The Genetics of Chicken Feather Color

Inheritance of Feather Color in Chickens

In some chickens, the gene for feather color is controlled by codominance. The allele for black is B and the allele for white is W. The heterozygous phenotype is known as erminette.

Possible Outcomes in Crossbreeding

If a erminette chicken/checkered and a black chicken were crossed, the resulting offspring would have a phenotype of black, white, and erminette.

The genotypes of the offspring would be BB, ww, and BW. This is because the alleles for black (B) and white (W) are codominant, and so the heterozygous phenotype (BW) would be erminette.

What is genotypes?

Genotypes are the genetic makeup of an organism, which is determined by the combination of alleles it carries for a particular trait. These alleles are inherited from the organism's parents, and the genotype will determine the physical characteristics (phenotype) of the organism.