Italian Babies

Just a few pics of my latest hatch

wow theyr gorgeous! hw many do you have??

aww so sweet

Harrie are these the one you mentioned the other night on chat that were produced from gold x normal parents ?

Aw cute, Harrie!

Claire - I stopped counting after 45!!

Yes Andy - half are gold x normal (so if I have this right these will be hetero - 1 gold gene thingy) and half are gold x gold (homo - 2 gold gene things).

I did divide the incy down middle and the interesting thing was the gold x gold in general hatched about a day earlier than the gold x normal. Well I thought it was interesting anyway. I decide it was too difficult to try to brood them separately especially when they started lobbing themselves over the divider. (I'll do a separate hatch of the pure golds later so I can keep a pure group).

wow harrie the pics are really good and you have a good hatch am very pleased for you x x x

hi Harrie,

That's correct Gold x Normal will either produce:
- 50% gold and 50% normal chicks. In this case the gold parent will be heterozygote (one copy of the gold gene)
- 100% gold chicks. In this case the gold parent will be homozygote (two copies of the gold gene).

Your gold parent could be proof that a homozygote (2 copies) of gold gene is not lethal as stated by many sources.

You could also have a statistical fluke and you might find another batch come out as all normal from Gold x Normal.

You can pair 2 golds together, but you can't guarantee that all the offspring will be homozygote (have 2 copies of the gold gene) unless both parents are proved to be both homozygotes. Matings with a normal is the best way of finding out.