Chicken Genetics 6 - Feather Lacing Patterns
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- In this video about the genetics of chickens I want to consider the beautiful “laced” pattern of chickens like the Wyandottes, in which each feather is outlined in another colour, around the edge. The edging colour is usually black. That pretty laced effect needs more than one gene to achieve.
When we think of lacing in Wyandottes, we usually think of single lacing. But there is another lacing pattern called double lacing and it looks like this. Of course single lacing and double lacing have similar but slightly different genetic backgrounds, but like many things in chicken genetics, it’s not quite the way you might expect.
We need to look at a combination of three different genes - Pg, Ml, and Co. The first gene we need to consider is the Pg gene. Pg stands for Pattern gene, and it’s a very important gene in creating patterned feathers. It’s a restrictor gene, and Pg restricts the expression of black eumelanin unevenly in a way that pushes the black pigment into concentric lines around the feather, but leaving the very outer edge of the feather ground coloured, not black. The Pg gene is inherited as a dominant gene. The pattern caused by the Pg gene on its own is called penciling.
The second gene we need to consider is the Ml gene. Ml stands for Melanotic. It’s also inherited as a dominant gene. Ml works to intensify the black eumelanin and also move where the black lines appear. If a chicken has the Ml gene as well as the Pg gene, the concentric lines of black become broader and shift towards the outer edge of the feather, so the concentric bands of black are fewer and wider, and there is a black rim around the very edge of the feather. This is called double lacing.
Now let’s add the Columbian gene, which you will remember is also a restrictor gene. When Co is also present along with Pg and Ml, it removes the concentric lines in the middle of each feather, just leaving a black rim around the ground colour of the feather. This is single lacing. The single lace pattern needs all three genes - Pg, Ml and Co.
Now let’s think about the colour. The ground colour is usually gold or silver. The gold colour is caused by the pigment pheomelanin. A Wyandotte whose feathers have a gold ground colour and a black outline is usually called “Gold laced” or black-laced gold. In a Silver laced Wyandotte, the gold ground colour has been covered up by the Silver gene. The Silver gene is carried on the Z chromosome.
If we cross a gold-laced Wyandotte rooster with a silver laced hen, all the boys will be silver-laced and all the girls will be gold-laced. Even though the boys get only one copy of the Silver gene on the Z chromosome that they inherited from their mother the silver-laced hen, they still express that dominant Silver gene, and the ground colour of their feathers is silver. On the other hand, the females inherit their one Z gene from their father and he has no Silver gene. And we’ll be able to tell the sex of each chick as soon as it hatches, because even at hatching the chick down of gold laced and silver laced Wyandottes is quite distinct. This is the classical sex-linked cross but all within one breed, the Wyandotte, so all the chicks are still purebred Wyandottes, just different colours.
And yes, I’ve done this cross myself because I wanted to see it in action, and it really did work. Of course it did - the genetics just do work like that
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Thank you! On to the next in this series!
Very interesting that double laced is less complicated than single laced. You explained how that works very well. You also have some lovely birds!
Yes I was surprised too - I thought double lacing would have been twice as many of something as single lacing.
@@chickensinmygarden By finding out "how" things work you can get a much better insight.
And scratch that "curiosity" itch 😄
Very informative and easy to understand. Thank you!
Thanks for watching and for your compliment 🙂
Thank
Video apik, sepurane aku kawet Nemu..
Terus berkarya mbak.
Aku seneng ndelok video video Tekok awakmu
Great explanation and visuals
Thank you. I hope it makes it clear. It's a complicated subject.
@@chickensinmygarden It truly is. I've been breeding laced birds for a long time and it is a never ending challenge. Just when you get one thing exactly right you gotta run and fix something else, haha!
Thanks for making these videos
Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
Thank you so much for the chicken genetics series. I enjoyed them all. I just wish I could have a rooster so I could try out the theory.
I love doing them. There are two more to go -- one about the lacing colours and one just about my real life breeding of white-laced buff Wyandottes. It certainly was fun seeing the genetics theory in action which is why I want to share it with you.
Very good content! Thank you for sharing all of this information! I have watched all your videos and I am learning so much! I have a large flock of many different breeds and I am working on some crosses. Keep up the wonderful information, it is giving ideas of my next steps towards my “designed” breed of chickens. So far I have copper maran, Rhode Island Red and silver campine all crossed and they are looking pretty interesting!
That's great. We don't have Marans here in New Zealand but I love the RIRs, and I'm hoping to get a silver campine one day - when I have room for another chicken!
Chickens in my garden
I wish you luck! Here in the north eastern U.S.A silver campines have proven to be very difficult to find. They are wonderful hardy chickens and I highly recommend them if you can get you hands on some! Thank you for such a prompt reply! I appreciate the feedback. I love the fun crosses that can be made and playing around with genetics and I hope to see more educational content from you, your way of teaching is fantastic!
Thank you. I appreciate your saying so.
I have 2 laced hens one a wyandotte and one a gorgeous mix
Thanks for making this video. i really wait for this 😍
I'm glad you found it helpful.
@@chickensinmygarden Hi, I hope you are well. I was wondering what will be the colour of the chicks if I cross a gold partridge wyandotte hen with a blue laced red rooster?
Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure what the partridge will do to the pattern, but
Assuming the lacing of the gold partridge hen is black, then half of the chicks will have black lacing and half will have blue lacing.
Probably the red ground colour will look so similar to the gold ground colour that you won't be able to tell the difference.
And it's not a sex-linked cross so you can't tell the girls from the boys.
