I thought I posted here last night, but I must have hit the wrong key!
A recessive gene is "trumped" by the dominant gene. It can still be there and be passed on, but it will take a back seat to the dominant gene in the phoenotype.
The confusing part about recessives, to me, is that the dominant gene is often "nothing". Non-mottled is dominant to mottled, for example, and non=lavender is dominant to lavender. So if you have a bird with two ldominant lavender genes (Lav/Lav), it will be non-lavender. It takes a while for that to make complete/any sense.
Incomplete dominance is easier. Maybe. Incompletely dominant genes share the role of expression. Blue (Bl) is incompletely dominant. When one Bl gene is present in a black bird, the black is faded a bit. When there are two Bl genes, it's faded a bit more, and we call it splash. If your chicken is a cup of black coffee, and the Bl gene is a glug of cream, you can see it work together. One glug will lighten your coffee, and two glugs will lighten it farther still. Sorry, this is genetics; you can't have more than two glugs!
Please tell me that, at the very least, I haven't made it more confusing!
