A Guide to Practical Breeding A Guide to Practical Breeding First edition, 2012 | Page 19

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pea comb or homozygous. If both parents throw straight comb genes, then the
For purposes, of
offspring will be straight combed. This
individual is also homozygous or pure for practical breeding, to
straight comb genes. But what if one par- which this book is
essential
ent throws a straight comb gene and the devoted,
other contributes a pea comb gene? Then knowledge in genetics
the offspring will be heterozygous, nei- will suffice.
ther pure pea comb nor pure straight
comb.
Here comes the dominant-recessive gene action. Although the
genotype of the said chicken is heterozygous for having one gene for
straight comb and another gene for pea comb, its appearance or phenotype will be pea combed. Why? Because when it comes to comb types,
pea is dominant to straight. Meaning every time one parent throws pea
comb gene and the other straight comb, the offspring will always manifest the phenotype of a pea comb. If this, half pea comb-half straight
comb chicken is mated, then it will probably throw gene for pea comb
half of the times and gene for straight comb the other half of the times. If
mated to pure pea comb individual, all its offspring will be pea comb in
looks because the pure individual will throw pea comb genes all the time.
No matter what type the heterozygous individual throws, it will always
be paired with the pea comb gene coming from the homozygous individual, which is dominant (pea + pea = pea comb; pea + straight = pea
comb).
If the heterozygous individual is paired with another heterozygous individual then the probability is that ¾ of the off spring will be pea
combed and ¼ will be straight comb (pea + pea = pea; pea + straight=
pea; straight + straight = straight). If one parent is heterozygous while the
other is pure of the recessive gene, then the probability is that half of the
offspring will be pea combed the other half straight combed
(pea+straight= pea; straight + straight= straight). Remember that the only
time the recessive gene of a kind will manifest in the phenotype or appearance is when it is paired with co- recessive gene. Because of the absence of another gene that will dominate it. Dominant-recessive gene action also applies to other characteristics such as color of plumage and
color of legs. For example grey is dominant to red. Light leg color is
dominant to dark colored leg. For purposes, of practical breeding, to
which this book is devoted, essentials will suffice. Further learning in the
science of genetics will be, however, helpful and useful to more serious
students of gamefowl breeding.
Single mating
Throughout the development of the blakliz, we employed a lot of
single mating. Single mating is when we mate a brood cock to a single
hen. A brood cock can be single mated to different hens at a time. But we