What genetics will the rooster determine?

[Reuven Beulah]

I am going to start a breeding program with my heritage chickens to improve their production and overall health. I will be choosing the best rooster based on foraging ability, overall health, vigor, size, but most important weight and above average maturing time. Whereas with the hens, I will be looking for high egg production, laying well in the winter, foraging, active, hard worker.

So, I was wondering if I breed these genetics, will I have chicks that will have both qualities, especially because I am using the heritage breeds for meat (if it's a rooster) and eggs (if it's a hen).

Also, I have read somewhere that fast maturing hens, meaning hens that start laying earlier than 5 months is not so healthy. Is that true? Will I get that genetics in the hens because of the choice of rooster?

Thanks in advance,
Reuven.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I know the rooster determines egg color.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Hen determines the sex

 

[Reuven Beulah]

Yes, but we know that it's usually 50/50 in the case of sex.

 

[The Moonshiner]

I know the rooster determines egg color.

Roosters do not determine egg color.
Egg color is determined by the genes received from both parents.
It all depends what genes they receive and which are dominate.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Roosters do not determine egg color.
Egg color is determined by the genes received from both parents.
It all depends what genes they receive and which are dominate.

Thank you for the info.

 

[Fairview01]

Wow. This is just simple high school biology.

The rooster contributes 50% of the genes to its offspring and therefore will have a 50% influence weather it is observable or not. If one of his daughters is bred back then the rooster's influence is a 75/25 split however genetics is something like half life of uranium. An understanding of phenotype and genotype is the first step.

If you are serious about a breeding program I would suggest you look into a spiral breeding program. Using just one rooster is very inefficient. with a spiral breeding program a closed breeding plan is possible for decades before there will be a need for infusion of new blood to overcome inbreeding suppression.

 

[luvmigirls]

unFairview is unnice, below is a link to help with beginning terms and concepts.

http://articles.extension.org/pages...or-small-and-backyard-flocks:-an-introduction

Because chromosomes come in pairs, genes also come in pairs. Each parent contributes one gene in each pair of genes. The phenotype for a specific trait in a chicken depends on the makeup of the gene pair for that trait. If the genes are the same, the genetic state is referred to as homozygous. If the genes are different, the genetic state is referred to as heterozygous. A gene that can express itself in the homozygous state or the heterozygous state is referred to as a dominant factor. A gene that can express itself only in the homozygous state is referred to as a recessive factor. When dealing with a trait for which there is a dominant gene and a recessive gene, three conditions (combinations of the genes in the gene pair) can occur. The homozygous dominant condition occurs when both genes present are the dominant gene. The homozygous recessive condition occurs when both genes present are the recessive gene. The heterozygous condition occurs when one gene present is the dominant gene and the other is the recessive gene. (The two variant forms of the gene in such a gene pair are called alleles.)

Typically, in the heterozygous condition, the dominant gene is expressed over the recessive gene. In some gene pairs, however, each gene is capable of some degree of expression in the heterozygous condition. This phenomenon is referred to as codominance. The contribution from each gene in the pair can be equal, or the contribution can be dominated more by one gene than the other.

To confuse things further, not every trait is controlled by a single pair of genes. A particular trait can be controlled by numerous gene pairs. Such traits are called quantitative traits. Brown shell color in eggs, for example, is controlled by as many as 13 genes. The result is the range of brown color observed in eggs laid by different breeds of chickens.

 

[luvmigirls]

http://kippenjungle.nl/sellers/page1.html#t2
has a great introduction to genetics

"DNA, genes and chromosomes:

I am intentionally avoiding jargon. However, there are a few basic terms that are necessary.

A gene is a piece of DNA that carries information about a specific trait.

A chromosome is a string of genes connected together (although most of the chromosome is DNA that has no known function or no genetic activity).

An allele is a gene that is a member of a set of genes that all belong to the same locus, or location, on a chromosome. These genes are often thought of as being related to each other through mutations (one allele could be a mutation of another allele) or they could be mutations of an ancestor gene.

Chickens, like people, usually have two of every chromosome. The chromosomes in a chromosome pair are not identical, since one comes from each parent. A gene is said to be dominant when only one gene (rather than two) is sufficient for the expression of that trait to which the gene corresponds. Some genes are referred to as incompletely dominant. The expression of these genes is inhibited by (usually unknown) modifying genes. When the inhibiting, modifying genes are not present, the incompletely dominant gene expresses. This interaction with modifying genes is responsible for the seemingly random nature of the expression of incompletely dominant genes.

The sex chromosomes are unique in that there are two types, a long sex chromosome, the Z chromosome, and a short sex chromosome, the W chromosome. The female has one long and one short sex chromosome, she has ZW sex chromosomes. The male has two long sex chromosomes, he has ZZ sex chromosomes. For this reason, the female has only one copy of some genes that are on the long, Z, sex chromosome.

