If Half-Sider's are supposed to be completely random, then how come we see common patterns and layout in the same color series, pointing to a common genetic flaw?
prodigy wrote:If Half-Sider's are supposed to be completely random, then how come we see common patterns and layout in the same color series, pointing to a common genetic flaw?
Hi Peter,
What are you meaning when writing : "... Half-Sider's are supposed to be completely random"?
Are you refering to the frequency of half-siders, the colours combinations in each side or the distribution of colours in the bird?
The color combinations and the distribution of colors in the bird.
Regards,
Peter
Peter, I haven't seen many of them, but the colour combinations and the distribution thereof wasn't random in those birds. They actually have a fairly fixed pattern. Why do you consider it random?
This is my half sider. The variability is always on the penetrance % of the lesser side. I have never seen one which is exactly 50/50. The division is always a line down the middle vertically. It apparently only involves a single locus. In the case of my bird it obviously involves the Blue locus. A theory is that an egg somehow gets fertilised simultaneously by 2 sperm. The theory further stated that DNA analysis would show each side as siblings. I would say the parents were a split Blue cock and a Blue hen or a split Blue hen, with one sperm carrying the Wildtype gene and another carrying a Blue gene fertilising simultaneously the hen's egg carrying a Blue gene. This raises the question, what would the actual Blue locus look like in my bird?
trabots wrote:I purchased it for its novelty value only so will never know if it is split for anything. I would imagine that it would breed as a Green /Blue.
Willy, do you have it paired up with something as part of the novelty? Would be interesting to see if/what it produces with a blue hen.