I’ve often mentioned that, in the long run, I have benefited in “breeding up” my mixed heritage flock to standard. It has been more complicated and taken longer than just buying an established flock, but I have learned some important things about the genetics of the different varieties that will always be a building block. I’d like to share an elemental one with you. Experienced breeders please forgive me if I bore you, and feel free to give advice if needed.
Learning the “proper” genetics of your desired variety is essential to being a good breeder. Different breeds, say an Ameraucana vs. OEG, can look the same but be completely differently genetically (this is one of the constant debates with poultry breeders as varieties of the same breed can even be different genetics in USA or Europe!). It will greatly affect your outcome if you outcross to improve or attain a trait, when culling or working on new varieties. And knowing the “proper” down type is the first and most important thing to know. Down type is an indication of the basic e-locus, of which it is believed at this time there are 6. For simplification, I like to think that all the other modifiers, like lacing or silver or dilute or blue, act on this basic gene “package” and act differently on different ”packages” … which is why it is so important to know!
Take for instance my mottled project: I need only extended black (E) as the mottle expresses differently on extended black and birchen (ER). Knowing that the only way to reliably tell the difference with an Ameraucana (as both E & ER poultry can be all black) is that E chicks have a lot of white on belly and towards chin and ER chicks are solid black with perhaps grayish bellies & chin, I can quickly move towards my goal. I think it’s important to note here that chick down can be modified by other genes; so one of the brightest things our directors have done is to have pictures of chick down available to all of us so that we know what to look for.
Samples of the different varieties and e-locus (and so different down):
Blue=E extended black
Brown Red=ER birchen
Silver=e+ wildtype
Wheaton=ey recessive wheaton
