The "Ask Anything" to Nicalandia Thread

[nicalandia]

I can do AI, I did some practicing last year.

Then, yes. You can test that.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Then, yes. You can test that.

Okay.

 

[Tankueray]

What causes these upright feathers? They've gotten more and more upright as he's aged and lost his comb. They're always up, he doesn't flare his hackles anymore with his age and their size

Is it just because he's got the genes for long feathers?

Lol. One of my Spitzhauben lines has this pop up occasionally, it always cracks me up when my one rooster stares down at me. I just can't get mad at him for whatever annoying thing he just did.

@3KillerBs I agree with Jacin, my Spitzes handle 120 degree Texas summers better than any heavy breed I've seen. I have a few roosters with huge waddles and they did get a little frostbitten when we had a freak winter storm come through a couple months ago. ...Because they're not fond of cooping. My bachelors roost in the tallest tree in the yard and even on the electric line. They're good at avoiding predators, but the silvers (being white) tend to get picked off more than the chamois (2nd most predated) or gold. Oh, and on the frostbite, I have an Ayam Ketawa and a few mixed breeds with large combs or waddles, the frostbite on the Spitzhaubens is resolved, but the other breeds haven't resolved yet. I think that storm was in November? About 15 roosters stayed outside in the tree for 2-3 days in freezing wind, there was no herding them into a coop. Most of them learned their lesson though, when I woke up this morning, I had seven roosters on my back porch as the sleet was starting. I can't wait until summer when they realize the porch is air conditioned.

 

[Tankueray]

@nicalandia
I have Spitzhaubens - the normal silver, gold, and chamois; two blue gene sublines; and white.

But I've got a question I've never found a good answer for regarding the yellowing of the feathers due to the sun (generally most pronounced on rooster feathers).

Observations:

• My white (actually Silver and probably splash spangle - no chance of dominant white) Spitz roosters do not yellow.
• I have traditional Silver roosters that yellow and some that don't (same family line, no Ap (autosomal red) that I've ever observed). <--so not necessarily z-linked unless homozygous recessive...or polygenic? -->
• I have (recessive) white Ameraucana hens that do not yellow (have never had any white males), and I always noticed that my lavender Ameraucana roosters would go clear/yellow around the edges of their male feathers. I hatched their offspring due to a predator taking out the lav males, got all females strangely, and the white females have also crossbred with the silver spitzhaubens, no offspring (F1, F2) has ever presented with any pheomelanin. (There are 2 F2 roosters that are pure white with crests, muffs, and beards, and black tail feathers - very cool looking. Also no yellowing.) <--so presence/absence of Ap can't be the whole story, but maybe combined with a weak eumelanin inhibitor?-->
• My female spitzhaubens of any color don't yellow*, but they also stay under shade in pens, they can sunbathe, but they don't get near as much sun as the roosters. <--probably not relevant-->
• My chamois spitz roosters (dominant white) don't yellow, but I wouldn't really expect them to where their white is anyway. <--probably not relevant other than known gold and potential Ap.-->
• In my gold/chamois (ss) males, especially with autosomal red, the Ap is more pronounced in the same areas where the yellowing tends to occur in my silver (SS) birds - saddle and hackle. <--and we know this to be an effect of Ap.-->
• Again, like the lavender Ameraucanas, the SS birds with yellowing looks as though it's a faint lacing pattern on those pointed feathers. My ss roosters with Ap are just uniform on those same feathers, no "lacing". (I don't have any Ss birds that aren't purely from the white/lav Ameraucana or Spitzhauben lines, so they're not considered.)
• No one has any significant differences in their shoulder feathers. <--another known target of Ap-->
• I don't consider any of my ss birds' coloration to be rich enough to be mahogany, so I assume it's not present in my flock.

Do you know what's at play here? Some recessive Z linked gene, Pg, and Ml in combination with a eumelanin inhibitor? Or, is the delivery of pigmentation to the male feathers more independent and related to protein/amino acid regulation? Or, there's a sex-linked, recessive, UV inhibitor-deletion gene yet to be discovered? (<-- trying to work out how that would work, my best stab at wording it.) Or, some z-link related to the absence of Ap, in the presence of pure silver (SS) and a strong eumelanin inhibitor or restrictor = sunscreen?

Like I said, the only answers I've ever found on this are generally plagiarized from each other and make no sense in their supposed genetic explanation of the issue...or blame it on corn.

*Unless S- with a "gold dusting", they literally look like Ss. I found the reason that happens, but I don't remember it right now. I don't think it was autosomal red, but it was something the silver male wasn't pure for, iirc.

And just as a side note relating back to the bushy eyebrows/long feather rooster. I have hens that I know for certain have no polish in them, and most casual observers would insist I'm lying, but the difference I see versus known polish blood hens is that they tend to be so bushy that you can't see the hens eyes easily. Now that I realize this could be the action of a single gene, I'm going to have to keep better notes. What gene is long feather or where can I find more info on it? (I have the Hutt, Reeder, and Van Dort books, and a few others if it's in one of them.)

I'll try to get some new pictures in my album when it's not freezing rain outside.

 

[nicalandia]

@nicalandia
Do you know what's at play here?

It's genetic, but rarely if ever studied so pin point what is causing it.

 

[Tankueray]

It's genetic, but rarely if ever studied so pin point what is causing it.

Well, I guess I get to figure it out and make the first UV resistant chicken then.

I did go outside and take a bunch of pictures. I have 4-5 chamois hens with the bushy eyebrows and one silver rooster so far. There are a few hybrids too, and one totally has a mustache.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Question about my sister's Gold Sebright Hen.
Is this just a flaw in color, or something else? Just looking for confirmation. Had her since 2018. Got white on her this year.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

@nicalandia Wondering if you perhaps have any book recommendations for chicken genetics? I got Genetics of the Fowl by F. B. Hutt last year and had a blast reading and re-reading it to fully absorb the information, and I still reference it when I see something that I know I read about in there. Now I'm wondering if there is anything more recent (as Genetics of the Fowl was published in 1949 and there do seem to be gaps in the information within that I've come across answers to here) to keep on hand and reference. I've found a few that seem solid, but of course they're all quite expensive so I have to limit my choices and want to make sure what I get is really good.

 

[nicalandia]

@nicalandia Wondering if you perhaps have any book recommendations for chicken genetics? I got Genetics of the Fowl by F. B. Hutt last year and had a blast reading and re-reading it to fully absorb the information, and I still reference it when I see something that I know I read about in there.

Poultry breeding and genetics by R. D. Crawford, 1990.

Mr. Henk was kind enough to share his scanned copy with me and I have share it with a few. If you are interested just P.M me.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Would Saipans be a good breed to cross into my Malays? They look really close in shape, so I was wondering.