Genetics 101

Colors

The purpose of this page is to give a brief introduction to pigeon genetics.  Then point you toward sites that assume you already know these basics.  I hope these basics are helpful to someone just getting started.

There are only three true colors: Red, Blue and Brown.   Red is Dominant, brown is recessive, blue is both, that's why there are so many blue pigeons.

This can be confusing because in competition pigeons are classified in "Colors" like Grizzle, Slate, Silver, Dunn, Indigo Etc..

Think of those as "Gene Modifiers" don't let if bother you they are called colors, after all, the gene modifiers do affect the color of the pigeon.  These gene modifiers are explained further on other pigeon genetic sites.  Just understand there are three true colors, all the other color names are gene modifiers. 

Terms

Dominant The pigeon will have to display the trait (Opal, Almond etc..) to be able to pass it on.  Said another way, any children of a pigeon that does not display the dominant trait of the parent, will never pass it on to any of it's children...  They must have it to pass it on.  Many people think blue is dominant because there are so many blue pigeons.  Although blue could be considered to be dominant, it has nothing to do with the number of pigeons that have that gene modifier, or trait, that makes a trait dominant.

Recessive The parent can display the gene modifier, but usually the children will not.  But it will come up in the children's children.  Said another way.  Recessive means, that the gene modifier wants to skip a generation. 

Homozygous "One Color Gene"  (Remember, this refers to Red, Blue and Brown) Hen's are naturally Homozygous for color since they only carry One color gene to start with. 

Heterozygous "Two Color Genes" Cocks carry two color genes.  This is why you will see lots of black flecks on a red check cock, and not red check hens.  When the second color is blue it shows up as the black flecks.  When both of the color genes of a cock are the same, then the cock is said to be homozygous for that color. 

Sex Linked The Male will pass the color or trait on to daughters, the female will pass the color or trait onto sons.

In Practice A brown hen mated to a homozygous blue cock.  Will produce all blue pigeons All the male babies will carry the brown gene (heterozygous) Any brown youngsters it produces will be hens, because color is sex linked.   A homozygous brown cock will produce brown youngsters with a blue hen.  But, he has to be homozygous for brown, and the brown youngsters will be hens.  Colors and Gene modifiers are all passed on to youngsters on a Recessive or Dominant bases, and can be but don't have to be sex linked.

A red hen mated to a blue cock will produce Red cocks and blue hens.  This is because Red is dominant, meaning it wants to come out on the first generation and it is also sex linked.  The hen will pass the red to her sons.  The cock will pass his blue color to his daughters.  The sons will also always have lots of black flecking in them.  This is because cocks have two color genes, the second color gene passed to the red cock was blue from the father.  (shows up as black flecks).

If you mate two red checks together, you will have a chance of having a homozygous red male.  This cock will have little or no flecking.  The flecks will not be black.

I've found it fun to learn about how the gene modifiers and colors work.  It's a very interesting hobby when you know what combinations of gene types you can see in the offspring.  Even more interesting when you know when and why you have to wait to see it appear in the grand children.

The above information is just meant to help you understand some of the genetic charts and information I will direct you to here.  I'm not a genetic expert, just a hobbyist.  Below are three sites I refer to often to see if one of the gene modifiers I am working with is recessive or dominant, and or sex linked as well.  This helps me know what I might expect.  Sometimes I have to wait a year or so to see the trait reproduced in grand children.

Links to sites that list the attributes of each gene modifier.

 

Frank Mosca  - http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics/index.html

Ron Huntley - http://www.angelfire.com/ga/huntleyloft/Page1.html

Tom Barnhart - http://www.barnhartlofts.com/genetics.htm