting.

Are their legs all completely clean- no feathers?

 

[burntumber]

Quote:
No- in fact, that top chick pic shows some "furry" feet in the top left hand corner. I can see how they got that from the Langshan and the clean legs from the Sussex. (Must been clean legs are the dominant gene as way more of them have clean legs.) That makes sense to me.

But this no-tail thing has me scratching my head.

 

[Kev]

Actually leg feathering is dominant. Most if not all chicks should have some level of leg feathering. I see the feathered legs now that you pointed it out. You should have seen more like that, or slightly less feathering(short fuzz going down the legs but not to the toes is a common look in crosses).

Hatchery stock are notorious for being not exactly pure, either breed-wise or genetics-wise.

Still, the true rumpless is interesting. Especially if you had more than one.. how many chicks did you hatch and how many are true rumpless?

More than one rumpless indicates it's probably a recessive gene going on or one of the parents was a rumpless. The usual rumpless(as in araucanas) is a dominant and a cross with a rumpless gives variously tailed birds- from clean rumpless all the way to normal tails.

 

[burntumber]

"Still, the true rumpless is interesting. Especially if you had more than one.. how many chicks did you hatch and how many are true rumpless?

More than one rumpless indicates it's probably a recessive gene going on or one of the parents was a rumpless. The usual rumpless(as in araucanas) is a dominant and a cross with a rumpless gives variously tailed birds- from clean rumpless all the way to normal tails."

So they're called rumpless. Good to know. Also interesting to know feathered legs are the dominant gene. Thanks for explaining.

I'll see how many are truly rumpless when they come in tonight. They're out foraging for the day- to their delight, as it's been raining non-stop since Friday and they've been cooped up.

 

[burntumber]

So... There are ten chicks and two are rumpless. One has about 1/4 of a rump. I thought it was rumpless, but there's a tiny bump.

 

[seriousbill]

This could be a form of "roachback" rumplessness.

Here's a link on the forms of rumplessness that might help:

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Rumplessness.html