@@chickensinmygarden I really appreciate your quick reply. I love watching your videos about chicken and to be honest the contents are really quality stuff. It deserves more viewings than you already have.
Thank you. My responses are a bit erratic because of the time difference (I'm in New Zealand) but I do try to reply as soon as I can 🙂
Wonderful presentation - very succinct! I'll research more, but what if one wanted to introduce, say, black lacing to a breed of chicken that doesn't have lacing... Like Malays or Indio Gigante, which are typically BB red, wheaten, or Duckwing variations. Would I use a golden laced rooster most similar to those breeds, over the BB red hens? Using Silkies, we could use the partridge Silkie Hen under Silver laced cochin roosters ? I could never get that chicken calculator to work for me in the past, I'll try it again :o)
To get the lacing you need all three genes- pattern, restrictor and columbian. They won't necessarily all stay together in each offspring but the great thing about them is that just by looking at the bird (once it has adult plumage) you can tell which of the three it has.
Yes do try the calculator again 🙂
To get a really crisp lacing there are other genes involved to a lesser extent, so once you have something that is close, you will need to breed back to laced birds to get perfection over many generations.
Good luck
@@chickensinmygarden Thank you for the clarification - I was assuming the 3 genes would be present in all chicks if the one parent had them. My project is to make silverlaced Silkies that have German Langshan Legs.) So it’s extra difficult to factor those genes too.
I would have used silver laced German Langshans, but they only exist in Europe. I could find nonein the USA. So I’ll need to use Partridge Silkies, Modern Game Bantams (for the legs & size), and bantam silver laced Cochins for single lacing (also is the most similar in form to silkies.
The best advice I can give you - Keep SUPERB records of phenotype (appearance) and presumed genotype of all parents and all offspring including the ones that are not what you want. That way your matings can get progressively better informed and more successful.
@@chickensinmygarden Thank you. This is very useful information. I’ve downloaded some boilertemplates of breeding record. Yes, I recall your presentation on Splash leaking through the lacing - wonderful info I didn’t have before :-)
Really infermative ❤
Thank you.
can someone gyove me the name of a pattern where it is similar to laced patterns but only the rachis is different in color, creating a distinct line pattern
What about the different down patterns for Sebright for example?
I understand that the down colours and patterns on chicks can be useful in revealing the genetics underlying the appearance of the adult bird, but it's not a topic I have studied.
Is there a gene for edging or does it happen with certain feather colors?
Well, yes. By "edging" I suppose you mean the pattern called "single lacing" in which the main part of the feather is one colour and there is another colour around the edge of each feather. This "single lacing" pattern requires the interaction of three genes - called Pg, and Ml, and Co.
Is that what you are asking?
@@chickensinmygarden it not exactly single lacing but it looks similar when the feathers are laying on top of each other but, when you lift the feathers off each other the feathers are just a single color. I see it a lot in the blue ameraucana
Hmm. I don't think I have seen that. But there are many different genes that have an effect on feather colour and patterns. I have just concentrated on the few that are simple and obvious. Quite likely the interplay of various minor genes are causing the effect you are describing.
Does the sex link cross work on seabrights as well?
I think so. I don't think there is anything odd about the Sebright colouring but I haven't researched their genetics.
my cornish girl is doubled lace, she is the smartest chicken in the flock, she is so pretty,
Hi.. please guide me!! I have black laced silver sebright bantam parent stock(perfect marking parent stock) but the chicks out from them.. out of 10 chicks 8 are mark out black laced silver.. How can i fix to perfect marking black laced silver chicks!!
Remember that lacing takes a few moults to mature. Often the lacing improves when they get about a year old.
@@chickensinmygardenthanks for reply. Am trying for 4 years to improve them. Not getting similar as beautiful as parent stock. Totally confused.
May i ask your whatsapp no.? For more guidance
Sorry I don't have WhatsApp
The only thing I can suggest is to breed from your best birds. There will always be some variation in the individuals of each generation.
Does mottled chicken lose its dots when they grow up?
Mottled chickens don't look mottled as baby chicks - they develop the mottled pattern as they grow up 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden sorry wrong question. I have a mottled cockerel and it seems to lose mottled color and turn almost all black after it turn rooster. Is it normal for them to change color as they grow up?
Yes it's normal for chicks to be a different colour from the adults and even once they get proper feathers these are often not the final mature pattern. With each molting the pattern will become closer to the final look. Usually with mottled birds, young pullets and cockerels will have just a few mottles and develop more dots as they mature. I don't know a breed where that happens the other way around, but I'm probably not familiar with the breeds in your country
So. If I have a chocolate gold laced rooster over a black silver laced hen, I will get chocolate gold laced hens and black silver laced roosters, is that correct?
I don't know the genetic background of your chocolate lacing, but gold hens and silver roosters is right, I'm not sure about the colour of the lacing.
According to the information I have read, chocolate is a recessive diluter.
Ah - it appears that chocolate is sex-linked. So only the males would get a chocolate gene. So you get male chicks with silver feathers with chocolate lacing, and female chicks have gold feathers with black lacing. If your chickens' genetic background is what I think it is. And I have to say I'm still not sure about the chocolate.
chocolate rooster over black hens give sex linked chocolate hens and black split to chocolate roos.
briarwoodpoultry.weebly.com/poultry-colour-genetic-info.html
I've got a.chocolate gold laced roo and am breeding him with my chocolate gold hens this spring (I'm in Canada). I plan to bring in some black silver laced pullets this year to test the theory next spring
If I remember, I'll let you know how it turns out, or you can follow my page on facebook, Valhalla Creek