Are there any resources out there that explain color genetics in chickens? I have looked, but not really found much for chickens as a whole, only particular breeds (and not a lot at that.) I'm mostly interested in Silkies, Cochins, and Wyandottes. I do get the blue/black/splash thing....but what about the other colors? What happens if you were to mix a GL with a SL? What about a Buff with a Partridge? (Breeders of show birds might be cringing at the very thought right now, haha, sorry!) But I honestly don't know what would happen....and am very curious!
I'm still learning (obviously) so sorry if there is an obvious resource out there and I've missed it! I promise I've looked!
Have you looked at the chicken calculator? http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
There are TONS of links in it with educational material and you can play around with all sorts of combinations. There's also a book, look here: http://www.chickencolours.com/ I don't have this book yet, but I've heard good things about it.
I totally don't get the chicken calculator! Haha!!
I understand about chomosomes, alelles, etc. But since I'm not familiar with chickens, so far it's like looking at Greek. Thus far I have determined that chickens are much more involved than horses! Although they are similar in thier base colors....everything is either red or black with a whole slew of modifiers......more for chickens than horses, that's for sure! And black is the dominant color for the most part.
I got into the whole color thing for horses when I first got my Mustang. He had some unique (I thought at the time anyway) markings and I thought he was a special color. I was told he wasn't and I set out to prove them wrong. Long story short, they were right and I learned a lot! Hahaha! He's a claybank bay (black and agouti) with countershading, not a dark dun.
Anyway, I think I might try to stick with the genetics of the breeds I am interested in since it appears to be more complicated than what I'm used to. What I basically want is a flock full of colorful layers (LF Wyandottes) but I wouldn't mind having a nice roo and hatch some eggs from time to time. But I didn't want to mess the colors up, and I wasn't sure if GL could only be bred to GL to make GL or if a GL could be crossed with a SL and it would just make more SL and whatnot. Or maybe a BLR and a GL, etc! I'm not currently set up to house pairs or trios (yet anyway) but I don't think I would mind that either. That's all in the future anyway, if I am going to do it with the Wyandottes, I want to do it right!
Currently I'm playing with bantam silkies and frizzle cochins (when they get here and get old enough) but that's mainly for the experience. Silkies seem to be what everyone around here wants, so I figured it would be a great starter bird for myself to learn on. I got a color assortment of both, and they will be housed together, so I'm still trying to figure out which breed/ color roo I want to keep.
Then, once you are at least familiar with some of the gene names, you can start playing with the calculator. If you start with a variety, change the alleles of a gene and see what happens, then try on another and another. I found that watching what occurs as an allele is changed gives me a better understanding of how a particular gene affects the phenotype.
http://chickengenetics.edelras.nl is a fantastic site, but starting there is a bit like jumping into the deep end of a pool before you know how to swim.
