Chicken Colour Genetics Basics

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THE FIRST EASY GENETICS BOOK EVER! OVER 600 COLOUR PHOTOS, FOR PEOPLE FROM 13 YEARS OF AGE AND UP TAKE A LOOK...

AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!

Introduction Genetics, just the word was enough f or me to say “No way, not for me, I’ve got no mathematical talents; great for the academics!” What you now have in front of you is the work of a dummy who is now opportunistic enough to say:

Colour genetics? That’s like making vegetable soup! Many thanks to David Hancox, Henk Meijers and Grant Bereton, all experimental poultry breeders with many years experience. I thank all for all the discussions and feedback on proposed genomes, the “genetic recipes”, and help interpreting the various components. Without them all there would be no ‘book for dummies’ because when I started nobody was dumber than me when it came to the ‘mathematics’ and ‘laws’, which is what it all looked like at the start of this project! Suddenly I found it was time to start writing, finding photographs, creating what wasn’t available, and making some drawings. J. Ringnalda, an experienced photographer (and breeder), gave me great help taking the photographs when requested, at shows and visits to other breeders. I held the chickens in position and he made some great photographs, which are included in this book. I also used a few he made previously, to add to what couldn’t be found at shows in Holland and abroad. I’ve done this book in the same way as I think, talk and live. Playfully: not too seriously: and as uncomplicated as possible, because idleness of the mind is a universal trait. Henk went through the manuscript and photographs, and took out my dummy failures. During the translation David added interesting facts and lots of his experience. The Recipe Book is the second part of this book; it contains an enormous number of photographs. Finding some colour varieties wasn’t easy. There were many in my archive, lots were taken at shows, and the very rare colours were obtained from Breed Clubs and Poultry photographers.

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Content 1. • • • • •

The colour of chickens, compared to vegetable soup 9 Where is the colour of the chicken located? 10 The Jungle Fowl as Standard 11 Why the plus? 12 Why is one letter in capitals and the other in lower case? 12 Gallus Bankiva: is this the only Jungle Fowl responsitble for chicken colours? 14

2. The only colours in chickens are black and red 15 • How are black and red made 15 • The black in chickens 15 • The red in chickens 15 • The are two sorts of red in chickens 16 - Sex- linked Red 16 - Autosomal Red 16 3. • • • •

How to get the right gene mix? 21 Which gene mix gives what? 21 Sex linked and Autosomal genes 22 Homozygous and heterozygous 23 Hormones, influencing colours 23

4. The e-series as a basis for colour 25 • Hobby names, tell us nothing about genetic back ground! 25 • What is a genome? 26 5. The four gene groups 27 6. • • • • •

The colour distribution genes (group 1) 28 E, Extended Black 28 ER, Birchen 31 eWh, Wheaten 33 e+, ‘Wild type’ Partridg 38 eb, Brown 43

7. • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The uniform colour changing genes (group 2) 51 I, Dominant White 51 I^D, Dun colour 56 I^S, Smoky 59 choc, Chocolate 61 c, Recessive white 65 S, Silver 66 Bl, Blue 69 lav, Lavender 74 rb, Recessive black 77 Dull Black 77 ig, Cream 79 Cb, Champagne Blond 79 Cha, Charcoal 80

8. • • • • •

Colour distributing genes (group 3) 82 Co, Columbian 82 Db, Dark brown 84 Di, Dilute 86 Mh, Mahogany 88 Ml, Melanotic 91

9. Pattern genes (group 4) 95 • Pg, Pattern gene 99 - Pencilled 101 - Double laced 102 - Single laced 104 - Pencilled or Autosomal barred 105 - Spangled 107 • mo, mottled, mille fleur 112 • Brain teaser 124 • B, Sex-linked Cuckoo or Barring 133

10. Extras Part 2, List of genomes plus photographs of  Standard colour varieties, as described in a Standard of Perfection.

