THE INHERITANCE OF PATTERNS

BY DOUG BROWN

In the last article I discussed Dominance and Recessiveness. In the patterns this is seen very easily. The Phenotypes (or what you see) are the Dark T pattern, many levels of Checkering, Bars, and Barless. There is also a pattern that we call Spread. Spread really is not a pattern but is many time included in this section. There are two genes for pattern. A bird may have one of each, or in some cases two of the same. A bird that has two genes for a pattern is called a pure, and the ones that carry two different genes are called impure.

I know that most of the time it is confusing to use letters to denote characteristics but in the long run it does really work out for the best. So I will use them.

T-Pattern will be C^TC^T, C^TC(carrying check), C^TX (carrying bar). C^T--, (carrying barless).

Checkers will be CC(Pure), CX (carrying bars), C—(Carrying Barless).

Bars will be XX (pure bars), X—(carrying barless).

Barless will be – -- (pure for barless) Cannot carry anything else.

Spread will be SS (pure for Spread). If you add an S gene to any of the above genotypes the bird will be a spread. It only takes one gene of the spread factor to make a bird a spread. On the blue family the bird will be a black, on the Ash Red family the bird will be a lavender. If only one gene S is present the spread will be of poor quality. This is what causes the blacks with bars showing through. If you want to make the best blacks possible they are double factored spread, and double or single factored T-Pattern, or check pattern.

A T-patterned bird is the most dominant of all the patterns and if the bird has one of the genes it will be a T-Patterned bird regardless if it is a hen or a cock. If the bird has two of the T-Patterned genes it will be pure for the T-Pattern and all of the young will be T-Pattern also. No matter to what other pattern it is bred to. If the bird is impure for the T-Pattern it means that it will be one of the following.

C^TC This bird will be a T-Pattern bird carrying one gene for checkering.

C^TX This bird will be a T-Pattern bird carrying one gene for Bars

C^T-- This bird will be a T-Pattern bird carrying one gene for Barless

If you know the patterns of the parents of the birds that you are breeding from the genetics of patterns is made much easier. If you do not and you want to find out what pattern a bird is carrying it is simple to find what the most dominant bird is carrying, if anything. Lets do an experiment. We have a T-Patterned bird. What do we know.? Well I do know that the bird is C^T?. This means that he is carrying one gene for T-Pattern and I do not know what the other gene is. All I have to do to find out what the second gene is, is to mate him to a barred bird or to a barless. Most of you do not have barless so the best is to mate him to a barred bird. Ok, lets mate him to a barred hen. He is C^T? and she is XX. He can give either the C^T or the ? to the mating, and she can only give the X. So when the young are hatched and feathered out you will be able to tell what his second gene is.

Result # one: If in the breedings you get nothing but T-Patterned young. This tells you that he probably is a pure C^TC^T since all of the young are just like him in Phenotype. They are however are not pure for the T-Pattern, but are impure for Bar. Their Genotype is C^TX

Result #two: In this mating you get young that are both T-Patterned and check. There are no Bars. But in this mating we find some T- Patterned and checkered birds. This means that the original cock bird is a T-Patterned bird carrying checker (C^TC). Since he was mated to a Barred bird (XX) It means that the T-Patterned birds are not pure but are carrying barred (C^TX), and the checkers are not pure for checker but are carrying the bars from the hen and are of the genotype CX.

Result #three: In this mating you get both T-Patterned and Bars. All the T-Patterned young are of the genotype C^TX, meaning impure for T-Pattern. They carry the Bar gene as their second gene. The Barred birds are pure for bar. The genotype is XX. It tells me that the father of these birds is a T-Patterned bird that is carrying the gene for bar. His genotype is C^TX, and they got one of the X’s from the hen.

Checkering: Lets do another mating between a Checkered cock and a barred hen. Lets say that we do not know what the genotype of the checkered bird is. This again means that we know that he is a checker but we do not know what his second gene is for pattern. Then we say that his genotype is C?. C representing the checkered pattern and the question mark representing that which we do not know. We again are going to mate him to a barred hen. Her genotype is XX.

Result #one: In the first mating all of the birds produced are checkers, no barred birds are produced. This tells me that the cock probably is a pure for checker (CC). Since no barred birds were produced. The young are impure for checker since the hen was a barred bird. The genotype of the youngsters is CX, which says that they are checkers carrying bars.

Result #two: In this mating we get both checkers and bars. This tells me that the cock had to have a gene for bars since a barred bird was produced. It only takes one to prove what the second gene is. The checkered young will be of the genotype CX and the barred birds will be XX. The barred birds are pure for the barred pattern.

Barred to Barred matings produce all barred birds, unless you have barless in your families.

Now recently Randy and I started a project on the barless factor. This is really not a very difficult pattern to work with since it is the most recessive pattern there is. When you mate a barless with any of the other patterns all of the youngsters will be carrying the barless pattern.

Results: If you mate a T-Patterned bird with a barless bird. Depending on the genotype of the T-Patterned bird you will get . T-Pattern, Check, or Bars carrying the gene for barless. To make more of the barless birds all you have to do is to mate two of the birds carrying the barless together and you will get some of the barless patterns.

Result of mating number one: I mate a T-Patterned bird which is impure for barless (C^T--) to a pure barless hen (-- --). From this mating you can expect to get both T-Patterned and barless birds. The T-Patterned birds will be impure for T-Pattern (C^T--), and the barless will be pure for barless (-- -- )

Result of mating number two: I mate a Checker that is impure for checker (C--)and barless to a barless. From this mating I would expect to find both checker and barless young. The checkers would not be pure for checker they would be impure and be of the genotype (C--). All of the barless young would be of the genotype (-- --) which shows that they are pure barless.

Result of mating number three: I mate a Barred bird to a Barless. The Barred bird is impure for bars, it is carrying the barless gene. It is the genotype (X--). The barless bird again is of the genotype (-- --) and we say is pure for barless. From this mating we would expect to find bars and barless youngsters. Again the barred birds will not be pure for bar, but rather they will be impure. They will be carrying the barless gene. They will be of the genotype (X--). All of the barless are pure and will again be of the genotype (-- --).

Results of the mating number four: If you mate two barless together you will only get barless youngsters. I do not do that yet as the barless birds that we have used are as yet unimproved birds. Someday when I find some that are very good spinners we will do this kind of mating. But if I were to do this now I would be taking a step backwards instead of going forward.