Rose Comb x Pea Comb Should be Walnut, Right? This Chick Has....

[speckledhen]

..... what appears to be a single comb. Sorry, the baby is just hatched, from a blue egg, and I can't take it outside in the cold to get a better pic, but this chick's comb looks just like a tiny single comb. This is a BLRW rooster over BBS Ameraucana hen (accidental mating). So, since Wyandottes do occasionally have single combs, would that be the influence here, in the rooster's genetics?
I've hatched many single/pea combinations, and this doesn't look like that at all, how some can have a center ridge being the most prominent in that combo. Never had a rose/pea combo before but the single looking comb really surprised me.

 

[TimG]

Rose can be (p,p) (R,R) or (p,p) (R,r).
Pea can be (P,P) (r,r) or (P,p) (r,r).

If you cross a (p,p)(R,r) Rose with a (P,p)(r,r) Pea, 1/4 of the offspring should be (p,p)(r,r)...single comb.

You've just discovered that your Rose comb parent carries the recessive r and your Pea comb parent carries the recessive p.

Tim

 

[quiltnchik]

Quote:
You make all of that sound so simple. Sure wish I could understand genetics as easily... <sigh>

 

[speckledhen]

You make all of that sound so simple.

Don't he, though? Thanks, Tim. I'll pass on that info to the person who owns the parents. Wow, this is interesting! So, I'll have a single combed EE that looks like a BLRW with the body type of an Ameraucana, maybe. Wild!​

 

[TimG]

I imagine that most Pea comb breeds are (P,P) (r,r) because that would breed true.

Similarly, you'd like Rose comb breeds to be (p,p) (R,R) so that they would also breed true. But, the (R,R) combination in roosters is associated with reduced fertility. That's probably why Single combs occasionally appear in Wyandottes, it's more difficult to breed our the heterozygous (R,r) because the (R,R) males lose the survival of the fittest contest.

 

[speckledhen]

I've read about the fertility issues in rose combed breeds, even had a single comb SLW hen, but still, getting a single comb from an obviously rose combed rooster with a pea combed hen was a bit of a surprise, especially when I reviewed the rose x pea = walnut equation. Thanks, again, Tim. Now, to see how this one will develop should be fun.

 

[speckledhen]

Updating the thread since Rita just laid her first egg, a tan one. So, she got her single comb because her mother wasn't pure for pea and her sire wasn't pure for rose, which in turn made her a brown egg layer. First time ever I've had a brown layer from a brown egg breed x blue egg breed. Gosh, just from her looks and egg color, I could sell her as a pure RIR and no one would be the wiser until one of her daughters laid a green egg somewhere down the line, LOL.


Here is a current pic of Rita.

 

[kathyinmo]

Very interesting, for sure. I was quite curious about what she would lay. I recall reading (somewhere) about the pea comb and blue egg gene being very closely related. Chicken genetics is never a sure thing I have discovered, especially with all the recessive trait possibilities.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Yes, the blue eggshell gene and the pea comb gene are extremely closely related. Chances of a single combed bird inheriting the blue eggshell gene is about 3%. Her offspring will never inherit the blue eggshell gene from her--it was lost when she didn;t inherit it.

 

[speckledhen]

I read a case of someone who was replacing a New Hampshire flock she sold when she had to move once. She was a breeder so knew what a NH should look like, not a newbie. She said she had to replace it again when they began laying green eggs! That is why I wasn't so sure whether Rita would lay green or brown. Genes are leprechauns, I tell ya.