side sprig on combs

i've just started showing birds just last year, and theres a lot to learn, but at the last show i found out all about side sprigs on combs!! so i thought i would pass on what i learned to other new showers. side sprigs are points of the comb that shoot out the side and don't line up in that nice row with all the other pionts.
if your showing a bird with side sprigs on its comb it is a disqualification!! hear are some pictures of a good comb and a bad comb~~~~~~

Hear is a really good comb, all the points are in a nice row! thanks liz for letting me use you nice looking dorking rooster!


this is my rooster's comb with a side sprig!

Great post/photos

I will have a look in my pens and see if I have any, Would love to see more pics of what sprigs look like.

Great photo's Steve, it looks a bit like my Penedesenca Rooster's comb.

Great pictures Steve!
It sure makes things easier to understand with a picture. Oh an also remember a side sprig is a dominate trait so is not ideal to use for breeding.

Great post Steve! This is a great topic for discussion!

k.r.l wrote:Great pictures Steve!
It sure makes things easier to understand with a picture. Oh an also remember a side sprig is a dominate trait so is not ideal to use for breeding.

I agree KRL before I knew what I side sprig was I had a beautiful rooster that I was breeding with. He had the side sprig, which I was told about but had no clue what they meant (LOL). I used him to breed and 90% of the cockerels had that same sprig.
So yes it is important to not use roosters with this problem.
My question is I have produced many beautiful hens out of that breeding, some have gone on to do well in shows. Would they then pass this trait on to their young? Or is it only passed on from birds displaying the sprig?

Side sprigs can be hard to see some times very small. I once had a silver duckwing pullet that I was showing it was a old english game bantam so she had a very small comb, now side sprigs is not something I had ever had a problem with and I do look for them. She had been doing very well show wise until one show she was DQ-ed for a side sprig. I went and had a close look at her comb and there it was a very small one but there. I had full intentions of taking her home and culling her right away but winter came and went and it came and went from my less than sharp mind at times and I inavertently used her in the breeding pen.

Now lucky for me I mark every chick coming out of the incubator and I only single mate with every chicks parentage known from the toe markings. When I started culling though the silverduckwings young stock later in the year, I was shocked I had 17 birds with side sprigs of various sizes. I looked at the toe markings and reliezed they were all from the same breeding and then I remembered that pullet with that very tiny sprig which I had negelected to cull.I caught the offendeding bird and she was gone along with all of her offspring including those without any side sprigs. I never had any problem after that.

So I say look closely as they will not all be as big as the one Steve has shown and they can be anywhere on the side of the comb not just the back and if they have one cull no questions asked. With your daughters of a bird that had a sprig or sprigs you will have to examine them closely and track their young ones and cull as necessary.

Viczoe

k.r.l wrote:Great pictures Steve!
It sure makes things easier to understand with a picture. Oh an also remember a side sprig is a dominate trait so is not ideal to use for breeding.

Would't the fact that it's dominant be a good thing breeding-wise? That way if the bird is otherwise good you can breed him, knowing that every one of the offspring carrying the side sprig gene will express it and can be easily culled??

I understand there are two genes, both dominant, at different loci that can produce side sprigs, not just one.

Okay, but still, dominant means it will express, right? So you can always weed out the carriers. Much easier than breeding for a cushion comb, where you never know if there's a recessive wild type gene lurking out of sight and waiting to bite you in the butt when you least expect it.