olly's hackles

Hi I keep a few bantams for there feathers and keep the silver sussex for the badger capes. You have a genetic problem, that I don't think you understand. The easiest way to explain it is in grizzle birds. The barring is controlled by the female, who ends up with a double dose of the gene. End result is her grizzle is 2 parts black (from her double gene) , 1 part white. A rooster only gets one gene and ends up 1part black (single gene), to one part white. The hen always gives a dark gene,if the rooster passes on his dark gene, it will be a hen, if he throws his gene free, it will be a rooster. Handy for sexing bids at an early age though. The same is true for the badger capes too, the hen gets a double portion of the gene, making the black portion of the feather twice as large. There is some variation, as the body still has to interpret the genetics, but hens will always have a higher portion of the dark. Best regards Norman