September 4, 2025 • 26 mins
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In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, we sit down with Brittany from Knights Poultry and Lab in Mississippi to explore the fascinating world of chicken DNA testing. From sexing Silkies and Ameraucanas to identifying the blue egg gene, recessive white, chocolate, lavender, and even duck or emu testing, Brittany shares how she turned a personal hobby into a growing poultry lab serving breeders nationwide.
We cover:
- How DNA testing helps chicken owners avoid surprises in city limits & HOAs 🏡
- Why Silkies, Ameraucanas, and call ducks are common candidates for poultry testing
- Step-by-step process for collecting a sample and submitting it for fast results
- What DNA tests can reveal (blue egg gene, recessive white, chocolate, lavender, and more)
- The future of poultry genetics, including fibro and quail egg testing
Whether you’re raising chickens for show, breeding projects, or backyard fun, this episode is packed with practical insights into poultry science, genetics, and the tools that can save you time, feed, and space.
🔗 Learn more about Brittany’s work at KnightsPoultryandLab.com
.
Keywords: chicken DNA testing, chicken genetics, chicken sexing, poultry DNA lab, Silkie chicken genetics, Ameraucana blue egg gene, poultry breeding tools, chicken health, poultry lab services
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carey (00:01):
Hello and welcome.
We are back with a fairly newnerd.
We have Brittany from KnightsPoultry and Lab, and they do
some pretty cool stuff overthere.
She was telling us about itbefore we started recording, and
we've gotten a lot of questionsfrom our other nerds on social
(00:24):
media about this type oftesting.
So Jennifer was like, Hey, let'sjust talk to the lady herself
and see what she says.
So here we are.
So Brittany, if you will tell usa little bit about you and your
farm.
Brittany (00:40):
So my name is Brittany.
I'm with Knights Poultry andLab.
We are a little chicken farm, Iguess you would say.
It's more like a.
A hobby here in socialMississippi, silky is our main
focus.
We kinda had cos for a while andAmericana's I know.
But then we got our first silkyand oh my gosh, I became
(01:02):
obsessed.
So it's like Pokemon.
You gotta collect like all thecolors and all of the things.
It's sad.
It's sad, but they're amazingand they're very.
Very easily to get attached to,and then you want'em all.
So that's where that's ourchickens.
That's the story on how much,chickens was.
And with them, that's how Iactually got into DNA testing
because with the silkies, ittakes so long for you to
(01:25):
actually be able to tell whetheryou even have, a pull or a
cocker.
That's like you're months downthe road.
So I was thinking, I was like,I'll just, learn to do this by
myself, for myself, and that'show I got into it.
Do you have to go to school todo
Jennifer (01:41):
it?
Brittany (01:41):
No, you don't.
It is a lot.
Okay, so my journey is a littlebit different.
Have you noticed there's so manydifferent farms popping up that
are doing the lab testing now?
I'm not sure if you noticed it,but in the, okay, so in the
silky community there are tonsof farms that are popping up
doing, the same thing that I do.
Which it's super, it's fairlyeasy to do if you can devote the
(02:04):
time and, a little bit of extraplay money that you can actually
set aside to put into it.
'cause it, it's a little bitcostly when you're first
starting out, but it's notterrible.
It.
So from
Carey (02:15):
Wait.
You have play money and you havechickens.
Brittany (02:18):
I know.
It's really, my husband spoilsme a lot.
Carey (02:22):
Okay.
Brittany (02:23):
Okay.
Yeah that's where that is.
Yeah.
My journey's a little bitdifferent getting into it than
most of the people that aredoing their labs now.
Because there is a.
Biologist in California thatactually teaches the classes
now.
I started before I had foundher, so I had to do a bunch of
trial and error and teachmyself, I guess for the most
(02:43):
part.
And it's doable.
Everything's on Google.
You could figure it all out ifyou put enough time and effort.
It's like anything, you couldteach yourself anything,
especially with YouTube.
So I pretty much had the basesdown and then I found Ari with
Chick Check.
She's the, the biologist out inCalifornia that does the classes
for anybody that's interested.
I found her and we just hit itoff to nerds, I guess you would
(03:05):
say.
Nerding out over.
Chicken science.
Carey (03:09):
You better be careful.
You might wind up with apodcast.
Brittany (03:13):
We've, we actually, she was like, it's so weird.
'cause she was like, we shoulddo a podcast.
I was like, I don't know.
I'm pretty nervous when it comesto talking to people.
And then Jennifer reaches outlike literally five days later.
I'm like.
I just talked to Jennifer and Ithink I'm gonna do a podcast
with her.
(03:34):
It's hilarious.
Jennifer (03:35):
I was like, see, I told you people wanted to know.
They do.
Yeah.
People don't know.
So Carrie and I have regular oldchickens that don't need all
this fancy stuff.
Brittany (03:47):
We even have DNA testing for regular old chickens
too.
We have the recessive whitetest.
We have a bunch of other testscoming out.
It's not, a lot of people dofocus it more on silkies because
there's so much, I don't know somuch into Silkies, like there's
so much involved in Silkies, butwe have, be careful we'll start
(04:09):
razzing on the silk silkies now.
It's that's a whole new ballgame right there.
All on its own.
The silky world is, I tell ya.
Yes.
But we have other tests thatlike the Americana people I,
mines I get a lot of testrequests from I mines.
