Weekend Economists Debate: Which Came First? The Incredible, Edible Egg November 27-29, 2015

[Demeter]

8. Chicken Color Genetics

http://www.ringneckdove.com/Wilmer's%20WebPage/SILKYCHI.htm

http://www.ringneckdove.com/Wilmer's%20WebPage/pic_chicken_color_genetic.gif

SOME COMMENTS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SILKIE BREED OF CHICKENS

by W. F. Hollander



Hutt comments that the silkie breed of chickens has 7 mutants:

1. White plumage
2. Black skin and flesh
3. Crest
4. Fathered feet (boots)
5. Rose comb
6. Polydactyly
7. Silky feathers

We can add a couple of additional mutants:

8. Beard
9. Short main wing and tail feathers.

Most, if not all, are homozygous. Numbers 1, 7, and 9 are recessive or mainly so; the others are dominant or mainly so.

How could this breed (combination of mutants) have originated? How would you go about producing it? Most if not all of the mutants are found singly elsewhere in chickens (breeds or varieties or local races).

Collecting all the mutants (singly) into a pool could produce random combinations of the dominants, but the recessives would be almost impossible to keep track of this way. We think it likely that the recessives would need to be combined into a "core" stock, and the dominants added to it. Sounds simple, but just try it! Remember that most of the dominants are to be homozygous in the final product.

Oh yes, how will you fund the project? What will you do with the many undesired progeny? Remember that when the project was going on Mendel hadn't been born, and sitting hens were the incubators, and no feed mills existed.

Hey!---Maybe the breed was introduced by UFO from Andromeda or another galaxy?

OR MAYBE THERE WASN'T THAT MUCH TO DO BEFORE TELEVISION EXCEPT EAT YOUR MISTAKES....