I'm looking for some in-depth help charting out what patternings are the result of what combination of genes.
For some extra context I'm using a slightly simplified system by grouping the MC1R alleles into 5 major groups based on the percentage of black pigment displayed when all other modifying...
No, just some are very small. Others are medium, when/if I add Minorca I'm planning to use a standard size because I would like the full range. A lot of my latest generation have been in the 2-3kg range.
I can't buy a new house, I don't have that kind of money, and I live in Australia, the pool is limited in the first place so many of my replacement birds would have to come from the very same breeders. My prediction is starting over will be starting over with the same problem no matter what I...
To start I have to address the bad news. I lost more chickens that I care to think about due to at least 3 different infections running loose through my flock. I was also dealing with painful and extremely debilitating health issues myself and could not get any of them under control. We had an...
I'm doing something a little odd with my CutiePies and selecting for shape but not size. One of my hens is 2.5kg and has the exact same shape as her 800g great grandmother.
She is most likely just yellow skinned, if you you a look at some of the show leghorns you may see the same yellow ears.
The yellow is removed while hens lay starting at the vent and working its way up the body to her head, then when they go off the lay the colour returns starting at the vent...
2020 Was a very hard year on my flock, and due to my own health problems I really dropped the ball on tracking parentage.
However the CutiePie project is still moving forward. I have a new batch of roosters that are promising and several very nice hens. I'll update with pictures some time this...
Its simply that if you bred two matching ones together the chicks would not look like the parents. It can be that they will be nothing like the parents, or just certain features like feather colour, egg colour or body shape. That means they dont breed true.
"Pure breeds" breed true.
White crest has been speculated to be a form of mottling so it makes sense they are only showing in F2. I really recommend watching carefully that the beaks stay black cause mottling strips out the fibro easily. Im very excited to see how you go :)
Im going to play devil's advocate and say they probably just looked for a picture that looked like what she did look like. Most people don't take pictures of their run of the mill chickens, its only in hindsight they found a need for pictures.
But hens turning into the rooster phenotype isn't...
For the sake of people finding this now and the future let me clear this up!
Polydactylism is a dominant gene with variable expression, some of which is controlled by additional unrelated genes.
This means that a chick with the gene will probably have 5 toes. But can have 6 & 6 toes, 6 & 4 toes...
You can expect at least mostly all black chicks. In aus I know silkies are all partridge and use other melanizing genes to make them black rather than just extension. So.. if they are not homozygous for the melanizers then you may find a few brown partridge chicks amongst the black chicks and...
I have a few hens that do this also! And I know what the want too, they are calling for roosters. Sometimes you can satisfy them with a good stong backrub. But usually when they are that "thirsty" only a real rooster will do. Good luck!
The leg colour change makes sense if she went from laying to a non-laying pseodo-rooster. When a chicken lays the yellow pigment is drawn out of the skin, starting with the cloaca and ending at the beak, so good laying hens turn from yellow to white.
I have a hen that turns semi-rooster every...
Leakage usually shows in your roosters and hides in the hens. So you really want your roosters to not be leaky if you don't want leaky roosters in the future.
However I usually make leakage my lowest priority, and that young cockerel still has time to develop his own leakage. His beak and legs...
I finally got my paint silkie! And also just hatched some chocolate and chocolate/lavender orpingtons from Victoria which Im going to use for adding the other colors I want. Looks like I wont need any more outside chickens now :)
This is why I usually hatch them myself and then start stuffing them under my hens overnight once they are on their feet! If they are in the incubator and still have yolk left to absorb they should be ok! But I like to supplement their energy after something like that using a vitamin and sugar...
So by breeding your barred hens to your barred rooster the male chicks are double barred while the female chicks are dark barred. There is a slight difference which CCLB colours are meant to amplify and since these chicks are 75% CCLB you can likely sex most of the chicks by colour. Darker...