For the recessive white andstuff like that.
So we have other tests.
It's not just the DNA sexingcall ducks.
(04:31):
We have we do a lot of callducks because I'm assuming, I
don't know ducks, but from whatI'm hearing from the breeders,
they're so small When they'refirst hatch, you can't look at
'em and do whatever they do to,see the check the sex because
they're so small they'll in'em.
So they just send in a tinylittle blood sample.
And then they get their resultslike same day.
Jennifer (04:55):
Okay, so let's back up just a minute.
So you're self taught and thenyou got your own equipment.
What all do you need in order todo this?
So you don't have to give allyour secrets.
Brittany (05:04):
I'm self taught up to a.
Certain point.
I do wanna clarify that.
I did go through Chi check withAri and do the final touches
with her.
But, so yeah, I do wanna giveher credit where it's due, but
as far as what you need to doit, your equipment wise, there's
a thermocycler that you'll haveto have, which is this machine
right here.
And then you need electro, youneed your electro tank, which is
(05:27):
right back.
There.
And basically it just holds abuffer and it puts the
electricity through a gel thatwe create and it pulls the DNA
to split out the different bandsto show different results.
I wish I would've had a gel herefor y'all to see.
Yeah, I know.
I'm so sorry.
See us.
But if you're not seeing and no,yeah.
(05:49):
Okay let me break it down.
Let's see.
Yeah, so you take the sample,right?
Yeah.
You're gonna put it in a bufferthat protects the DNA and then
through a machine with adifferent primer that targets
the certain portions of the DNAthat we need.
It duplicates and replicates ita bunch to where there's, takes
that teeny tiny sample and makesit where it's visible, it makes
(06:12):
it larger and then you add a dyeto it and then you put it
through a gel with electricity,which is going to pull the
strands, the different sized DNAstrands.
To where we can read that, ifthat makes any more sense.
Little bit.
Little bit.
And then you look at it, andthen you look at it with a
Jennifer (06:34):
with a light.
Yeah.
And then you
Brittany (06:36):
just turn on the blue light and then you can actually
see the way the results areshowing up, it'll show up
different bands and thedifferent number of bands means
different things with differenttests.
Yeah.
Jennifer (06:46):
Wow.
You really are a nerd.
Brittany (06:50):
That's a lot.
And everybody's I bet that's Ithink, yeah,
Carey (06:53):
that's straight up CSI Miami Lab stuff right there.
Brittany (06:57):
I know.
It's everybody's I bet that's soput up a camera.
I'm like, if I put up a camera,literally all you're gonna see
is me with a pipette going.
Like back and forth with a it'snot really that interesting.
But
Carey (07:09):
look, what you should do is when you do a bunch of those,
Brittany (07:13):
yeah,
Carey (07:14):
shoot the video and then when you put it in your machine
and it does whatever, shootssome video of that and stick it
on TikTok.
Brittany (07:24):
I need to, people will probably
Carey (07:25):
watch it like crazy, just they say because
Brittany (07:28):
it, and I'm just like, I don't, there's, to me, because
I do it like six days a week allday long, sometimes till
midnight, like to me, I'm doingthe same thing.
It's like I don't see what'slike interesting about, y'all
would get so bored.
Jennifer (07:42):
You need to put like a white coat on and a hat and big
glasses.
Make a carrot and
Carey (07:47):
have it embroidered like you have your shirt.
Jennifer (07:49):
Yeah, and
Carey (07:49):
then you could do that and video it when you, on your
order form.
You could have'em like, checkhere if you wanted to see your
order on TikTok.
Brittany (08:00):
Oh yeah.
What the hell?
You look for that.
Carey (08:02):
I'm gonna tell you right now, some Silky folks will pay
for that.
They
Brittany (08:06):
probably would.
I haven't even thought aboutthat.
Like the new subscription stuffthat you could do on Facebook.
I say new I again,
Carey (08:14):
hey, new to you, whatever.
Brittany (08:16):
So fast.
Like I have no, I know nothingabout, all the Facebook stuff,
but it's growing.
Yeah, really good.
Jennifer (08:24):
Yeah we're not gonna be any help for that at all.
So Yeah, we can't help you withthat.
Is this, so this lab, I amassuming you have a lab or just
a room or, yeah.
Brittany (08:34):
Right now we're in just a room.
We have a lab.
We're still going through zoningand fighting, zoning and coding
and everything to get moved intoour permanent building.
So right now we are just in aroom waiting for.
County to clear us bump,
Carey (08:52):
bump them.
Brittany (08:53):
We are months in.
I'm telling you.
I'm ready.
Carey (08:55):
Bump that.
Just keep being a rebel.
Brittany (08:57):
Yeah, it's, it is.
Ugh.
It's a headache.
It's a headache for sure.
Jennifer (09:03):
So what kind of tests do you do?
I'm trying to visualize whysomebody would need it.
So you've got the.
The gender.
Brittany (09:14):
Yep.
Yep.
We got the sexing.
That's like I said, for prettymuch anything.
We can sex on that.
But then we have like recessivewhite, we have blue egg jean.
I did catch your podcast.
I re listened to the one of thaty'all had.
That was pretty cool.
But yeah, we can test for yourblue egg to see whether you have
one gene, two genes, no jeans.
(09:35):
So that's pretty cool.
A lot of people, you know with.
