Zombie Chickens: White Leghorn X Swedish Black?

[gamjduke]

So I’d like to make some “Zombie” chickens by crossing my Svart Hona with White Leghorns. Am I correct in understanding that I need the male to be the Leghorn and the Female to be the SBH if I want the offspring to have black skin?

I suppose I can just try it both ways, but wondering how people figure out the genetics of this aside from just experimenting?

Any recommendations on where to source the leghorns from for high quality stock? Not so concerned with absolute maximum production as I am with health and good conformation/ nice combs.

 

[Debbie292d]

You don't have your location in your profile yet so not sure where you are, but if you find your location in this thread, you could post this there for perhaps help finding the quality stock you're looking for.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/where-am-i-where-are-you.26/

As for your "zombie" chickens, here's a thread about those. You could search BYC and find more if needed.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

What exactly are these so-called Zombies? I am seeing a variety of mixed answers as to what they are.

 

[HollyParks]

What exactly are these so-called Zombies? I am seeing a variety of mixed answers as to what they are.

My understanding is they are just white chickens with black skin. It sounds like it’s just a mix breed and not it’s own. I was going to try to get some crossing my Silked EE roo with Leghorn hens. I just put eggs in the incubator so we’ll see! They’ll lay light blue eggs. I’m still researching though.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

My understanding is they are just white chickens with black skin. It sounds like it’s just a mix breed and not it’s own. I was going to try to get some crossing my Silked EE roo with Leghorn hens. I just put eggs in the incubator so we’ll see! They’ll lay light blue eggs. I’m still researching though.

I read where they were Leghorn x Ayam Cemani crosses. Apparently, that cross makes a Zombie, according to members here on BackYard Chickens. I love the appearance of white chickens with fibromelanistic skin, it looks cool!

 

[NatJ]

So I’d like to make some “Zombie” chickens by crossing my Svart Hona with White Leghorns. Am I correct in understanding that I need the male to be the Leghorn and the Female to be the SBH if I want the offspring to have black skin?

I suppose I can just try it both ways, but wondering how people figure out the genetics of this aside from just experimenting?

If the White Leghorn is the father, all chicks should have light skin.
If the Svart Hona is the father, daughters should have dark skin and sons should have light skin.

If you want dark skin in both sexes, start with the Svart Hona father, then breed some daughters back to him.

People figure it out be experimenting, or by learning from the experiments that other people have done. There are some lists of genes that tell which ones are dominant, recessive, sex-linked, and so forth. There is also the chicken calculator, that shows a picture of a chicken and changes it when you change the genes listed in the boxes on the page. (It's fun for some people and confusing for others, so I can't say whether you will like it or not.)

https://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html
calculator

http://www.sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html
Has links to several pages (basic genetics, chicken genetics, list of genes)


In this specific case, the black skin is caused by a dominant gene, and it doesn't matter which parent gives that gene.

But that dominant gene cannot work unless the chicken also has a particular recessive gene, that allows dark skin to be visible, and is located on the Z sex chromosome. That is the gene where it matters which parent is which breed.