The "Ask Anything" to Nicalandia Thread

[NatJ]

Question.

Should I breed the Black hen to a solid rooster, or Barred? Was thinking about breeding her to a solid rooster, but not sure it'll show anything.

If you think she's got a weird allele of the barring gene,
and if her father looked like he had normal barring,
then whatever she's got would be recessive to barring.
So breed her to a solid rooster, to see if whatever-it-is shows up in her sons.

Whether it's related to barring or not, you could also breed her to her father, breed her parents to each other, and breed each of her parents to a different mate, to try to see what is going on. All of that could take a while, and you will probably get a confusing mix of results unless you really know the genetics of the ones you're breeding them to (and maybe even then!)

Or you could just shrug it off, decide it's weird, and go on to investigate other things instead of trying to follow up on this. I know you tend to have a lot of projects going, and I don't know how much time & effort this one is worth to you.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I don’t know, I’ve seen a few black chickens that looked more gray than black (I think @Rhodebar Lover has some brahmas like that) and lots of black chickens have some random white feathers, I had a hen with them. However, I don’t know the cause of it.

Well, she was solid black, except for a couple wing feathers originally. The majority of her fluff/down is white, topped with bluish feathers, & shiny black, or solid white feathers now.

 

[kurby22]

@NatJ and @nicalandia is this an actual color pattern or just messy Easter Egger leakage? Her hackles are a faded dusty light blue gray. I was thinking it looked sort of Splash Wheaten? She’s so pretty! Thanks!

 

[MysteryChicken]

If you think she's got a weird allele of the barring gene,
and if her father looked like he had normal barring,
then whatever she's got would be recessive to barring.
So breed her to a solid rooster, to see if whatever-it-is shows up in her sons.

Whether it's related to barring or not, you could also breed her to her father, breed her parents to each other, and breed each of her parents to a different mate, to try to see what is going on. All of that could take a while, and you will probably get a confusing mix of results unless you really know the genetics of the ones you're breeding them to (and maybe even then!)

Or you could just shrug it off, decide it's weird, and go on to investigate other things instead of trying to follow up on this. I know you tend to have a lot of projects going, and I don't know how much time & effort this one is worth to you.

I'll breed both ways.

The father is Dino, from my original Wheaten Crele Orpington project from 2018, so I know what he has going on.

The Mother I've only bred once, got a son, & daughter, only kept the daughter due to having too many males that year. So, I haven't dug into her genetics that far, other than she's Cuckoo.


I should be able to squeeze it in next year. I'll hatch 4 eggs from each hen.

 

[NatJ]

@NatJ is this an actual color pattern or just messy Easter Egger leakage? Her hackles are a faded dusty light blue gray. I was thinking it looked sort of Splash Wheaten? She’s so pretty! Thanks!

I don't think it's right for anything-Wheaten, but I'm not actually very good at recognizing some patterns, so I could easily be wrong. You might want to tag nicalandia instead.

 

[kurby22]

I don't think it's right for anything-Wheaten, but I'm not actually very good at recognizing some patterns, so I could easily be wrong. You might want to tag nicalandia instead.

Done! Thanks!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I'll share the experiment results next year.

In the meantime I have this Silkie cockerel that has an odd silvery blueish leakage in his tail, which I'll get pictures of tomorrow. I was originally going to butcher him, but now I'm thinking about keeping him back as a replacement for another.

 

[NatJ]

Done! Thanks!

I think I've seen people complaining that the person doesn't get an alert if the tag is put in by editing after the post is initially made. Just to be sure, I'll tag @nicalandia here too.

Here's a quote from the post with the question, which should function as a link to go back and see it:

@NatJ and @nicalandia is this an actual color pattern or just messy Easter Egger leakage? Her hackles are a faded dusty light blue gray. I was thinking it looked sort of Splash Wheaten? She’s so pretty! Thanks!

 

[kurby22]

I think I've seen people complaining that the person doesn't get an alert if the tag is put in by editing after the post is initially made. Just to be sure, I'll tag @nicalandia here too.

Here's a quote from the post with the question, which should function as a link to go back and see it:

Thank you!!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Question. @nicalandia

How do I mellow out the Gamey Attitude of my Project Giant Silkies? My rooster Floof keeps pummeling my Sumatra rooster, who I may have to end up removing(Rehome, or Eat), to stop this. The Sumatra fights back, but loses, & keeps getting walloped by Floof.

The hens the project produced are also pretty feisty.

Should I breed in a certain breed too control this, or leave as be?