The "Ask Anything" to Nicalandia Thread

[Gigachad poultry]

Sort of yes, sort of no.

--The first generation cross will not be a Cochin. It will be a mix. It would take quite a few generations of breeding, and careful selection, to have the right traits to really call the bird a Cochin. Starting with those particular parents, you might never get one that has the correct Cochin single comb and also lays colored eggs. There is a link between the blue egg gene and the pea comb gene. It could help if you use Cream Legbars, who would have the blue egg gene linked to not-pea comb (single.) Using Ameraucanas will have the blue egg gene linked to pea comb, which is not right for a Cochin. Easter Eggers can go either way, depending on what breeds are in their ancestry, but you can tell without actually knowing who their ancestors were: if it has a single comb and lays blue or green eggs, it has the right linkage for your project.

--The chicks may be Calico colored or they may not be, depending on which color genes the non-Cochin parent has. If the chicks are not calico, breeding some of them back to the Cochin will give you a good chance of getting calico babies in the next generation.

--You can probably get green eggs that way, but "olive" is used to refer to the darker shades of green. You will probably not get dark green ("olive") eggs.


Not that I know of.


Just like with the other idea, it would need multiple generations of breeding & selection to have birds that can reasonably be called "Cochins."

In the first generation cross, the daughters will probably lay eggs that have an in between shade of brown (darker than the Cochins, lighter than the Marans.) Later generations could have darker eggs or lighter eggs, depending on who they are bred to (backcross to Cochin would give lighter eggs, backcross to Marans would give darker eggs, breeding the mixes to each other will give some birds who lay light, some who lay medium, and some who lay dark.)

I think the calico color requires the mottling gene. That is recessive, so the crossed chicks will not be calico colored. Breeding them back to the calico cochin, or to each other, should be able to produce some calico colored chicks.

Thank you so much for clearing that up! I really wasn't sure what I would get.

So say I was to mix cream legbars and calico bantams together, them I breed the chicks together for the next two generations. Then if I reintroduce the calico bantams Cochins and continue selecting only hens that lay green or blue eggs. After lots of selective breeding would that become a Cochin?

 

[NatJ]

So say I was to mix cream legbars and calico bantams together, them I breed the chicks together for the next two generations. Then if I reintroduce the calico bantams Cochins and continue selecting only hens that lay green or blue eggs. After lots of selective breeding would that become a Cochin?

Yes, you should be able to produce colored-egg Cochins that way. Of course, if you think that a hen cannot be a Cochin if she lays colored eggs, they would never be Cochins. But if you want Cochins that are normal in every way except egg color, it should work fine.

I would say they are really Cochins when you have a flock of birds that look like Cochins, act like Cochins, and reliably produce chicks that also look & act like Cochins. Breeding true for the right traits is a large part of the difference between purebreds and mixed-breeds.

 

[Gigachad poultry]

Yes, you should be able to produce colored-egg Cochins that way. (Of course, if you think that a hen cannot be a Cochin if she lays colored eggs, they would never be Cochins. But if you want Cochins that are normal in every way except egg color, it should work fine.

I would say they are really Cochins when you have a flock of birds that look like Cochins, act like Cochins, and reliably produce chicks that also look & act like Cochins. Breeding true for the right traits is a large part of the difference between purebreds and mixed-breeds.

Ok, thank you so much for the help!

 

[kurby22]

Since all the possible mothers have single combs, the chick must have a rose comb. That means his father is the rooster with a rose comb (White Wyandotte).

If the chick grows frizzle feathers, then it must have the frizzle mother. A chick with smooth feathers could have any mother (including a frizzle).

I see fuzz on the chick's feet. Assuming the Wyandotte has clean legs like he should, the chick must have gotten the foot feathers from his mother. If your Marans have clean legs, that would mean the Langshan must be the mother. If your Marans have feathered feet, you can make some guess from the amount of feathering on the chick's legs (it probably has less feathers than the mother, not more, although that is not a guaranteed thing).

Yeah all my Marans are feather legged, but not crazy feathered.

You were right about the barring. I knew you’d know the answers After all this discussion about Mr. Ball (the Wyandotte) it has me vaguely recalling that the breeder may have said he might be barred.

This is the Langshan -

These are the Marans (Bebe does have feathered legs but not a lot) -

And of course, Mr Snow Ball!

So fun putting the puzzle together with genetics. Thanks for the help and info!