Send in for that because withthe blue Egging test, if you're
wanting, okay, say you haveEaster I know that y'all talked
about this, could.
Hatch not even being able to laya blue egg or a colored egg
period.
They'll have brown eggs'causethey have no jeans in there.
So instead of raising that chickup all the way through and
(09:57):
feeding it and raising it and,months down the line till you
finally get a colored egg or getan egg period, and then it's tan
or whatever, we could tell youthe day it's hatched.
So you're not having to like,wait through that long time span
and raise'em up.
So that's one of our.
Test another one of our teststhat we're actually in working
on.
(10:18):
I don't know.
I don't.
It's so competitive.
There's a bunch of tests that,and then it's really competitive
in a weird way with all thelabs.
That's really weird to me.
Like they, everybody tries tokeep their tests that they have
coming out all hush.
But one of them that we do havecoming or that we're planning to
work on is like the blue egg inthe quail, like the sell iton.
That way that people can, seethat before and it helps
(10:40):
breeding programs.
But stuff like that, we havechocolate test that is almost
verified modeled.
So where we could see if you'recarrying a model gene, a
chocolate gene, in case you havea, a split where you have a
black bird and need to know ifit carries chocolate or
whatever.
A bunch of different tests.
It's really cool.
It's really neat.
(11:02):
The way scientists, I'm not, Idon't classify my myself that
way, but the way they'vepinpointed all of these genes to
be able to test for, it's socool.
It really is.
And then, it just helps breedersto where instead of having to go
through the process of breeding,months and months, generations
down to see what they'reproducing, we can tell you the
(11:23):
day it hatches.
Jennifer (11:26):
Wow.
Can you tell like how big it'sgonna be and if it'll win a show
later?
Brittany (11:32):
I wish.
That would be really cool.
Yeah, that would be awesome.
But unfortunately, no thatyou're gonna have to, rate'em
all up and pick your
Jennifer (11:43):
unicorn.
Okay.
So you said silky people areprobably a majority of your
content.
They are.
Brittany (11:49):
I would say that for our sexing, that and the Indio
J, again, the tall ones,
Carey (11:57):
that's it.
Indio?
Brittany (11:58):
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I did a lot of those as well forsexing.
And then emu, I get a lot ofemu, which you know, you can't
tell on them for long time, likea year or better, and you said
the call decks.
Yeah, we could do any type ofduck, any type of geese.
Turkeys, quail, peacocks.
(12:19):
I'm trying to think what all wecan do.
Pretty much any bird other thanwe're working on ria, we can't
do RIA yet.
We're working on those which arerites.
But pretty much any chicken, anytype of, duck, goose, Turkey,
emu,
Jennifer (12:34):
Poultry, any type of poultry.
Yeah.
With inpatient owners, huh?
Carey (12:41):
You need to know if your little Q-tip head's gonna be a
boy or a girl.
Brittany (12:44):
Okay.
So in a lot of people's defense,one reason that we get so many
on the sexing test is a lot ofpeople, and why a lot of'em are
silkies is because a lot ofsilky owners live in city
limits.
They're not allowed to haveroosters, or they'll have HOAs,
they'll live in HOAs and theycan't have roosters.
And they don't wanna getattached because a lot of people
(13:06):
get really attached to theirchickens.
It's a whole, like when you gofrom we were raised with
chickens, and chickens were justchickens.
You know what I mean?
They wasn't, there wasn't thatbig attachment that there is
that I've come to find out now,and don't get me wrong, I love
my birds, but nowadays there's adifferent, there's a lot of pet
owners that are seriouslyattached to their chickens.
(13:26):
Yes.
And I get it.
And that all for them.
Like I get that a hundredpercent.
So they don't wanna get attachedto their birds before they find
out it's a rooster later on andhave to get rid of it,
essentially.
So it makes sense, yeah.
I'm just poking.
We
Jennifer (13:40):
find out, like this day to poke
Carey (13:42):
spies.
It's fun to poke at'em, but thisday and age, if you live in the
city and you have a silky thatyou love.
Things identify differentlynowadays.
Brittany (13:53):
That is true.
Although I don't think thatwould hold up to, the hoa I hear
they could be quite stickler.
Yeah.
Carey (14:00):
Yeah.
Then it just needs to becomeyour emotional support animal.
Brittany (14:05):
I'm sure that
Jennifer (14:05):
they do need to start looking into that.
I agree.
Carey (14:09):
I'm met.
Somebody's done it.
Jennifer (14:10):
So walk us through, if I wanted to.
I don't know, check for sexingand the blue egg gene.
What?
How?
How do I do it?
Go to your website and do what?
Brittany (14:22):
So you'd go to the website and you would create an
account first and foremost, andthen you would go into request
tests.
Right now you would have, theway that the website is set up,
you'd have to place it in twodifferent orders, but you can
send the same sample.
So like one sample I can runmultiple tests on if you wanted
multiple, but you would go in,select the test that you want,
(14:42):
the number of tests that youneed submit that and, pay for
your order.
At that point then I accept yourorder.
And you're then ready to collectyour samples, which is a super
easy process.
I know a lot of people,especially new to chicken
owners, like the newer on newchicken owners, they don't like
(15:03):
to collect blood samples, but itreally is super simple.
It's as easy as clipping atoenail back just a little bit
and getting a piece of a coffeefilter is what we actually
prefer.
Our method collection method, acoffee filter.