For the English readers... Readers can see this book was originally written in Dutch, with the prime emphasis on the European Continental breeder and his poultry scene. I have endeavoured to translate it so that it would have wider appeal to the English speaking world. This has proven more dif ficult than I imagined for several reasons. Firstly fowl are not herdbook animals, but are bred to a Standard, this being a written description of the ideal fowl. Standards however differ from country to country. What is acceptable in one is not in others. Secondly it is possible, and indeed factual, that breeds and varieties of breeds can be produced, to look the same, from different genetic pathways. This may produce in some cases, birds that look as described in the Standard, are exhibited and win at poultry shows, but can not, and do not breed true. Lastly, and most importantly, even English speaking countries have different hobby names, sometimes even within breeds. Partridge is a typical case, this name is used for

two entirely different colour patterns, the wildtype e+ bird, and the brown eb patterned bird. The English speaking world only applies ‘partridge’ to the female wildtype, the male being a black/red; the European breeder would call this bird a Bankiva wildtype partridge; and the geneticist a Red Duckwing. In Germany, Goldhalsig which means with a golden neck; Braungebändert which means brown pencilled/laced/ribboned; and gebändert which actually translates into ribboned/laced in the shape of a horse shoe, a type of “U/V-shaped”, all translate into Partridge. I have tried to follow the naming method that would be most easily understood, giving explanations where I thought it appropriate. After you read this book I hope (to misquote Churchill ) that “Now this is not the end. That it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” of your interest in this subject. David Hancox Winter 2007

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Chickens are also food   for the soul 

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1. The colour of chickens, as compared to soup

Stock cubes, the e-allele. The e-allele is the basis on which chicken colour is made. All the ingredients (colour genes) you add, determine the ‘taste’ of the e-allele.

There are 5 sorts of broth (e-alleles or the e-series) on which to make chicken colours. Wild type,  Duckwing (e+) is one of them.

The colour of a chicken doesn’t consist of just one factor but is the combined action of many genes. In certain combinations the presence or absence of  diluters or enhancers will give variations to the colour variety. The colour of the chicken is best to compared to the taste of the soup. To make a soup, you first choose a basic ingredient, the broth. It can be beef, chicken, herbs, mushroom or fish. The base determines a big part of the taste. The basis of chicken colours is determined by the e-alleles. The choice of the broth, ‘e allele’, will determine how the other ingredients are going to taste and look. There are ingredients, that give taste and colour to the soup, adding one, e.g. salt, has an effect on the others; sweetness is covered, or tastes differ. By adding tomatos to vegetable soup, the soup is going to become red, and you would call it tomato vegetable soup regardless of the order in which you added the other ingredients. So you have made vegetable tomato soup. The tomatoes cover the colour of both the broth, and the vegetables that are included, but the vegetables are still there, although the tomatoes heavily influence their taste. We can see the tomatoes as a dominant gene, and the vegetables as recessive genes. The effect on the vegetables is that their expression decreases or is changed (pieces of potato become orange instead of yellow white). Adding cream to the tomato soup will lighten the colour. The red becomes light orange but the vegetables keep their original colours. This compares with adding a colour-diluting gene that has an influence on the red colour (tomatoes), but not on the black (vegetables).

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Genetics of Chicken Colours The Basics Chicken colours compared to tomato vegetable soup, that comparison fits! Isn’t the word ‘genetics’ horrifying enough to shout ‘that is not my piece of cake!’? Or even worse, why would you be interested in colour genetics anyway? A chicken is a chicken and its colour is always there. For those who think thats enough to know, this book is worthless. For the ones that want to know how the chicken got that colour, this book is great! There have not been many books about chicken colour genetics lately, although most books are written in English. The books that are written are mostly old,20 years or more, or just dull , not comprehended by the average breeder, due to the scienti fic way they have been written and,being without colour photographs not appetizing at all. Books about colour genetics have never been illustrated as richly this book for dummies! Because we are dummies we need all those photographs to understand, because we are not professors nor mathematicians. Therefore I wrote/made this book because we aren’t scientists, we are fanciers and exhibition breeders! This book is made by a dummy who stirred and cooked all the hard to understand knowledge until it became a tasteful and digestible meal for anybody with an education (13 years up). How can a

‘dummy’ do this? Simple, by asking no high demands to own thinking and understanding, taking all the time needed to comprehend, and ask others who do understand the genetics if something isn’t totally clear. All colour genes are divided into 4 groups. Every group is explained in 1/3 text and 2/3 photographs because a picture tells more than a thousand words. It starts with the explanation of certain words you just have to know, that’s the toughest part and consists of less than 5 pages. The book is bursting with new things because science didn’t wait for this book the last 20 years. The action of the genes is explained and you don’t have to learn anything because its very logical. It is so much more logical that you can’t understand why this book like this has never been written before, and why genetics were always was covered with a vail of mystery. Well, that era is over now, anybody can understand the colour genes after reading and looking at the pictures in this book. Why write a book about something you work with every day as a breeder, and why has a book like this never been written ? Because its very interesting. You can really improve your breeding, you don’t have to gamble and guess as much anymore. No or less miscoloured chickens , and you save lots of money on feed and

