GENETICS: AM I OVERTHINKING ??????

[Diane]

I see your logic but I don't think there has been any conclusive evidence regarding the ration of hens to cocks when it comes to the yellow headed birds.

I know its only a very small amount of birds to compare and in no way conclusive but with a
BH male with RH hen in 2 clutches I got
3 cocks
5 hens

With a
YH male and RH hen in 3 clutches I got
7 cocks
1 hen
1 unable to tell yet
1 death

so even if the one that died and the one that Im unable to tell yet were hens the YH male has still produced more cocks than hens the opposite of the BH/RH pairing

[jusdeb]

It pains my brain to try and work this one out so Im banning myself from this post

[Matt]

I think to get any sort of real answers you would need a lot more than just a couple of pairs. I had a yellow head cock paired with a red head hen last season and got 7 hens and 2 cocks and yet I had two black headed birds give me a bunch of cock birds. There is a fair element of luck when you are only working with a handfull of pairs.

[GregH]

I think you may be trying too hard. The experiments only reveiled what happens with pure red and black headed birds and doesn't even look at splits. I've only ever kept red-headed Gouldians but I think that it is dominant but since they are so bossy they make lousy partners so given a choice the black-faces avoid them and they have come to be the dominant morph. From what I can remember the yellow mutation is on a completely separate locus and can occur in either a black or red-headed back ground.

[finchbreeder]

Genetics are very interesting.
But like all average situations, not always acurate.
If you flip a coin on average u will get 50% each heads and tails.
Now go ahead and bet on it.
That's what genetics is, the bigger the sample the more accurate.
So we will all just have to get more pairs of Gouldians, so our accuracy improves.
Sounds like a good excuse to me, think i will try using it with "he who prefers tools"
And while I'm at it maybe I should apply it to all the other finches too.
LML

[brad359]

i would buy a yh wb df yb cock to put with your hen that way you will get all yh pb /wb yb birds df cocks sf hens european yellow backs . witch usaly breed more cocks df what you said you where after and the rest will be yellow back hens which you can never get to many of so by buying df cock you will get a better result quickeri
if hen split 4 white breast you will also get % of white breasted young