Fantailed Chickens

Fantailed Chickens
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Published - 2019, March 20th

On this page you will find links to the various pages in this series. Scroll below text for links.


Back when I was breeding chickens, I was studying both the genetics of and selection for immunogenetic traits and phenotype genes. I found desirable traits for study in a wide and diverse array of chicken breeds and family lines. Because of that, I had the opportunity to study a host of rare phenotype traits in individual birds that also displayed remarkable resistance to such common disease pathogens as Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and the Marek's virus complex (MVC). As I located these exceptional individuals, I needed to make test matings between exceptional individuals to compare with crosses of exceptional individuals with individuals lacking or lower in the resistance traits. These test matings are important to establish the heritability and selection methods for these genes. In working to breed superior strains, such crosses to lower resistant individuals can be a "salvage cross", which is an attempt to create new, exceptionally resistant individuals to make a new combination of the physical phenotype of the non-resistant lineage with the resistance factors from the resistant line. This is the standard practice of breeding resistance into new lines in both plant and animal sciences. It is also of utmost importance in determining the genes at work and the heritance pattern of those genes making the phenotype, be it physical appearance or disease resistance. However, I found the the most intriguing lines, and those lines I ended up making my own later blendings from, were the combinations of the most resistant individuals.

 Through this series of test mating, I was able to make some very interesting and unique lines based on the most disease resistant individuals, which were long-term tested and of proven breeding value. I blended the best lines, selecting for a host of targeted traits, including physical, appearance phenotypes, egg performance, meat performance and disease resistance. This series of breedings focused on selection within select lineages with known traits and provenance. This was done to observe the quantity of traits that could be successfully selected for in lines with multiple exceptional traits of known heritability. In the process a set of tail traits emerged that were eventually combined into fully fanned tails, as seen in fantailed pigeons. The original fantailed bird that I started with was a Serama rooster that was an exceptional bird, having extremely high resistance to both MG and MVC. However, by the end of this project, I had produced very large fowl with this trait. This series of articles will look at the lines I developed, what I developed them from, the genes involved and how others can make their own fantailed chickens... 


Part 4: Genetics - Overview

Part 5: Genetics - Tail Angle

Part 6: Genetics - Tail Blade Orientation

Part 7: Genetics - Tail Feather Orientation

Part 8: Genetics - Tail Fanning

 Part 9: Multiple Feathering

Part 10: Creating Fantailed Chickens


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