[duckface3]

Hi, im hoping some of you lovely people could help me with a few questions that i have.
I have a trio of cuckoo marans an a trio of salmon faverolles. I have a basic understanding of genetics.
I understand the e alleles and that the marans are dominant (E) to the faverolles (ewh) and that the barring is sex linked. These are my questions

1) would i be right in thinking that youngsters from marans X faverolles would be different from faverolles X marans.?
2) are faverolles s+ or S with Mh and how would i know the difference.?
3) when i asked these questions i became confused with some wods and there meanings. homozygous, heterozygous, hemizygous, please explain. ( i understand phenotype/genotype, is it the same?)
4) would cross b red youngsters have clean legs like my marans or feathered like the faverolles or would it depend on the cross and would be sex linked.?

hope iv not confused anyone as much as i am 

[Mel Rice]

Havnt a clue about the genetics but a few well selected eggs in an incubator might give you some interesting answers...you can always eat the ugly ones!

[cluckingnuts]

Hi duckface3,

I shall try to answer as clearly as I can & use genetic notations.

1) Marans x Favs = 100% single factor barred cocks & hens. Fav xMarans = 50% s.f barred cocks, 50% black hens.

2) Salmon Favs are silver (S) & Mh. Gold (s+) & Mh would give red birds.

3) Homozygous is 2 copies of the same gene i.e pure cuckoo Marans E/E, s+/s+, (s+/-) & B/B (B/-).   Salmon Favs are e^Wh/e^Wh, S/S (S/-) & Mh/Mh.

Heterozygous is when there is 2 different genes in the same loci. A Marans x Fav would give this i.e they would be E/e^Wh, S/s+ (s+/-), Mh/mh+ & B/b+ (B/-) cocks & hens
.
Favs x Marans, E/e^Wh, S/s+, Mh/mh+, B/b+ cocks & E/e^Wh, s+/-, Mh/mh+, B/- hens.
So the phenotype would be s.f cuckoo but  the genotype would not

Hemizygous referes to sex-linked genes and to the hens only as they can only carry one copy ie S/-,  s+/-, B/-, amongst others.

4) Leg feathering is polygenic and is autosomal.
There are 3 loci, Pti-1+ (dom) , Pti-2+ (dom) , Pti-3+ (rec) and several  mutations, Pti-1^B, Pti-1^L, Pti-1+, pti-1.
Each affects the placement of feathers on shank and toes. I believe there are over 50 combinations.

I have tried to keep this as basic as possible and omitted many other genes, hope it has been of some help.

.

[duckface3]

thanx, i think im getting the gist of it. So would i be right in thinking that if both trios were to run together and they mated i WOULD be able to tell which are pure breeds 1) salmon faverolles, cocks and hens, as they are recessive to the marans, and double factor marans cocks?  2) all single factor cocks and black hens are crosses?
3) i WOULDNT know which way the matings were on the sf cocks, but i WOULD on the black hens they would have salmon faverolles for dad and cuckoo marans mothers?  think i will leave the leg feathers for now. 
4) is there any other salmon breeds?

[cluckingnuts]

1) Yes  2) Yes  3) Yes  4) I know there are salmon Marans but as far as I'm aware they are duckwings (e+). Hopefully someone with different breeds will be able to tell you.

Don't be so quick in putting yourself down, even after 50 years I'm always learning.