Dab the blood at the end of thetoe to the coffee filter and put
it in a Ziploc bag, label it andsend it to us in regular mail.
We do suggest y'all getting atracking number because the way
(15:25):
the mail has been lately.
That way they can see when theyarrive, when their samples get
here.
Jennifer (15:32):
Can it be too old or too hot or too cold or I
Brittany (15:36):
would say on, as long as it's on the coffee filter,
you have at least.
Several weeks to get, in caseit's lost in the mail.
I've had some lost in the mailfor two weeks and they still are
perfectly fine.
There's not really a rush onthat.
If you send the blood in a bloodtube in a PCR tube, then it
spoils it gets too hot.
(15:57):
I don't know about getting toocold.
That wouldn't mean an issue thatwould probably just, preserve it
a little bit better.
But yeah, in the blood tubes,when people do blood, it can get
too hot and it'll spoil.
Yeah.
Jennifer (16:10):
How interesting a coffee filter bleached
unbleached.
Does it matter?
It does not matter.
I'm trying to see if I have asample
Brittany (16:17):
here of somebody to show you.
So this is like an order thatsomebody sent in, with their
little samples and see it's justa coffee filter with a dab of
blood, and that is like way moreblood than we even need.
We literally only need thetiniest little dab.
Like it, people don't understandhow little we actually need.
Jennifer (16:39):
So one or two drops?
Brittany (16:40):
Yep.
Yep.
Little bitty amount.
Yeah, like this is a goodexample of how much we need to
actually, and this we've alreadypulled a sample from, but.
Teeny.
I don't know if it showing it upthere.
Little bitty drop dot of blood.
I mean
Carey (16:56):
that, that essentially looks like you take a Sharpie
and dab it onto a coffee filter.
Brittany (17:03):
Exactly.
Carey (17:04):
From the people out in land, radio, land, listening.
Jennifer (17:08):
Yep.
We might have to break ourpodcast only rules and show some
pictures of this one.
Okay.
Carey's been on me for a whilenow and I just don't want comb
my hair.
Brittany (17:22):
That's another good thing about, basically working
for myself at home, like sweatsand a t-shirt, see me.
I'm good.
I can just sweat some t-shirtit.
Jennifer (17:32):
Yep, I get it.
So just ballpark, how much dothese tests.
Typically run.
Brittany (17:38):
Our regular sexing is $8 for emu, it's 12.
And then our other tests,recessive white is 12 as well,
and then the blue egg is 14.
But all of the others, we alsohave a lavender.
All the others will be$15 eachwhen they come out for just the
traits.
We try to keep it super.
(17:58):
Affordable for everybody.
Jennifer (18:00):
That's cheaper than feeding a bird out.
Yeah.
Figuring it out.
And yeah.
Brittany (18:04):
And it's super quick.
When you mail your samples, thelongest part of the whole
process.
Is the mail getting me thesamples?
Once we get the samples here inthe lab, we have, we work to get
results out the same night.
So they arrive to me, the mailruns here at 11 o'clock and I,
we bust tail and stay upsometimes till midnight
submitting, results.
(18:26):
But we try our best to get yourresults in same day because
that's just.
I don't know.
I don't like waiting.
I'm impatient and I know otherpeople are as well, and that's,
it's one thing that makes usstand out because there's so
many different labs is our speedof getting the results out.
And we really focus a lot oncustomer service as well,
(18:47):
because I don't like to justsubmit money to somebody and be
like, okay, here's my money.
I'm done.
I don't like that.
Jennifer (18:53):
So your impatience is your business model.
I guess
Carey (18:58):
so what she's saying is she can relate to her ideal
customer.
Brittany (19:03):
Yeah.
Carey (19:04):
So she understands that they're impatient and she is
too.
So as soon as it arrives, she'sgotta get it out.
Jennifer (19:10):
Yeah.
And y'all listeners out therewe're just poking fine because
we have to wait with the breezewe've chosen, we have to wait
months and feed them lots offeed and space in order to know
if they're worth feeding out.
Carey (19:25):
Look there.
There's times like I'll do onchickens.
I'll do my first coal if I'mcolon.
Out of the hatcher, but there'stimes that birds, I have fed
them for six months anddiscovered something that.
Just pops out and I get so madat myself.
(19:47):
Yeah.
I'm like, I should have knownthat.
I should have saw that comingmonths ago.
Brittany (19:52):
Same with Silkies.
You can like, as soon as they'rehatched, you can look at skin
color, you can look at thenumber of toes, the spacing of
toes, but what you can't seeuntil months later is how they
hold their wings.
Whether they're gonna be thenice.
Fat type or the little scrawnyones like, it's the same with in
the silky world,
Jennifer (20:10):
it's the
Brittany (20:11):
same.
Jennifer (20:11):
Yep.
Yeah.
What about the fibro gene?
Is that a new test?
They're still working on that?
Brittany (20:17):
Fibro is very complicated.
I don't foresee us having it fora while.
It's we are actively trying toget a grasp on it, but that
fibro test.
Takes so many different genesand different things into
account that it's a serioustest.
It's gonna be hecka complicated.
(20:38):
It is.
It's a hard one.
Oh, okay.
Jennifer (20:41):
That one's difficult,
Brittany (20:43):
huh?
Inter
Jennifer (20:43):
those multi polygenic traits or what?
