What if chickens could reproduce without mating?

[micstrachan]

For a while, I volunteered for a wildlife rehab facility where all I did was care for birds. And it's that adoration of avians that led me to own chickens.

Good for you on choosing such a rewarding career! Mine is rewarding, too, but there are no birds in my high school classroom. Wild animals, yes, but no birds - lol!

Good to know I'm not alone in my nerd-dom!

Raises hand and waves it violently… I’m a nerd, too! Was formerly a biologist. And Carol, I did not know you went to UC Santa Cruz! You were a slug! I went to UC Berkeley. I love the UC system, but it’s super hard to get into now.

 

[NatJ]

just look a some Aseel Strains now, they are just Dinosaurs.

They seem to have really short beaks. Does that cause them any problems? (Hatching, eating, preening, etc.)

 

[nicalandia]

They seem to have really short beaks. Does that cause them any problems? (Hatching, eating, preening, etc.)

None

 

[nicalandia]

I also raise Dinosour like Aseels..

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

@nicalandia , i read the article you linked "Parthengenis in Birds: a Review". Fascinating! Thank you for posting. Well worth a read for anyone who wants to understand more about "virgin birth" in birds, including chickens. I didnt know parthegenisis was even known in birds, but turns out there have been studies and documentation going back decades. The "review" is long, but well-written and easy to read.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Raises hand and waves it violently… I’m a nerd, too! Was formerly a biologist. And Carol, I did not know you went to UC Santa Cruz! You were a slug! I went to UC Berkeley. I love the UC system, but it’s super hard to get into now.

Shoot. I'm not even a GOOD nerd by comparison. I didn't go to a cool college, and I don't have a science degree. Just literature, linguistics, and education degrees.

 

[micstrachan]

Shoot. I'm not even a GOOD nerd by comparison. I didn't go to a cool college, and I don't have a science degree. Just literature, linguistics, and education degrees.

You are a wonderful nerd.

@nicalandia , i read the article you linked "Parthengenis in Birds: a Review". Fascinating! Thank you for posting. Well worth a read for anyone who wants to understand more about "virgin birth" in birds, including chickens. I didnt know parthegenisis was even known in birds, but turns out there have been studies and documentation going back decades. The "review" is long, but well-written and easy to read.

I need to go back and read it. I’m in between browsing on my phone and cooking dinner.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Those Aseels do resemble "dinosaurs". I wouldnt want one, but i dont want a T Rex living in my backyard either. No doubt there are plenty of people who would want both!

 

[ANightPerson]

It's completely possible that they are, we just don't know because no one's been keeping track. I actually read an article about this the other day, how it could be much more common than we think simply because the only way to know is through genetic testing or isolating females for long periods of time. The birds in your yard or in your flock could be throwing out parthenogenic chicks all the time and we wouldn't really know.

What's more interesting is that in the condors, it wasn't just an emergency mechanism like it's been observed as in some reptiles like Komodo dragons, the birds that produced those chicks asexually had been living and mating with males. Chicks produced this way would be exclusively male and probably die before they reach adulthood as they're as inbred as inbred can be.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I suddenly wonder: are those cases of long sperm storage, or could some be parthenogenesis?

I suppose many would be obvious, if the chick shows traits that came from the father and could not have come from the mother. That would be proof of sperm storage rather than parthenogenesis.

In the case of the California Condors that inspired the first post, as all the living birds have been DNA mapped in a genome library when the two females reproduced, the chicks were identical genetically to their mothers.

I bet it's not very often though.

Yes, that's what makes good science. Not eliminating easily controlled variables like sperm retention and assuming that in the arbitrarily determined time you set, the hens won't have any retained sperm and that the eggs should not have the ability to be fertilized. Which, given the wild leaps you've made in identifying various birds in your own flock over the years, would lead someone to assume that of course one of your hens' eggs would develop in this "experiment" and that we'd be witness to the first successful example of parthenogenesis on the forum. I hope we have a Nobel Peace Prize somewhere to dust off.

We don't have to wonder...they made a movie about it. "They were so preoccupied with thinking about whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should"...

The Jurassic Park Franchise has very little relevance in this scenario although I do believe they are setting up Blue to reproduce through this method in Jurassic World: Dominion. And you're all crazy if you think I wouldn't be flipping burgers at some place like Jurassic Park if that meant I got to see and work with those magnificent animals every day. lol