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Question on clearing up brassiness in white.
Guest:
OK now, for us beginners, is the information you\'re giving in regaurds to phenotype & genotype just collected from experience or can you reccommend a starting book?
Mike Gilbert:
Better than buying a book is a free website. Go to:
http://marsa_sellers.tripod.com/geneticspages . I have copied off much of their information so I have it for reference when my computer is not available.
Mike G.
Guest:
OzarkRose,
The information I presented is based upon my own experience and with published findings. As Mike said, Seller\'s web site is a good place to learn genetics. The subject of poultry genetics can be overwhelming. I have a degree in Biology and Chemistry so the subject comes much easier to me than to people who do not have a knowledge base to build upon. I have been studing chicken genetics for 3 years and I am still learning.
Try to digest a little at at a time. If you get confused feel free to post a question or you can send me a personal message.
Rooster
Guest:
The yellowing of white birds has always been confusing to me. I have heard some say it is all genetics and then others say it is from too much cracked corn, and others say it is from the sun.
SO my questions is.....is yellowing always from genetics of an underlying color or can it be caused from something else??
Guest:
Laura,
It can be caused by all three. If you think about it, all phenotypic traits have a genetic cause behind them. As has been stated, birds that are \"sex-linked silver\" at the sex-linked gold locus will tend to stay whiter and have less tendancy to turn brassy by corn or sunlight. Just from my own experience, I\'d have to say that any breed that is genetically \"silver\" ultimately has the best chance of being a \"stay white\" bird. There are other genes that can cause brassiness, such as Mahogany. Regardless of the E-locus allele, mahogany and a few other genes can put brassiness in a white bird just as it will/can put \"red\" in the hackles, shoulders and saddle feathers of many other \"colors and patterns\". Put another way, how many times have you seen an otherwise perfect black bird or barred bird that had the major fault of red \"bleeding through\"? The same thing that causes red to bleed through in a colored fowl can also cause brassiness to manifest in an otherwise white one.
In my inbred line of Oregon Cresteds, there are no specimens that contain the E^R or E allele. They are homozygous for \'gold\' as well. Yet, the recessive whites that are produced from them are true \"stay whites\". I feed them on corn or milo depending on the time of year and the amount of \"heat\" I need/want them to produce, typically at an average of 50% of their entire diet. They are also exposed to full strength sunlight. Two things these birds have going for them though, they also have the Db-dark brown gene and they DO NOT have the mahogany gene. Just goes to show you that when you\'re breeding animals, you\'re breeding the whole package, not just a couple of isolated genes. Every breed is different and even within the same breed and variety, each strain can vary. Ahh, the spice of life. ;)
Regards,
Dan
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