Tell everybody where they canfind you and all that good
Brittany (20:51):
stuff.
We obviously have our page onFacebook, Knights Poultry and
Lab llc.
But we also have a website,which is
www.knightspoultryandlab.com.
Jennifer (21:05):
Nice.
That's where I found you was onFacebook.
Yeah.
Brittany (21:09):
The Facebook is it's, our page is growing.
Like it's really blowing my mindwhen we first started, I was
just doing it for myself, andthen I reached out to locals and
then I was like I guess I, I'malready doing it for locals.
I might as well offer it to the,everybody.
And when I lit, started puttingit out on Facebook.
Holy bananas, we grew so fast.
(21:29):
It was like we went from less, Iwould say probably somewhere
around 700 followers.
And then now it's over 4,000followers in three months, four
months.
It's
Jennifer (21:39):
crazy.
Okay.
So if y'all haven't noticed, shehas a tiny bit of an accent.
She's a southern gal.
And so we were talking before wehit record about hurricanes.
What do you do with your silkieswhen a hurricane is coming?
You hunker'em down.
That's pretty much all you
Brittany (22:00):
can do, honestly.
If you have to evacuate, I look.
We have, we're not so close tothe coast to where we have to
deal with the surge, which isthe number one problem with
hurricanes.
This is surge so we're not soclose that the surge has never
made it up to us.
But as far as like the badweather and stuff like that, all
(22:20):
you can do is hun them babiesdown and pray for'em.
You don't bring them inside andjust line'em up.
I love chickens.
I do.
I love chickens as much aseverybody, but I
Jennifer (22:32):
not bringing'em in.
Huh?
It's
Brittany (22:34):
gonna have to be bad for, I'll put'em in my garage,
but it's gonna have to be badfor them.
Things to come in my house.
That many.
I got a bunch of chickens.
Carey (22:42):
She's, look, she's gonna get her favorite breeder pears.
Brittany (22:46):
Oh, absolutely.
She
Carey (22:47):
go get a couple of those
Brittany (22:48):
favorites.
Carey (22:49):
Yeah.
They're coming on to the arc.
The rest of them.
Brittany (22:54):
Thankfully we've never had that float
Carey (22:56):
or swim baby.
Brittany (22:57):
Yeah, pretty much.
You know the, I don't wanna sayfavorites'cause you can't say
favorite.
'cause as soon as you sayfavorites, something happens to
them.
The not favorites, you knowthose can come in.
Okay.
So what's your favorite color?
Blue cream and black probably.
I would say those are my twofavorite colors.
If I had to choose.
(23:18):
Yeah.
The black, is that purple
Carey (23:20):
still key
Brittany (23:21):
lavenders?
Yeah, we got lavender.
Carey (23:23):
Oh really?
Yeah.
But is it like lavender or is itmore purple?
It's just
Brittany (23:27):
It's like lavender, self blue, like everything else.
It's not purple.
Carey (23:31):
Nah, I need purple
Brittany (23:32):
now.
Like the blue creams do have apurple hue.
Pretty pretty, yeah, that'dprobably be your closest to
having a purple.
Carey (23:42):
Man.
I bet I could find a mineralthat would bring that out.
Brittany (23:46):
I bet you
Carey (23:46):
could mix it in with their feed and make it happen.
Brittany (23:50):
Yeah, you probably could.
You could probably, I don'tknow.
I'm sure they have pet safe diethat you could just get a white
one.
Carey (23:56):
That would be too extremist.
Jennifer (24:01):
We appreciate you coming on and talking about it.
I had, I mean I just, it's notsomething we need and it never
really occurred to me till Icame across your Facebook page.
Yeah.
I
Brittany (24:10):
totally appreciate y'all.
You have no idea.
Like I was super nervous, butit's been pretty fun.
Yeah.
Jennifer (24:17):
Yeah.
Brittany (24:17):
And we try
Jennifer (24:17):
to be fun.
Brittany (24:18):
Yeah.
Jennifer (24:20):
Alright, thank you.
Yep.
Thank.
Hello and welcome.
We are back with a fairly newnerd.
We have Brittany from KnightsPoultry and Lab, and they do
some pretty cool stuff overthere.
She was telling us about itbefore we started recording, and
we've gotten a lot of questionsfrom our other nerds on social
(00:24):
media about this type oftesting.
So Jennifer was like, Hey, let'sjust talk to the lady herself
and see what she says.
So here we are.
So Brittany, if you will tell usa little bit about you and your
farm.
Brittany (00:40):
So my name is Brittany.
I'm with Knights Poultry andLab.
We are a little chicken farm, Iguess you would say.
It's more like a.
A hobby here in socialMississippi, silky is our main
focus.
We kinda had cos for a while andAmericana's I know.
But then we got our first silkyand oh my gosh, I became
(01:02):
obsessed.
So it's like Pokemon.
You gotta collect like all thecolors and all of the things.
It's sad.
It's sad, but they're amazingand they're very.
Very easily to get attached to,and then you want'em all.
So that's where that's ourchickens.
That's the story on how much,chickens was.
And with them, that's how Iactually got into DNA testing
because with the silkies, ittakes so long for you to
(01:25):
actually be able to tell whetheryou even have, a pull or a
cocker.
That's like you're months downthe road.
So I was thinking, I was like,I'll just, learn to do this by
myself, for myself, and that'show I got into it.
