White x red

[redrooster99]

I am wondering what I would get if I was to cross a white leghorn rooster with a red leghorn hen, and the other way around. Any info and pictures are welcome.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is really hard to say. There are two separate problems.

First you don’t know if they are white because of Dominant White or Recessive White. If it is Dominant White, then the chicken is almost certainly also Extended Black, otherwise other colors than white should show through the white chicken’s plumage. With anything in chicken genetics there are possible exceptions, but it is probably Extended Black. That means all offspring should inherit one Dominant White and one Extended Black, so you will get all white chicks. It doesn’t really matter what else is hiding under there and it does not matter which is the white or red parent.

If it is Recessive White you will see no effects of white from that in the offspring. But the second problem is that anything could be hiding under that Recessive White in the parent. You could have any color or any pattern. How whatever is hiding under the Recessive White matches up with the red leghorn will determine what the chicks look like.

If any sex linked genes are hiding under the Recessive White on the white hen, crossing her with the red rooster could produce sex links, but that would just be pure luck. I’d consider it highly unlikely. Crossing a Recessive White rooster with a red hen will not produce any sex links.

Just thought of a third potential problem. The white chicken does not have to be pure for any specific gene hiding under the white. You could have a dominant/recessive split at any point on the chromosome other than the genes required to make a solid white chicken. That means you could get a variety in the chicks. They may not all look the same.

The only way to find out is to hatch some eggs. Have fun and good luck!

 

[redrooster99]

It is really hard to say. There are two separate problems.

First you don’t know if they are white because of Dominant White or Recessive White. If it is Dominant White, then the chicken is almost certainly also Extended Black, otherwise other colors than white should show through the white chicken’s plumage. With anything in chicken genetics there are possible exceptions, but it is probably Extended Black. That means all offspring should inherit one Dominant White and one Extended Black, so you will get all white chicks. It doesn’t really matter what else is hiding under there and it does not matter which is the white or red parent.

If it is Recessive White you will see no effects of white from that in the offspring. But the second problem is that anything could be hiding under that Recessive White in the parent. You could have any color or any pattern. How whatever is hiding under the Recessive White matches up with the red leghorn will determine what the chicks look like.

If any sex linked genes are hiding under the Recessive White on the white hen, crossing her with the red rooster could produce sex links, but that would just be pure luck. I’d consider it highly unlikely. Crossing a Recessive White rooster with a red hen will not produce any sex links.

Just thought of a third potential problem. The white chicken does not have to be pure for any specific gene hiding under the white. You could have a dominant/recessive split at any point on the chromosome other than the genes required to make a solid white chicken. That means you could get a variety in the chicks. They may not all look the same.

The only way to find out is to hatch some eggs. Have fun and good luck!

Thank you. I think I just may do that but I got to get the parents first. Lol.

 

[englishcockers]

White leghorns are dominant white. In the chicks with only one copy of the gene, I'd bet you will see a few flecks of color here and there

 

[redrooster99]

Like red flecks or black.

 

[englishcockers]

More likely black. Like Ridgerunner said, there are a lot of things which could be hiding under the the white, and for that matter under the extended black. when I have bred red with black I've seen some red leakage. So I am guessing there could be some red flecks on the neck of either sex, or on the shoulders of the roosters. Black Australorps over White Leghorns give you Austra Whites; a white bird with black flecks.

 

[redrooster99]

Oh. What about exchequer x red.

 

[englishcockers]

Outside of my experience. But the chicken calculator seems to indicate it would be white, split for mottled
I'd ask Henk69, Nicalandia, or Tadkerson

 

[englishcockers]

Outside of my experience. But the chicken calculator seems to indicate it would be white, split for mottled
I'd ask Henk69, Nicalandia, or Tadkerson

after reading some threads on "classroom in the coop" I'll change my guess to Black split for mottled.
The chicken calculator result was for "pseudo exchequer"
It seems exchequer is a variation of mottled with some modifiers altering how the gene is expressed.