Breeding Creeper Gene into Long-Legged Breeds

[gerardogarcia]

I’ve started this thread with the curious question of whether anyone has tried to introduce the short legged gene, say from a Japanese bantam, into another bantam breed with the hope to obtain the gene in question while retaining all other characteristics of said breed. Let me know if you have any experience with such an experiment. Thanks.

 

[NatJ]

No experience, but genetically it should be pretty simple:

Cross a short-legged one to the breed you are working with. Half of chicks should have short legs, other half normal legs. Choose one of the ones with short legs and repeat.

Depending on what other genes are involved, how many chicks you hatch in each generation, and how picky you are about the ones you select for further breeding, you might get what you want in 3-4 generations, or it might take two to three times that long.

It is the same basic breeding strategy you would use to introduce any other dominant gene (for example, blue feather color.)

Because the creeper gene is lethal when a chick inherits two copies, you will never get them breeding true for the creeper gene.

 

[gerardogarcia]

Your reply sounds more or less exactly what I expected. Hopefully someone who has followed through that process can comment as well.