THANK YOU MIKE!!!!! That was soooooooooo helpful. I had no idea that the muffs and beard manifested from a single gene. That is good news! At least I'm only working with one gene instead of two.
I do like the odds better by mating the SW cockerel to full muff/beard birds. (I assume this would be homozygous for Mb?) And I will do so now. I may go ahead and breed the SW to others IF they are exceptional in other ways. Obviously, I'll get some clean-faced birds and hetero too but maybe I can work with the hetero's. I do keep track of which chicks came from which hens but I have bred full blood sisters to one male in the past. In this case, I will have to probably do some single mating instead.
Now, I don't know how much time you want to spend on this topic or how detailed you want to be but can you explain a bit more for me and others how the "single copy" and "double copy" work with the Mb? I understand heterozygous and homozygous such as PP/rr versus Pp/Rr with combs. But, for example, is it always Mb or is it also mB? And is it sex-linked? Do the mothers pass the gene down to both sons and daughters? If homo is there two Mb genes carried by each parent and if hetero then only one Mb and the other allele is blank?
Oh, and before I forget, you said if I'm not sure about some of my hens the SW would be useful in determining their Mb genetics. I understand that. But isn't it easy to tell the difference between the full muffs/beard and those that don't have it? I ask because some of my birds have muffs/beards that are noticeably thicker and bigger than others.
That's it for now. It's 0445 and I'm heading to bed now. Was heading that way and remembered I wanted to see if I had an answer yet. Thanks again!
God Bless,
