I have a question about chick feathering. In my recent cross back to buff leghorn to improve the color in my buff japanese, I am getting some chicks that have mottling in their first set of chick feathers but they loose it when they molt into their second set of feathers. I am wondering what genetic make up causes this and if I marked them and bred them together would I possibly get mottled buff? Is this an allele at work
I don't really have any reliable information to offer ... just that we've been seeing it too...
Info, can you define Exchequer coloration?
Thank you for your post, Hannah. The Exchequer pattern is a black and white pattern ... perhaps the best way is to just post a link here to the pictures at Feathersite:
Link to Feathersite Leghorns and pic of Exchequer
Since there is actually a mottled variety of the Japanese, I am enclined to believe that it must come from the Japanese side, but there must be layers (not the correct termonology) of genes because out of the same matings I am getting a few mottled, a few black tailed buff, and solid buff. At least three different types. One that is just now feathering that almost looks spangled or mille fleur.
Thanks for the definition and the link Info!
You're welcome, Hannah!
I do not know what causes the white tips of the chick feathers in some buff stocks. My New Hamps had this trait (got rid of them). The chick feathers have white tips, but the adult plumage feathers do not. This is not the normal mottling allele because the white tips often do not have the black band between the white and the buff. If you look at the millifluer pattern that is mottling on a buff background you have white tips, a black band and then buff.
By Infomaniac on Monday, January 14, 2002 - 12:00 am:
We're seeing a lot of 'chick mottling'... now that we're crossing our Araucana and Ameraucana lines into our Leghorn line. We've never really seen it before and we are inclined to believe that it is coming from the Leghorns. We even have one chick that is now about 3 months old that is almost an Exchequer coloration.
We've been thinking of this phenotype change as a maturing process. We know, for example, that some genes influence chick down and even juvenile feathering differently than adult plumage. I wonder if that is just hormonal influences, endocrine or some other age-related biochemical process....
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 05:02 am:
By Infomaniac on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 12:29 pm:
http://www.cyborganic.com/People/feathersite/Poultry/CGK/Leghorns/BRKLeghorns.html
I'm going to go down to 'formatting' to learn to write links on this board (if that is possible) ....
Carefoot has carried out breeding experiments that show that the Exchequer (pied) pattern is based on the homozygosity for mottle, mo / mo. That's why my comment about our "near Exchequer" bird was germane to the chick mottle issue. The difference between the Exchequer and mottle pattern is attributed to unknown modifying genes by Smyth.
By Infomaniac on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 12:32 pm:
By Japman117201 on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 07:32 pm:
By HannahH on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 08:16 pm:
By Infomaniac on Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - 08:27 pm:
Japman, that can happen (getting different looking birds from the same matings) if they are not homozygous for the traits in question. For example, if you have birds that are heterozygous for mottle, the way to represent the two different genes is " Mo+ / mo " where the Mo+ is the (dominant) wild-type (no mottling) and mo is the recessive mottle gene. Breeding two birds like that will give you 25% homozygous for no mottle: Mo+ / Mo+ (no mottle); 50% heterozygous for mottle, Mo+ / mo, but since mottle is recessive, you shouldn't see it in the bird, and 25% homozygous for mottle, mo+ / mo+ and these last ones will show mottle in the plumage.
The situation is even more complex when the trait, such as blue, Bl, is incompletely dominant ... sometimes it expresses and sometimes it doesn't depending on if the chicks inherit the suppressing factors or not.
By Rokimoto on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 02:28 pm:
I also never observed a mottled adult bird in my stocks and most of the chicks showed the white tips. I'd have expected some adults to remain mottled, but none ever did. This could be a weaker allele of mottled that does not express in adult feathers.
If your buff mottled have the white tips without the black band it could be the same thing that I had with my New Hamps. I don't know what it is or anything about the genetics.