Pea Comb

The pea comb gene creates a shorter comb on the top of the head, similar rose comb, though slightly taller with three ridges through the center. It was originally labelled as completely dominant, with the bird showing the same structure and look to the comb regardless of if it had one copy of the gene or two. However, recently breeders believe there is a difference in phenotypes, with the heterozygous form being slightly taller, having larger wattles, and overall closer to a single comb.

There is some documentation that the pea comb gene is linked to a higher feed conversion ratio(3), as well as a smaller wattle size.

The pea comb gene also works with other genes to create the walnut and cushion comb. The walnut comb is at least one copy of the pea comb gene plus at least one copy of the rose comb gene. The cushion comb is a walnut comb (pea gene + rose comb gene) plus a smoothing gene.

APA recognized pea comb breeds include: Ameraucana, Araucana, Aseel, Brahma, Buckeye, Cornish, Cubalaya, Shamo, Sumatra, and Yokohama.

Breeding with Pea Combs: For more information about breeding with this kind of gene, including tips and tricks and a full explanation of how these results were calculated, please see here.

Pea comb is incomplete dominant, so Pingle Comb is used here to say when a bird only has one copy of the pea comb gene.

Pea Comb x Pea Comb = 100% Pea Comb

Pea Comb x Rose Comb = 100% Pingle Comb, het. Rose comb (Still called walnut comb)

Pea Comb x full Walnut Comb = 100% full pea comb, het. rose comb (Still called Walnut comb)

Pea Comb x Single Comb = 100% Pingle Comb

Het. Pea Comb x Single Comb = 50% Single comb, 50% Pingle Comb

Het. Pea Comb x Rose Comb = 50% Pingle Comb, het Rose comb (walnut comb), 50% het. Rose comb