How to use this tool
- Go to Parents and enter the rooster and hen basics first.
- Go to Traits and tick any visible traits or known carried traits.
- Use Sex-linked if you are working with barring, silver/gold, or chocolate projects.
- Use Autosomal if you know or want to test likely genotype combinations such as blue, lavender, frizzle, or mottling.
- Press Update prediction to jump to Results.
- Read the overview first, then check male and female sections separately if sex-linked genes are involved.
- Use the comparison box to see what changed from the previous prediction.
- Use the printable report if you want a clean record for the pairing.
What each main section means
Parents
This is where you enter visible information such as breed, colour, pattern, size, comb type, egg line, temperament, and notes. It gives the tool its base phenotype information.
Advanced traits
Use these toggles for things like crest, beard/muffs, extra toes, frizzle, naked neck, dwarf, and known splits. These affect the practical trait-likelihood bars in Results.
Sex-linked genes
These genes can produce different outcomes in male and female chicks. This is especially useful for auto-sexing or sex-linked colour projects.
Autosomal genes
These genes affect both sexes and are useful when you know the genotype or want to test a likely split. The tool shows genotype possibilities under the male and female result panels.
What the options mean
Basic phenotype options
- Breed: The visible breed or flock type.
- Line / strain: Your own line name or strain note.
- Visible colour: The bird’s main observed colour.
- Pattern: Laced, barred, pencilled, plain, and so on.
- Comb type: Single, pea, rose, walnut, and others.
- Size class: Small, medium, large, giant, bantam.
- Egg line: Expected egg colour tendency for future pullets.
- Temperament: Used for a soft scoring estimate only.
- Shank / skin / ear lobe: Visible body details for line comparison.
- Broodiness: A general 1 to 5 tendency estimate.
Advanced trait toggles
- Feathered legs: Leg feather trait visible in breeds like Brahma or Cochin.
- Crest: Topknot or crest visible on the head.
- Beard / muffs: Facial feathering.
- Extra toes: Polydactyl expression.
- Frizzle visible: Bird visibly expresses frizzle feathering.
- Silkie feather visible: Soft silkie-style feathering visible.
- Naked neck visible: Neck feather reduction visible.
- Rumpless: Reduced or absent tail base.
- Dark skin / fibromelanistic: Dark skin expression.
- Dwarf: Dwarf expression visible or known.
- Known split...: Use when line records show the bird carries a trait not clearly visible.
Gene sections explained
Sex-linked genes
Barring affects barred/cuckoo influence. Silver can influence silver vs gold/red base. Chocolate is a sex-linked dilution project in some lines. Because hens are ZW and roosters are ZZ, sons and daughters can differ.
Autosomal genes
These include blue, lavender, dominant white, recessive white, mottling, pea, rose, frizzle, silkie feather, naked neck, beard/muffs, polydactyl, fibromelanosis, dwarf, extended black, wheaten, columbian, and pattern.
Important limitations
This tool is designed to be useful, readable, and broad. Poultry genetics can be more complex than a single offline tool can fully model. Some traits vary in expression, some lines behave differently, and some colour projects involve more loci than shown here. Use this tool as a breeder planning aid, not as a final guarantee for every chick.