Magic of Genetics! Fowls Of Amazing Colors Pop Out of Breeding Yards

Over the last few months, as I personally handled the breeding and raising of my own breed of free-range chicken, Manok Pinoy, I noticed that fowls with unusual colors were popping out of the breeding yards.

The pullets, including several cockerels, come with cream-colored feathers with black stripes in their hackle.

Since I was breeding towards the black and dark colors, I actually culled most of the cockerels, except one, but I kept the pullets.

Recently, as the pullets reached 5 months, I segregated a dozen of them and placed them in a pen.

To my surprise, the 5-month-old pullets started laying brown eggs, well ahead of the reds and the blacks.

Where did the odd color come from?

I remember when I started developing my own line of free-range backyard chicken, I acquired some cream-colored hens from an old farmer in Oregon which I bred to the Asil roosters I bought from a Muslim friend.

The cream-colored fowls disappeared for a while since most of my roosters are black or red.

Suddenly, in a genetic phenomenon called “throwback” where a recessive allele in some of my hens finds a pair from one of the roosters, the cream-colored fowls started popping up.

Since I have hundreds of hens in the breeding yard where the cream-colored fowls are coming from, it would be difficult for me to pinpoint which rooster and which hen are the parents.

I could, however, work on the offsprings and develop a new strain.

To accomplish this, I have decided to set up a separate breeding area for this new line which I will call “Kanawayon,” the local word for chicken of this color.

My objective here is to develop a distinct line of early maturing and prolific brown egg layers and I am starting with 30 pullets.

This is going to be another exciting genetic experiment.

#FarmingAddsYearsToLife!

#PracticingPracticalGenetics!

(These photos were taken yesterday during our screening and selection of prospective Manok Pinoy breeders.)