Do you have to go to school todo
Jennifer (01:41):
it?
Brittany (01:41):
No, you don't.
It is a lot.
Okay, so my journey is a littlebit different.
Have you noticed there's so manydifferent farms popping up that
are doing the lab testing now?
I'm not sure if you noticed it,but in the, okay, so in the
silky community there are tonsof farms that are popping up
doing, the same thing that I do.
Which it's super, it's fairlyeasy to do if you can devote the
(02:04):
time and, a little bit of extraplay money that you can actually
set aside to put into it.
'cause it, it's a little bitcostly when you're first
starting out, but it's notterrible.
It.
So from
Carey (02:15):
Wait.
You have play money and you havechickens.
Brittany (02:18):
I know.
It's really, my husband spoilsme a lot.
Carey (02:22):
Okay.
Brittany (02:23):
Okay.
Yeah that's where that is.
Yeah.
My journey's a little bitdifferent getting into it than
most of the people that aredoing their labs now.
Because there is a.
Biologist in California thatactually teaches the classes
now.
I started before I had foundher, so I had to do a bunch of
trial and error and teachmyself, I guess for the most
(02:43):
part.
And it's doable.
Everything's on Google.
You could figure it all out ifyou put enough time and effort.
It's like anything, you couldteach yourself anything,
especially with YouTube.
So I pretty much had the basesdown and then I found Ari with
Chick Check.
She's the, the biologist out inCalifornia that does the classes
for anybody that's interested.
I found her and we just hit itoff to nerds, I guess you would
(03:05):
say.
Nerding out over.
Chicken science.
Carey (03:09):
You better be careful.
You might wind up with apodcast.
Brittany (03:13):
We've, we actually, she was like, it's so weird.
'cause she was like, we shoulddo a podcast.
I was like, I don't know.
I'm pretty nervous when it comesto talking to people.
And then Jennifer reaches outlike literally five days later.
I'm like.
I just talked to Jennifer and Ithink I'm gonna do a podcast
with her.
(03:34):
It's hilarious.
Jennifer (03:35):
I was like, see, I told you people wanted to know.
They do.
Yeah.
People don't know.
So Carrie and I have regular oldchickens that don't need all
this fancy stuff.
Brittany (03:47):
We even have DNA testing for regular old chickens
too.
We have the recessive whitetest.
We have a bunch of other testscoming out.
It's not, a lot of people dofocus it more on silkies because
there's so much, I don't know somuch into Silkies, like there's
so much involved in Silkies, butwe have, be careful we'll start
(04:09):
razzing on the silk silkies now.
It's that's a whole new ballgame right there.
All on its own.
The silky world is, I tell ya.
Yes.
But we have other tests thatlike the Americana people I,
mines I get a lot of testrequests from I mines.
For the recessive white andstuff like that.
So we have other tests.
It's not just the DNA sexingcall ducks.
(04:31):
We have we do a lot of callducks because I'm assuming, I
don't know ducks, but from whatI'm hearing from the breeders,
they're so small When they'refirst hatch, you can't look at
'em and do whatever they do to,see the check the sex because
they're so small they'll in'em.
So they just send in a tinylittle blood sample.
And then they get their resultslike same day.
Jennifer (04:55):
Okay, so let's back up just a minute.
So you're self taught and thenyou got your own equipment.
What all do you need in order todo this?
So you don't have to give allyour secrets.
Brittany (05:04):
I'm self taught up to a.
Certain point.
I do wanna clarify that.
I did go through Chi check withAri and do the final touches
with her.
But, so yeah, I do wanna giveher credit where it's due, but
as far as what you need to doit, your equipment wise, there's
a thermocycler that you'll haveto have, which is this machine
right here.
And then you need electro, youneed your electro tank, which is
(05:27):
right back.
There.
And basically it just holds abuffer and it puts the
electricity through a gel thatwe create and it pulls the DNA
to split out the different bandsto show different results.
I wish I would've had a gel herefor y'all to see.
Yeah, I know.
I'm so sorry.
See us.
But if you're not seeing and no,yeah.
(05:49):
Okay let me break it down.
Let's see.
Yeah, so you take the sample,right?
Yeah.
You're gonna put it in a bufferthat protects the DNA and then
through a machine with adifferent primer that targets
the certain portions of the DNAthat we need.
It duplicates and replicates ita bunch to where there's, takes
that teeny tiny sample and makesit where it's visible, it makes
(06:12):
it larger and then you add a dyeto it and then you put it
through a gel with electricity,which is going to pull the
strands, the different sized DNAstrands.
To where we can read that, ifthat makes any more sense.
Little bit.
Little bit.
And then you look at it, andthen you look at it with a
Jennifer (06:34):
with a light.
Yeah.
And then you
Brittany (06:36):
just turn on the blue light and then you can actually
see the way the results areshowing up, it'll show up
different bands and thedifferent number of bands means
different things with differenttests.
Yeah.
Jennifer (06:46):
Wow.
You really are a nerd.
Brittany (06:50):
That's a lot.
And everybody's I bet that's Ithink, yeah,
Carey (06:53):
that's straight up CSI Miami Lab stuff right there.
Brittany (06:57):
I know.
It's everybody's I bet that's soput up a camera.
I'm like, if I put up a camera,literally all you're gonna see
is me with a pipette going.
Like back and forth with a it'snot really that interesting.
