Eye color genetics

[Slothinc]

I am wondering if there is a certain gene that controls eye color and how hard is it to breed towards having black eyes? I have mainly silkies and silkie crosses and a lot of them have lighter eyes.

Is eye color something that can be corrected pretty easily in future generations or should I start being selective about eye color right now? I prefer the darkest eyes possible, as silkies are supposed to have dark eyes. Any info about eye color would be appreciated, as I haven’t been able to find out too much about it. Picture of two different chicks in my grow outs, one has dark eyes and one has lighter. They share a dad (who had lighter eyes) but have different moms, both moms have darker eyes - except the chick with darker eyes came from a mom who has one lighter eye and one darker eye

 

[Debbie292d]

I am wondering if there is a certain gene that controls eye color and how hard is it to breed towards having black eyes? I have mainly silkies and silkie crosses and a lot of them have lighter eyes.

Is eye color something that can be corrected pretty easily in future generations or should I start being selective about eye color right now? I prefer the darkest eyes possible, as silkies are supposed to have dark eyes. Any info about eye color would be appreciated, as I haven’t been able to find out too much about it. Picture of two different chicks in my grow outs, one has dark eyes and one has lighter. They share a dad (who had lighter eyes) but have different moms, both moms have darker eyes - except the chick with darker eyes came from a mom who has one lighter eye and one darker eye

Awe, they're so cute!

The only thing I've noticed is the eye color is different with cuckoo silkies in that they have orangish eyes. I had looked it up once I started raising those, and it is due to the cuckoo gene inhibiting the black. Otherwise, they should be black.

I'll have to pay attention and look at mine when I'm out there tomorrow and see if any have different eyes, albeit I already noticed the cuckoos, so that might be it.

 

[Slothinc]

Awe, they're so cute!

The only thing I've noticed is the eye color is different with cuckoo silkies in that they have orangish eyes. I had looked it up once I started raising those, and it is due to the cuckoo gene inhibiting the black. Otherwise, they should be black.

I'll have to pay attention and look at mine when I'm out there tomorrow and see if any have different eyes, albeit I already noticed the cuckoos, so that might be it.

Thanks Debbie, that makes sense with cuckoo! My lemon cuckoo girl has light eyes for sure. I read an old thread on here that said dominant white can lighten the eye color - and these two are both paint, and the dad was paint, and the mom of the darker eyed chick is paint and is the one with one light eye and one dark eye. So maybe dominant white does have something to do with it I wish there was more eye color info out there!

 

[SourRoses]

3rd party info here, so take that into account. But I remember reading a discussion about this way back in Nicalandia's thread which is too long to find anything again

They were referring to melanizers as the cause of eye darkness level.
I believe those genes aren't fully identified / counted and there are multiple factors working together.

From my understanding, if two or more chickens have the same feather color, and one has the right color of shank, or face, or eyes, etc. and the other does not... well that is a sign it's not the feather color impacting the pigment, but the absence or presence of modifier genes.

Only the correct ones should be selected for breeding; or, if stock is limited, breed correct to incorrect, keep correct offspring, and breed those back to the correct parent.

 

[Slothinc]

3rd party info here, so take that into account. But I remember reading a discussion about this way back in Nicalandia's thread which is too long to find anything again

They were referring to melanizers as the cause of eye darkness level.
I believe those genes aren't fully identified / counted and there are multiple factors working together.

From my understanding, if two or more chickens have the same feather color, and one has the right color of shank, or face, or eyes, etc. and the other does not... well that is a sign it's not the feather color impacting the pigment, but the absence or presence of modifier genes.

Only the correct ones should be selected for breeding; or, if stock is limited, breed correct to incorrect, keep correct offspring, and breed those back to the correct parent.

Thank you, that is so helpful!! So melanizing genes can change the eye color in two birds of the same color that have different color eyes.