Black To White Experiment

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The sloppy unevenness of the striping would basically be referred to as Cuckoo since it's smudgy. The feathers are on her tail, & upper rump in the tail area.
Barring is a gene that causes an absence of color resulting in white bars. The appearance is very similar.

I don't see cuckoo there, either, just one stripe, a white tip, and some fading. That doesn't really scream 'barring' to me, I guess.

A triangle is different from a straight streak, though.

I didn't notice the one off to the side when I looked at the pictures initially, but I looked at Flury (my Splash Cochin) this morning and she has some of those, too. I really do think these weird feather patterns are a mechanism of pigment distribution more than anything weird genetically.

I still can rule out vitiligo, cause a high percentage of those infected by it have visual impairments, like decreased vision, & blindness. Mine don't exhibit those symptoms.
Apart from the Chameleon hen's Mother being half blind in one eye from an injury she got when she was young. Took along time to treat that. She was pierced right in the pupil, by what, I haven't figured out yet.

I would still argue that your birds have vitiligo, just not the kind that causes these issues. The definition of vitiligo, according to Oxford English Language Dictionaries, is, "a condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of the skin, causing whitish patches, often with no clear cause." I emphasize the 'often with no clear cause' part. Some vitiligo is associated with vision loss and blindness. Some vitiligo is associated with severe autoimmune disorders. Some vitiligo is associated with stress or other external causes. But not all vitiligo. Your birds fit the bare definition of vitiligo as I quoted it, we just don't know what exactly the cause is in your birds' case. It's sort of like saying that the sky isn't really blue, it's actually celeste, as if there's a difference.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I don't see cuckoo there, either, just one stripe, a white tip, and some fading. That doesn't really scream 'barring' to me, I guess.





I didn't notice the one off to the side when I looked at the pictures initially, but I looked at Flury (my Splash Cochin) this morning and she has some of those, too. I really do think these weird feather patterns are a mechanism of pigment distribution more than anything weird genetically.





I would still argue that your birds have vitiligo, just not the kind that causes these issues. The definition of vitiligo, according to Oxford English Language Dictionaries, is, "a condition in which the pigment is lost from areas of the skin, causing whitish patches, often with no clear cause." I emphasize the 'often with no clear cause' part. Some vitiligo is associated with vision loss and blindness. Some vitiligo is associated with severe autoimmune disorders. Some vitiligo is associated with stress or other external causes. But not all vitiligo. Your birds fit the bare definition of vitiligo as I quoted it, we just don't know what exactly the cause is in your birds' case. It's sort of like saying that the sky isn't really blue, it's actually celeste, as if there's a difference.

Enhancements.

Splash, is different, not sure why it keeps being brought up. Not great for comparing the oddity.

I still don't think Vitiligo is what's going. Part of the reason I'm doing this experiment is to rule out, or confirm theories, like mottling ect..

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, I do sort of vaguely see a bar and a half in this feather, but not in the others. Perhaps something allelic? I've heard of an allele of the barring gene that causes further loss of pigment than just the white bars typical of the barring gene.

Splash, is different, not sure why it keeps being brought up. Not great for comparing the oddity.

Splash is a variety with partial pigmentation. The fact that these weirdly split or striped feathers show up in splash as well tells me it's a matter of how partial pigmentation is distributed across the feather, not a feather pattern that's particularly odd, can necessarily be bred for, or that has a specific genetic component to cause it beyond whatever gene or genes cause partial pigmentation. That's all I was saying with that. I... thought it was a good comparison, I guess.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Found another hen, Bantam coop this time. Golden Sebright, she's 2-3 years old.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Okay, I do sort of vaguely see a bar and a half in this feather, but not in the others. Perhaps something allelic? I've heard of an allele of the barring gene that causes further loss of pigment than just the white bars typical of the barring gene.

Possibly.

 

[NatJ]

Okay, I do sort of vaguely see a bar and a half in this feather, but not in the others. Perhaps something allelic? I've heard of an allele of the barring gene that causes further loss of pigment than just the white bars typical of the barring gene.

No allele of the barring gene would be passed from mother to daughter, because that locus is on the Z sex chromosome. A hen gets her W chromosome from her mother, and her Z chromosome from her father.

So if the mother/daughter pair both have it, either the father carries it too and the daughter got it from him, or we can completely rule out all alleles of the barring gene.

It could be some allele of some autosomal gene (the ones not on the sex chromosome), but that just brings us back to the question of which gene(s) might be involved.

Personally, I suspect some allele at the mottling locus, since mottled birds are known to get more white with advancing age, but that is something that would have to be confirmed or ruled out by test mating.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

No allele of the barring gene would be passed from mother to daughter, because that locus is on the Z sex chromosome. A hen gets her W chromosome from her mother, and her Z chromosome from her father.

So if the mother/daughter pair both have it, either the father carries it too and the daughter got it from him, or we can completely rule out all alleles of the barring gene.

It could be some allele of some autosomal gene (the ones not on the sex chromosome), but that just brings us back to the question of which gene(s) might be involved.

Personally, I suspect some allele at the mottling locus, since mottled birds are known to get more white with advancing age, but that is something that would have to be confirmed or ruled out by test mating.

You are absolutely correct, I didn't even connect that it was mother to daughter. Barring and its alleles being sexlinked would not pass mother to daughter in birds.

I was kind of wondering about mottling as well because of the white tips on many of the feathers shown.

 

[MysteryChicken]

You are absolutely correct, I didn't even connect that it was mother to daughter. Barring and its alleles being sexlinked would not pass mother to daughter in birds.

I was kind of wondering about mottling as well because of the white tips on many of the feathers shown.

Bars have white tips too.

 

[MysteryChicken]

The birds have no mottling in their background.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Grandparents of Chameleon Hen #1.
Buff Orpington/Barred Rock Rooster

Buff Orpington/Australorp Hen