But
Carey (07:09):
look, what you should do is when you do a bunch of those,
Brittany (07:13):
yeah,
Carey (07:14):
shoot the video and then when you put it in your machine
and it does whatever, shootssome video of that and stick it
on TikTok.
Brittany (07:24):
I need to, people will probably
Carey (07:25):
watch it like crazy, just they say because
Brittany (07:28):
it, and I'm just like, I don't, there's, to me, because
I do it like six days a week allday long, sometimes till
midnight, like to me, I'm doingthe same thing.
It's like I don't see what'slike interesting about, y'all
would get so bored.
Jennifer (07:42):
You need to put like a white coat on and a hat and big
glasses.
Make a carrot and
Carey (07:47):
have it embroidered like you have your shirt.
Jennifer (07:49):
Yeah, and
Carey (07:49):
then you could do that and video it when you, on your
order form.
You could have'em like, checkhere if you wanted to see your
order on TikTok.
Brittany (08:00):
Oh yeah.
What the hell?
You look for that.
Carey (08:02):
I'm gonna tell you right now, some Silky folks will pay
for that.
They
Brittany (08:06):
probably would.
I haven't even thought aboutthat.
Like the new subscription stuffthat you could do on Facebook.
I say new I again,
Carey (08:14):
hey, new to you, whatever.
Brittany (08:16):
So fast.
Like I have no, I know nothingabout, all the Facebook stuff,
but it's growing.
Yeah, really good.
Jennifer (08:24):
Yeah we're not gonna be any help for that at all.
So Yeah, we can't help you withthat.
Is this, so this lab, I amassuming you have a lab or just
a room or, yeah.
Brittany (08:34):
Right now we're in just a room.
We have a lab.
We're still going through zoningand fighting, zoning and coding
and everything to get moved intoour permanent building.
So right now we are just in aroom waiting for.
County to clear us bump,
Carey (08:52):
bump them.
Brittany (08:53):
We are months in.
I'm telling you.
I'm ready.
Carey (08:55):
Bump that.
Just keep being a rebel.
Brittany (08:57):
Yeah, it's, it is.
Ugh.
It's a headache.
It's a headache for sure.
Jennifer (09:03):
So what kind of tests do you do?
I'm trying to visualize whysomebody would need it.
So you've got the.
The gender.
Brittany (09:14):
Yep.
Yep.
We got the sexing.
That's like I said, for prettymuch anything.
We can sex on that.
But then we have like recessivewhite, we have blue egg jean.
I did catch your podcast.
I re listened to the one of thaty'all had.
That was pretty cool.
But yeah, we can test for yourblue egg to see whether you have
one gene, two genes, no jeans.
(09:35):
So that's pretty cool.
A lot of people, you know with.
Send in for that because withthe blue Egging test, if you're
wanting, okay, say you haveEaster I know that y'all talked
about this, could.
Hatch not even being able to laya blue egg or a colored egg
period.
They'll have brown eggs'causethey have no jeans in there.
So instead of raising that chickup all the way through and
(09:57):
feeding it and raising it and,months down the line till you
finally get a colored egg or getan egg period, and then it's tan
or whatever, we could tell youthe day it's hatched.
So you're not having to like,wait through that long time span
and raise'em up.
So that's one of our.
Test another one of our teststhat we're actually in working
on.
(10:18):
I don't know.
I don't.
It's so competitive.
There's a bunch of tests that,and then it's really competitive
in a weird way with all thelabs.
That's really weird to me.
Like they, everybody tries tokeep their tests that they have
coming out all hush.
But one of them that we do havecoming or that we're planning to
work on is like the blue egg inthe quail, like the sell iton.
That way that people can, seethat before and it helps
(10:40):
breeding programs.
But stuff like that, we havechocolate test that is almost
verified modeled.
So where we could see if you'recarrying a model gene, a
chocolate gene, in case you havea, a split where you have a
black bird and need to know ifit carries chocolate or
whatever.
A bunch of different tests.
It's really cool.
It's really neat.
(11:02):
The way scientists, I'm not, Idon't classify my myself that
way, but the way they'vepinpointed all of these genes to
be able to test for, it's socool.
It really is.
And then, it just helps breedersto where instead of having to go
through the process of breeding,months and months, generations
down to see what they'reproducing, we can tell you the
(11:23):
day it hatches.
Jennifer (11:26):
Wow.
Can you tell like how big it'sgonna be and if it'll win a show
later?
Brittany (11:32):
I wish.
That would be really cool.
Yeah, that would be awesome.
But unfortunately, no thatyou're gonna have to, rate'em
all up and pick your
Jennifer (11:43):
unicorn.
Okay.
So you said silky people areprobably a majority of your
content.
They are.
Brittany (11:49):
I would say that for our sexing, that and the Indio
J, again, the tall ones,
Carey (11:57):
that's it.
Indio?
Brittany (11:58):
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I did a lot of those as well forsexing.
And then emu, I get a lot ofemu, which you know, you can't
tell on them for long time, likea year or better, and you said
the call decks.
Yeah, we could do any type ofduck, any type of geese.
Turkeys, quail, peacocks.
(12:19):
I'm trying to think what all wecan do.
Pretty much any bird other thanwe're working on ria, we can't
do RIA yet.
We're working on those which arerites.
But pretty much any chicken, anytype of, duck, goose, Turkey,
emu,
Jennifer (12:34):
Poultry, any type of poultry.