 

[Gigachad poultry]

With my ADHD hyper focused on chickens and breeding I'm wondering the requirements for breeding sebright bantams. Like what is the minimum size requirement for four of them (1 roosters 3 hens)

 

[NatJ]

With my ADHD hyper focused on chickens and breeding I'm wondering the requirements for breeding sebright bantams. Like what is the minimum size requirement for four of them (1 roosters 3 hens)

You are asking how big of a coop and run they need? I suggest you start a new thread to ask that, in the "coops" section of the forum.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance.9/

This particular thread is about genetics, and this section of the forum is for "Exhibition, Genetics, & Breeding to the SOP." Not quite the right place for coop-size questions.

 

[Gigachad poultry]

You are asking how big of a coop and run they need? I suggest you start a new thread to ask that, in the "coops" section of the forum.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance.9/

This particular thread is about genetics, and this section of the forum is for "Exhibition, Genetics, & Breeding to the SOP." Not quite the right place for coop-size questions.

Ok thanks for telling me!

 

[Chicken poppy]

Depending on other genes the bird has, Khaki can look almost indistinguishable from Dun. The Khakis I have owned and seen have varied from birds that look white with just a tint of brownishness to birds that were a pale brown almost identical to Dun, maybe a shade or two lighter or 'duller', if that makes sense. The Duns of the same line in that case were a darker brown that could have been mistaken for sexlinked chocolate at first glance, though on further inspection were a bit lighter than sexlinked chocolate usually is.




From what I have seen, solid Chocolate Wyandottes tend to be sexlinked chocolate, while laced could be either sexlinked or dun. If these are solid Chocolates, I'd assume you're looking at sexlinked chocolate. That means that what you'll get from crossing them to other varieties depends on if the Chocolate individual is male or female.

A male Chocolate crossed to a female Black would make sexlinks, where all cockerels that hatch are Black and carry one copy of the chocolate gene, and all pullets that hatch are Chocolate.

A male Black crossed to a female Chocolate just makes all Black offspring, but the males in this cross carry the chocolate gene as well.

White in Wyandottes is recessive white if I remember correctly. Recessive white generally covers everything, hiding all other plumage pattern and color genes. That means that it's hard to predict what will result from crossing a White Wyandotte to another variety. Since it is recessive, you would expect either Black or Chocolate offspring from crossing them to Black or Chocolate (inherited the same as above depending on the sex of the Chocolate parent), but you might see color leakage if the Whites are carrying, for example, Partridge genetics beneath their white exterior.

As for breeding them to Japanese, I believe the shortleg gene that Japanese bantams have is partially dominant, where zero copies is normal leg length, one is shortleg, and two copies generally results in embryonic death before hatching. That means that if your Japanese has short legs, then about half of the offspring when crossed to a Wyandotte will as well, while the other half will have normal legs. If the Japanese does not have short legs, then all offspring will have normal legs as well. I would expect rose combs in all of the offspring, but you may see single combs if your Wyandottes are not pure for the rose comb gene as happens sometimes in rose combed breeds. Plumage coloring would depend on what colors your Japanese are, especially with the White Wyandottes, but with the Blacks and Chocolates I would expect a mostly solid-colored bird, either Black or Chocolate depending on the sex and color of the Wyandotte parent, and likely with color leakage. I would also expect them to fall somewhere between the two for shape, fluffier than the Japanese but with a more prominent tail than the Wyandottes.

Wow thank you! This told me everything i wanted to know.

 

[n8ivetxn]

Hello , I need help with my Crele project - no mongrels or mixed lines here. Last year I got a quad of Araucanas from Ann Charles....The rooster was the apple of my eye, and I lost him in July. I have just a few chicks from him and I'm trying to breed a replacement. Can you tell me if that's possible, based on the photos of his offspring? I'll post 2 photos of the original rooster, 6 mos and 1 yr old. followed by his progeny.

 

[n8ivetxn]

These are the chicks I have, hatched from solid Wheaten hens. I believe one hen was wildtype (I lost her), the other two are not.
Pic 1 and 2: A tufted roo, and I think a wildtype pullet
Pic 3: The tufted roo is at the top, the nicer wildtype pullet and a darker wildtype with a tail , and at the bottom, a darker cockerel with clean face.
I do have one more little wildtype pullet, not pictured (trying to keep it simple)