Will his apparent recessive white gene ever show up in his offspring?

[z3lda3]

Hi,
I’ve got a white Cochin bantam rooster, and I’d love to have some of his WHITE offspring. But, so far I’ve gotten a rooster who is black and reddish, the mama is a RSL. I’ve got another rooster who is completely barred, his mama is a legbar, and a hen who is a solid black fizzled bantam, her mama is a WHITE frizzled bantam. Is it possible his white gene will never show up in his offspring? Here’s pictures of my rooster, and his offspring.

 

[Amer]

Well if the black frizzle had a white mother she clearly has the recessive white gene. Breed your white rooster to her and one quarter of their offspring will be white.

 

[z3lda3]

Well if the black frizzle had a white mother she clearly has the recessive white gene. Breed your white rooster to her and one quarter of their offspring will be white.

Breed him with his daughter? Which is interesting because I would think breeding him with a black chicken would be the last thing I needed to do. But because his daughter has his white gene and her mother’s white gene (even though recessive) 1:4 babies should be white, is that correct? The black frizzle is the control chicken, because I know her parents?

 

[Amer]

Breed him with his daughter? Which is interesting because I would think breeding him with a black chicken would be the last thing I needed to do. But because his daughter has his white gene and her mother’s white gene (even though recessive) 1:4 babies should be white, is that correct? The black frizzle is the control chicken, because I know her parents?

Wait, you're telling me both her parents are white? So one is dominant white and one is recessive? I don't know of any dominant white Cochins, I think you got one of the parents wrong. Recessive white bred to Recessive white gives you 100 percent white offspring and any offspring of a recessive white that doesn't turn out white will carry the gene because that is all the white parent can pass on.

 

[z3lda3]

Wait, you're telling me both her parents are white? So one is dominant white and one is recessive? I don't know of any dominant white Cochins, I think you got one of the parents wrong. Recessive white bred to Recessive white gives you 100 percent white offspring and any offspring of a recessive white that doesn't turn out white will carry the gene because that is all the white parent can pass on.

Both of her parents are white. Her mother is the ONLY bantam frizzle I have, so i know shes the mother.
And her father is the only active rooster I have in that flock.

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

This puzzles me and i'd love to hear the conclusion.

My best guess is one bird is dominant white + black (and may not be purebred if there is no dominant white cochin as Amer said) and the other is recessive white+recessive white, which should still give you a 50-50 chance of a white offsping. If this is true, you might see a single black/colored feather on either of the white birds to figure out which of them may have the dominant white gene (because it is "leaky" so colors sometimes bleed through here and there).

If you want offspring with both recessive white genes, I'd still breed father to daughter as that is your best bet: the black cochin hen must have a recessive white gene and you only have one white rooster. I may be mistaken but that should give you 3/4 white offspring (if the rooster is white-white and the hen is black-white) or 50/50 if the rooster has the dominant white gene and not two recessive ones.

If one of the birds had recessive white+dominant white and the other dominant white/block, you'd get 3/4 white offspring from the two white birds pair.

I guess the only way to know more would be to hatch more chicks from the white pair and parent to children from that pair to see what you get.

 

[z3lda3]

This puzzles me and i'd love to hear the conclusion.

My best guess is one bird is dominant white + black (and may not be purebred if there is no dominant white cochin as Amer said) and the other is recessive white+recessive white, which should still give you a 50-50 chance of a white offsping. If this is true, you might see a single black/colored feather on either of the white birds to figure out which of them may have the dominant white gene (because it is "leaky" so colors sometimes bleed through here and there).

If you want offspring with both recessive white genes, I'd still breed father to daughter as that is your best bet: the black cochin hen must have a recessive white gene and you only have one white rooster. I may be mistaken but that should give you 3/4 white offspring (if the rooster is white-white and the hen is black-white) or 50/50 if the rooster has the dominant white gene and not two recessive ones.

If one of the birds had recessive white+dominant white and the other dominant white/block, you'd get 3/4 white offspring from the two white birds pair.

I guess the only way to know more would be to hatch more chicks from the white pair and parent to children from that pair to see what you get.

when I bought them, they were sold as Cochin bantams. But who knows What I DO know is mommy is solid white. Not even a hint of any color anywhere. Daddy is also white no other color. I have bathed these birds for well over a year, definitely white. Baby is definitely from these two. Mommy is the only bantam hen I have laying. Her eggs are tiny. And daddy is the only active rooster I have in that flock. I don’t know if it matters but when baby was born, she was more white than black. Once she lost her fuzz her feathers came in all black. I’m totally clueless about chicken genetics. All I wanted was white bantam chicks from my white bantam chickens. I had no idea, it would be this difficult. I’ll definitely take any advice you can give. You just know I’m going to be drowning in chicks, and never get a white one lol.

 

[Amer]

Is it possible your white hen was with a different rooster before you paired her with the white one? Hens can retain sperm for almost a month.

 

[z3lda3]

Is it possible your white hen was with a different rooster before you paired her with the white one? Hens can retain sperm for almost a month.

Nope, I read hens can retain sperm for up to 5 weeks, that much I already knew. The only other active rooster I had is a 12 lb Wyandotte mix. He was indoors, up until 5 weeks ago or so. (It’s a long story, he’s special, I’ll leave it at that). So this is an oddity? I’m not crazy right?

 

[Amer]

Nope, I read hens can retain sperm for up to 5 weeks, that much I already knew. The only other active rooster I had is a 17lb Wyandotte mix. He was indoors, up until 5 weeks ago or so. (It’s a long story, he’s special, I’ll leave it at that). So this is an oddity? I’m not crazy right?

17 pounds?
That's the biggest rooster I've ever heard of?

Did your white hen have any black spots?