Onagadori - Long Tail Fowl and Long Crowing Fowl Discussion Forums

All chickens have black and red (gold). These are the only colors in chickens. All the different patterns and colors depend on either restricting or enhancing these two colors.
THE DOWN GENES

E--extended black. dominate Chicks are hatched as black. In adult hood they are black with red (gold) or white (silver) in the hackles and saddles. (polecats, furriness) My Mottles have E.

e Wh -- dominate wheaten. Chicks hatch out as whitish. adults are: males: red hackle and saddle without stripping. Breast, tail, and wing bows black. Females: Wheat colored to reddish. Black restricted to the wings and tail. Example Wheaten. My Mille Fleurs have e wh.

e+ --wild. Chicks are brown like chipmunks when hatched, with striped head and back. In adult hood males: Much like the wheaten males above, but the red is not quite so bright. Females: Brownish with very fine black penciling on body. Breast is salmon Example Black Breasted Red/ Silver Ducklings.

e b --dark brown. Chicks striped back with a blurred head. Adults males: as above. Females as above but have a red/brown breast instead of salmon.

e bc -- buttercup. Chicks as chicks above but the yellowish white stripe is wider. Head stripe is broken and irregular. Adults as above.

e y --recessive wheaten. chicks are white. Adults are like above but the red is darker and both sexes have striping in the saddle and hackle.

These are the foundation that the other genes work with to give us the colors and patterns that we enjoy in chickens. Extended black is the only dominate gene in this group. The others are incomplete dominate. A chick with 2 different down genes will show traits of each.


ENHANCERS OF BLACK

mi -- Melanotic. recessive This gene allows for the normally red areas of chickens to be black. (Melanotic plus E = a black bird).


DILUTERS OF BLACK

Bl --Andalusin blue. One gene to a black bird will be blue. Two genes will be splash. See blue gene. One of my favorite genes. Without it I would only have Mottled and Mille Fleur. It changes a Mille Fleur to a Blue Mille Fleur of Golden Neck depending on the number of genes present. It also changes a Mottled to a Blue Mottled.

Co --Columbian dominate. Removes black to the hackle and tail. Makes for the male to have a white or buff breast. Males and females have same color instead of being different. This changes a Wheaten bird to a Buff Columbian

Db --Dark Brown. dominate Reported by Moore and Smyth (1972) makes a male into a black tailed white or buff or red while not removing all the stripping from the body of the female. A gene I'm not familiar with.

Ii -- Dominate white. effective in changing black to white but not so good on red e.g. creaminess on whites. Birds with Ii will have some black spots on breast. Used for Red Pyle Old English Game.

Er -- Erminette -- dominate. Reported by Hutt (1964) A heterozygous pattern Most feathers are white with the rest being black. Double dose birds are all white. Not a gene that I'm familiar with.

pi --Pied -- recessive Black and white are evenly marked. Best known example is Exchequer Leghorn. Another gene that I'm not familiar with.

Sd -- Sex Link Dilution. Reported by Munro (1946) Closely associated with Sex Linked Barring (B) Sd males are barred, Sd Sd males are white. Sd females are bluish ghost barred, sd females are barred. Another gene that I'm not familiar with.


RESTRICTORS OF BLACK AND RED

B -- Sex Link Barring-- dominate. "puts" white bars on the feather. Best example Barred Plymouth Rocks. Males can have 1 or 2 genes. Hence dark and light barred males. Females only 1. Males pass trait to sons and daughters. Females pass trait on to sons. Also effects red by having white bars on red feather. Best example Creel Old English Game.

mo -- Mottled --recessive. Makes a black bar with white spot below, at end of feather. Another one of my favorites. Without it I would only have Black and Buff Columbian (changes a black bird to a Mottled and a Buff Columbian bird to a Mille Fleur) .


DILUTERS OF BLACK AND GOLD

cc -- Recessive white --Changes both black and red to white. Working with recessive white can be tricky as it "white washes" a bird. It may have the phenotype of a totally different color or even a nonstandard color underneath the white. The only way to determine what the white is hiding is to mate it to a black bird. You can get barred, polecats, etc.

lav -- lavender.-- recessive. Black becomes gray and red feathers become cream.

rs -- red-splashed white. recessive Reported by Quinn (1934) A bird with 2 genes is reported to be white with splashes of red and black. Know nothing about this one either.


SEX LINK GOLD

G- --This is the second basic color of chickens (Black is the first) This makes for a buff colored bird (along with another gene) or causes the red in the red areas of the red and black bird.


ENHANCERS OF GOLD

ar -- Autosomal Red. -- Reported by Hutt (1949) In theory only. Independent of Sex Link Gold (red) as Silver doesn't effect it. Suggested that this makes for the Golden Duckwing Group. Personally know nothing about it. But suspect that Mh (mahogany) might do the same trick.

Mh --Mahogany. -- dominate. Makes for a dark red bird. Best known example : Rhode Island Red.


RESTRICTORS OF GOLD

S -- Sex Link Silver Incomplete dominate. Opposite of Sex Linked Gold. Changes gold to silver. Females have one gene. Males have 2 (or can have 1 of each). If a male has 1 for gold and one for silver his saddle and hackle is creamish. Changes a Black Breasted Red to Silver Duckwing or a Golden Sebright to a Silver Sebright.


DILUTERS OF GOLD

ig -- cream recessive. Reported by Punnett (1948) Described as introducing a rich cream to gold or a pale silver to silver. Know nothing about this one.

Di -- Dilute-- dominate Reported by Brumbaugh and Hollander Makes a red/gold bird into a buff. Another one that I haven't worked with.

cb -- champagne blond -- recessive. Also reported by Brumbaugh and Hollander. Reported to do the same as above. I tend to support this for Buffs from some breeding/crossing that I have done with Buff Plymouth Rocks, that there is a recessive gene that dilutes gold to a warm buff.

However some authors -- Somes and Smyth (1965) report that buffs carry a suppressor of red.


SECONDARY PATTERNS

Ab -- autosomal barring. Another gene I know nothing about.

Lg -- lacing. dominate gives the Partridge Plymouth Rock females the lacing pattern. Same for Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks.

Sp -- spangling. dominate. Jeffery call this trait a pattern. I think of it as black restrictor. It removes black from all of the feather except the very end making a black inverted V. Best known examples Silver Spangled Hamburg and Golden Spangled Hamburg.

GOOD POST!

Wow! Excellent post! Thanks for posting that, cc.


David

Depending on who your sources are, there's also the ER (birchen) allele, which is a nearly solid black chick with a reddish head, as opposed to E (extended black) which is black on top, pale underneath, often with a little white/yellow on the head. I've also read that e bc may just be a form of eb with pattern genes that change the down, and e y may be a form of eWh with black enhancers that give the striped hackle/saddle.