➜ Info pages

Features

There are 7 feature loci: karyotype, body, pattern, tail, comb, eyespot, and wattle. Chicks generally inherit each parent's traits in an equal ratio.

Karyotype

Chickens can have three karyotypes: ZZ, ZW, and very rarely, ZZW. They determine whether the chicken has leg spurs and also whether they can breed with each other. Check the breeding page for more information about chicken karyotypes.

Body

Chickens can currently have 3 body shapes: Chook, Chorb and Chuffed. The colour of the chicken's body is determined by their Base colour gene. It is likely that more will be added.

Pattern

There are 10 patterns: None, Lace, Bar, Head, Speckle, Half-lace, Double-lace, Neck-speckle, Half-bar and Neck-band. The chicken's pattern colour is determined by their Over colour gene.

Of these variants, only the first five can be obtained through splicers (EnPattern or Roll). The rest can only be obtained via breeding. Patterns aren't always inherited in a 50/50 ratio from parents. Refer to the chart below for inheritance ratios. (Effectively, double-lace, half-lace and neck-speckle are recessive, and will almost always be rarer for their offspring to inherit.)

(Read from top to bottom; a higher rule takes priority over a lower rule)

Lace × Lace
75% Lace
25% Double-lace
Lace × None
50% Half-lace
25% Lace
25% None
Speckle × Head
50% Neck-speckle
25% Speckle
25% Head
Bar × Head
50% Neck-band
25% Bar
25% Head
Double-lace × Lace
75% Lace
25% Double-lace
Half-lace × Bar
50% Bar
50% Half-bar
Neck-speckle × Not Neck-speckle
100% the other parent's pattern
Double-lace × Not Double-lace
(except Neck-speckle & Lace)
100% Lace
Neck-band × Not Neck-band
(except Neck-speckle & Double-lace)
100% the other parent's pattern
Half-bar × Not Half-bar
(except Neck-speckle, Double-lace & Neck-band)
100% the other parent's pattern
Half-lace × Not Half-lace
(except Neck-speckle, Double-lace, Half-bar, & Neck-band)
100% the other parent's pattern

Tail

Chickens can have one of 6 tail types: None, Plume, Stub, Floppy, Fan and Pompom. Their tail colour is determined by the Over colour gene.

Comb

Currently, chickens can have 8 comb types: None, Lorge, Front, Back, Bantam, Mop, Flick and Puff.

Different comb colours are determined by different colour genes:

None combs are special: chicks cannot hatch with no comb (a chick with two uncombed parents will have a random comb), and combs can only be removed with the UnComb splicer.

Eyespot and Wattle

Eyespots and wattles are either present or absent. Their colour is determined by the Flair colour gene, except for the cheek eyespot which is a mix of the Base and Flair colours.