lives of chicks that are not the right colour. You can now take a good typed bird with another colour and cross it into your line for vigor, fertility or whatever your goal is and because you know what you are doing, in a few years you have the desired trait and the colour is restored. Don’t cry ‘there are creepy symbols in this book!’, just read it and you will find out they are only shortcuts for longer words and... they are internationally recognized so you can ‘talk’ to anybody in the world about genes when you know these shortcuts. For English breeders the shortcuts are logical, because most genes have English names! Breeders from other countries find it a bit more dif ficult but every shortcut is repeated over and over again together with the ‘long name’, so you don’t have to learn them by heart. You just recognize them in a playful way. The book is written loosely, no ‘scienti fic’ jargon, it reads as if somebody is telling you the story of  chicken colours, not dull at all, you won’t fall asleep as you did when you read the old books. Attention is retained because you have eyes to look at the beautiful photographs that tell you about the genes. For the ones who can’t remember anything, there are several schemes in which you can look up the name of the gene and its

 ER has breast lacing, this distinguishes this colour from Gold of  Silver Necked Black, which doesn’t. A Gold Necked Black hen can be also a poorly marked ER hen on which the lacing doesn’t  extent far enough over the breast. Gold and Silver necked Blacks are normally based on E.

 A Brown Red hen. Genetically a Gold   Birchen

 All patterns on which the rooster has a patterned tail like Gold or Silver Pencilled and   Autosomal barred are based  on ER, as are the spangled, laced etc.

The colour  of the French  Marans is actually a Red   Birchen without  lots of selection of  breast lacing. Some have black breasts others show some kind of lacing.

Silver Birchen rooster, note the breast  lacing and the so called ‘crow wing’, that is black instead of the common brown or white as on the ‘duckwing’ of  other roosters of the e-series.

eWh, Wheaten – This is a bit of a strange e-allele, and it’s dif ficult to choose whether it should be here, before e+ Duckwing or last in order. The e-series is described in order of dominance and Wheaten is the next in dominance after E and ER, unless there are black enhancers present; Wheaten then becomes the most recessive all ele of the e-series, and should be at the end of the list. There is something else a bit odd about Wheaten. There is almost no difference between the Wheaten and Duckwing roosters. The only small differences, that only a practiced eye will recognise, is that the hackle and saddle feathers of the Wheaten roosters have no or very little black shafting. If it’s there, then it’s in the lower part of the hackle. Hackle and saddle are therefore orange red (when s+ gold) without black stripes like the Duckwing and the yet to be described eb-rooster. Commonly Wheaten roosters have lighter under fluff than the other roosters of the e-series, who have greyish under fluff. The Wheaten hens do differ a lot from the other ‘e’ hens. eWh Wheaten hens tend to be more reddish. eWh Wheaten extends the salmon coloured breast over the complete body of the hen and at the same time removes the black stippling.

Yellow Wheaten Chabos.

In the chick down there is a big difference between an eWh and an e+ Duckwing based chicken. The eWh chick is cream coloured or white. Sometimes there is some stippling on the head or diluted dorsal stripes are present, if there is, for example Columbian in it. The chicks look 

Gold  Wheaten Chabos.

actions. The photographs are not standard pictures, but photos of ‘real’ animals, mostly at exhibitions but also at breeders’ homesteads in their pens and coops. You will see so many new things in chickens if you know what to pay attention to, you can be a colour-judge after reading this book and you know why colours look the way they do. Next to easy text, beautiful photographs the page design is vivid and playful too, as if every page is a piece of art, therefore this book is a little party. Its a book for breeders who want to look at photos instead of  studying and learning text. The second part of the book is the ‘recipe book’, in which most Standard colour varieties are explained. The book is originally Dutch, so there are lots of Continental European colours but the English/US colours and others are included too and where a photograph was available, its in there as well. In the recipe book there are also some new true breeding colours that are being created all the time by imaginative breeders who like to play with the colour genes. You can,if you wish, be one of them and create your own colours. Anybody who thinks or says ‘colour genetics, thats not for me’, will agree after reading this book that it

With cap and body warmer, chicks of Tollbunt Polands...

