# Can a BB hen be split for black?



## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

I have a BB hen whose parents are black, but has one BB grandparent. Will she carry the black (spread) gene, or is that gene one of those "if she has it it will show" kind of genes?

In other words, do I have a shot at getting any black babies from her if she's mated to a non-black bird?


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Nope. Spread is a dominant gene, so therefore if it carries it, it will show


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## Kastle Loft (May 7, 2008)

bummer dude


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## blongboy (Nov 10, 2009)

MaryOfExeter said:


> Nope. Spread is a dominant gene, so therefore if it carries it, it will show


Becky i got a pair of soild black where you can't see the tailbar
the hen parent are both black and the cock is unknown 

anyway they gave me two round first one back and one dark check
second both check ..but one is dark check

why is that? shouldn't all the baby be black since spread is dominant


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

blongboy said:


> Becky i got a pair of soild black where you can't see the tailbar
> the hen parent are both black and the cock is unknown
> 
> anyway they gave me two round first one back and one dark check
> ...


Hi there,

It sounds like both of your birds are heterozygous spread (S//s+). This means that each of them carry the spread allele inherted from one parent and the wild-type (non-spread) allele from the other.

It is possible that your hen is such a heterozygote even though both her parents were black, since it is impossible to see whether the dominant Spread gene is hiding the other (non-spread) gene.

The mating of S//s+ with S//s+ will give offspring:
25% S//S - Black (homozygous spread)
50% S//s+ - Black (heterozygous spread)
25% s+//s+ - Normal barred, check ... etc (no spread gene present)

Since it is impossible to tell S//S birds from S//s+ birds, if you breed 100 birds from this pair you should get about 75 black birds and 25 normal.

It is very important to remember that these are statistic percentages, and that statistics are only accurate when large populations are under investigation. Since you have only bred 4 birds, you have gotten more checks than blacks, so far. The more you breed from this pair the closer your average should get to the expected 3:1 split.


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