The genes that are not on the sex chromosomes are called ‘autosomal’ or autosomes. Both male and female chickens have two of these genes. Chickens have 39 pairs of chromosomes (78 individual chromosomes). Most of them are tiny and referred to as ‘dot’ or micro chromosomes.

An important point is that, when we talk about adding or removing a gene, say frizzle, F, we don’t intend that the chromosome is lengthened or shortened by the addition or deletion of that gene. Rather the frizzle gene, F, replaces the gene of the wild-type jungle fowl, f+, when it is added, or, it is itself replaced by the wild-type jungle fowl gene, f+, when frizzle is removed. I used the frizzle gene as an example here, but the statement applies to all genes.


Generation notation:

The original members of a mating are referred to as the parental (P) generation. The first generation of progeny from the parental cross is referred to as the first filial generation, F1. The progeny of a cross in which one or both of the parents are from the F1 generation is an F2 generation (F1 x F1 = F2) and so on.



Homo / hetero / hemi – zygous…genotype and phenotype

For the interested reader who might like to know the meaning of these terms, I have included this brief description. A bird that has one gene, rather than two, for a specific trait is said to be heterozygous for that trait. A bird that has two genes for a given trait is homozygous for that trait. The genotype is the actual set of genes. The phenotype is the appearance or visual characteristics…what you can see. For example, a bird that is heterozygous (has one gene instead of two) for a given dominant trait may look the same as, or similar to, one that is homozygous (has two genes) for that trait. They both have the same appearance or phenotype. Because the female fowl have differing sex chromosomes, the long one, Z, and the short one, W, the Z chromosome has gene locations that the W chromosome does not (see above). Sometimes when referring to these genes that have no counterpart on the W chromosome, the female is said to be hemizygous. Since the female can have only one copy of these genes, there is an apparent overlap in the meanings of 'heterozygous' and 'hemizygous'.

How to predict the outcomes of breeding events for non-sex-linked and sex-linked traits

Non sex-linked traits:

Both parents have two genes for a given trait. Let’s consider the gene for frizzle plumage, F, and agree that we will represent the lack of the frizzle gene with f+. The superscript ‘+’ indicates that the gene is present in the wild-type fowl which, with respect to chickens, is the red jungle fowl. Here, I apply the jargon immediately above, but will minimize the use of it from now on. A bird is said to be heterozygous for frizzle if her genotype is (F, f+) and homozygous if her genotype is (F, F). Since frizzle is dominant, both genotypes will have the same (or similar) appearance or phenotypes. (In this particular case, frizzle shows a 'dose effect' and the frizzle homozygote has brittle feathers that usually break off so the homozygotes can be almost bare. There is a common recessive modifying factor, mf, that reduces the influence of the frizzle gene.)

To determine the genetics of the offspring, one takes the four possible combinations of the genes of one parent with the genes of the other parent. For example, let’s consider a cross between a bird that has two frizzle genes, homozygous for frizzle, (F, F) and one that is without frizzle, (f+, f+). It helps with the bookkeeping for our purposes here if we (artificially) number the genes: (F1, F2) and (f+1, f+2) so that F1 is the first frizzle gene of the first parent, F2 is the second frizzle gene of the first parent and so on. The four possible pairs that can be made by combining these genes are: (F1, f+1), (F1, f+2), (F2, f+1) and (F2, f+2). Since frizzle is a dominant trait, these four gene combinations will result in chickens with frizzle plumage (they will all have the same or similar phenotypes). In practice one would not number the genes as I have done in this paragraph. I numbered them to distinguish the four combinations, since they are all genetically the same. One would normally write: (F, F) crossed with (f+, f+) gives (F, f+) times 4.

So, in order to get the four combinations of the genes of the two parents, just take the first gene of the first pair with each gene of the second pair, then do the same thing with the second gene of the first pair. The figure below illustrates how to get the combinations of genes of one parent, (A, B), and the genes of another parent, (C, D). The four possible combinations are (A, C), (A, D), (B, C) and (B, D).

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[lazy gardener]

One wise BYC member stated it this way: Eat the roosters you don't want to eat. (the small ones) Don't eat the roosters you want to eat. (the big ones) I'd add to that: use your best roo as a breeder: "Best" for me, may not be "best" for you. I had 2 lovely BE cockerels. One had a nice pea comb, but his feather color was off. The second one had a looser pea comb, but his feather color was more uniform. He was also bigger. I chose cockerel #2. Temperament is also a critical factor.

For hens: I choose the best eggs. Simply by doing that, and nothing else, it's theoretical that one could end up improving egg quality from one generation to the next. I also look for a hen who has a nice wide pelvis, small comb, good disposition, is a good layer, completes molt quickly then gets back to the business of laying eggs again. Broody hens get bonus points. I would choose colored eggs to hatch, in the hopes of breeding the blue egg gene forward in my barn yard mix flock.

Choosing a replacement roo: try to pick the best son from your best hen.