is not a mystery at all and anybody can understand it! The book consists of 224 pages, has over 600 photographs, all are in full colour of course. Therefore the book isn’t going to be‘cheap’, because there are high demands for the printing process and colour printing is, of course, much more expensive than black  & white printing. The knowledge in the book is updated to 2008 and therefore contains information from the newest scientific literature that is beneficial to breeders of hobby chickens. The English book will be more up to date than the original Dutch version because we collected some more new and interesting facts. This book will be your colour bible in breeding. You can look up everything when you forget something, or look at the photographs if you’re looking for something speci fic. You can discuss things clearly, don’t have to guess anymore and the Dutch breeders who have this book already are very happy with it.

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The hobby has got a completely new dimension the past year.Several groups of Dutch breeders have come together at forums and everybody is discussing what they finding in their pens. Even colour experiments are being done and everybody is able to understand each other. Together with the chicken colour calculator breeding is more fun than ever! In addition, old colours/breeds can be restored with this knowledge, and new colours will be created! This book is the first genetics book ever made with so many photos, easy reading style, and for the first time in history written by chicken fanciers. Everything is based on scienti fic facts and therefore you can rely on it in your breeding until new perspectives are discovered by science. Genetics of Chicken Colours The Basics will be available in a real print book (easiest to read) and also as a secured (very copy protected) eBook. Check out www.chickencolours.com for the latest news and when its available and where to purchase!

There are a number of ways in which the colours could between the breeds is large. have been listed, as a list of Standard colours as found The proposed recipes, the description of the genotyin the Dutch ,German and US Standards, or in conjunc- pe, are theoretical. If possible they are derived from tion with the breeds illustrations as in the UK, Austra- breeding practice. Unfortunately there are no breeders lian and NZ Standards, or in alphabetical order, or on who can tell exactly what’s ‘in’ their colour variety, unthe basis of the ‘e’ allele, or using the hobby names. less they have access to laboratory techniques at the The latter was the eventual choice. chromosome level. Also problematical is the fact that This list doesn’t pretend to be complete, indeed there many colours can be made using different genotypes. is little input with respect to Asian, especially Japanese The most common breeds are the most researched, but breeds, and those from Latin America and Africa. in many uncommon or geographically isolated breeds Several colour varieties are no longer found in certain even the experts can’t tell with absolute certainty what Countries, and indeed some may never have existed in genes are present. Several Dutch and landrace colours some Countries. Therefore some colours are shown fall into this category because neither the history, nor with pictures of chickens that are found in other parts selection criteria of the colour is well understood. See of the World. For the ‘professional’ there are variati- these recipes as an aid to discover which genes are part ons and differences because the Standard colours and of a colour variety. Question marks or red text are advarieties may differ, in several ded when the genotype breeds, from Country to Counis doubtful or unknown, try. or where the colour can For the exact colour of a spebe made by differing cific breed in your Country, methods. the best source of information The genetics of chicken is the Breed club or your Nacolours is not an exact tional Standard. science but more the The pictures depict the generesult of combining the ral colour. The chickens phofactors that are possibly tographed are not perfect but responsible for the pheare used because there were no notype, and how the cobetter birds available. Becaulour variety looks. se of differing photographic techniques and light conditiNot all colour varieties ons (colour of artificial light), were available in the colours shown may have a archives, or to be seen slightly different shade to that at shows at the moment seen with the naked eye. The it was decided to make pictures have been computer this book. Thanks to edited so they meet, as near as the Breed Clubs, breepossible, the colours in reality, ders and photographers but for true reality daylight listed on the next page, is the correct circumstance in some really rare colour which to judge a colour of a varieties were able to be bird. Therefore more pictuadded. What is white, should be kept white... res have been added for some Many thanks for that! colours where the differences

The following list of genomes is based on the descriptions of the accepted colour varieties as mentioned in The Dutch Standard of Perfection, January 2007, additional Standard colours found in other Standards have also been included as required.  In the text of the Dutch Standard there is a chapter ‘Short summary of the connection between the colour varieties of our Fowl’. Although the Standard is dated 2007 the actual representation of the colours, and that the Standard is “the guide for breeders”, it’s recommended strongly that this be read for interest sake only, and then forgotten as the date of this text is unknown, but thought to originate about the turn of the last century, circa 1905 and in the meanwhile the connections and understandings of the Standard colour varieties has totally changed due to genetic research.

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