Yeah.
With inpatient owners, huh?
Carey (12:41):
You need to know if your little Q-tip head's gonna be a
boy or a girl.
Brittany (12:44):
Okay.
So in a lot of people's defense,one reason that we get so many
on the sexing test is a lot ofpeople, and why a lot of'em are
silkies is because a lot ofsilky owners live in city
limits.
They're not allowed to haveroosters, or they'll have HOAs,
they'll live in HOAs and theycan't have roosters.
And they don't wanna getattached because a lot of people
(13:06):
get really attached to theirchickens.
It's a whole, like when you gofrom we were raised with
chickens, and chickens were justchickens.
You know what I mean?
They wasn't, there wasn't thatbig attachment that there is
that I've come to find out now,and don't get me wrong, I love
my birds, but nowadays there's adifferent, there's a lot of pet
owners that are seriouslyattached to their chickens.
(13:26):
Yes.
And I get it.
And that all for them.
Like I get that a hundredpercent.
So they don't wanna get attachedto their birds before they find
out it's a rooster later on andhave to get rid of it,
essentially.
So it makes sense, yeah.
I'm just poking.
We
Jennifer (13:40):
find out, like this day to poke
Carey (13:42):
spies.
It's fun to poke at'em, but thisday and age, if you live in the
city and you have a silky thatyou love.
Things identify differentlynowadays.
Brittany (13:53):
That is true.
Although I don't think thatwould hold up to, the hoa I hear
they could be quite stickler.
Yeah.
Carey (14:00):
Yeah.
Then it just needs to becomeyour emotional support animal.
Brittany (14:05):
I'm sure that
Jennifer (14:05):
they do need to start looking into that.
I agree.
Carey (14:09):
I'm met.
Somebody's done it.
Jennifer (14:10):
So walk us through, if I wanted to.
I don't know, check for sexingand the blue egg gene.
What?
How?
How do I do it?
Go to your website and do what?
Brittany (14:22):
So you'd go to the website and you would create an
account first and foremost, andthen you would go into request
tests.
Right now you would have, theway that the website is set up,
you'd have to place it in twodifferent orders, but you can
send the same sample.
So like one sample I can runmultiple tests on if you wanted
multiple, but you would go in,select the test that you want,
(14:42):
the number of tests that youneed submit that and, pay for
your order.
At that point then I accept yourorder.
And you're then ready to collectyour samples, which is a super
easy process.
I know a lot of people,especially new to chicken
owners, like the newer on newchicken owners, they don't like
(15:03):
to collect blood samples, but itreally is super simple.
It's as easy as clipping atoenail back just a little bit
and getting a piece of a coffeefilter is what we actually
prefer.
Our method collection method, acoffee filter.
Dab the blood at the end of thetoe to the coffee filter and put
it in a Ziploc bag, label it andsend it to us in regular mail.
We do suggest y'all getting atracking number because the way
(15:25):
the mail has been lately.
That way they can see when theyarrive, when their samples get
here.
Jennifer (15:32):
Can it be too old or too hot or too cold or I
Brittany (15:36):
would say on, as long as it's on the coffee filter,
you have at least.
Several weeks to get, in caseit's lost in the mail.
I've had some lost in the mailfor two weeks and they still are
perfectly fine.
There's not really a rush onthat.
If you send the blood in a bloodtube in a PCR tube, then it
spoils it gets too hot.
(15:57):
I don't know about getting toocold.
That wouldn't mean an issue thatwould probably just, preserve it
a little bit better.
But yeah, in the blood tubes,when people do blood, it can get
too hot and it'll spoil.
Yeah.
Jennifer (16:10):
How interesting a coffee filter bleached
unbleached.
Does it matter?
It does not matter.
I'm trying to see if I have asample
Brittany (16:17):
here of somebody to show you.
So this is like an order thatsomebody sent in, with their
little samples and see it's justa coffee filter with a dab of
blood, and that is like way moreblood than we even need.
We literally only need thetiniest little dab.
Like it, people don't understandhow little we actually need.
Jennifer (16:39):
So one or two drops?
Brittany (16:40):
Yep.
Yep.
Little bitty amount.
Yeah, like this is a goodexample of how much we need to
actually, and this we've alreadypulled a sample from, but.
Teeny.
I don't know if it showing it upthere.
Little bitty drop dot of blood.
I mean
Carey (16:56):
that, that essentially looks like you take a Sharpie
and dab it onto a coffee filter.
Brittany (17:03):
Exactly.
Carey (17:04):
From the people out in land, radio, land, listening.
Jennifer (17:08):
Yep.
We might have to break ourpodcast only rules and show some
pictures of this one.
Okay.
Carey's been on me for a whilenow and I just don't want comb
my hair.
Brittany (17:22):
That's another good thing about, basically working
for myself at home, like sweatsand a t-shirt, see me.
I'm good.
I can just sweat some t-shirtit.
Jennifer (17:32):
Yep, I get it.
So just ballpark, how much dothese tests.
Typically run.
Brittany (17:38):
Our regular sexing is $8 for emu, it's 12.
And then our other tests,recessive white is 12 as well,
and then the blue egg is 14.
But all of the others, we alsohave a lavender.
All the others will be$15 eachwhen they come out for just the
traits.
We try to keep it super.
(17:58):
Affordable for everybody.
Jennifer (18:00):
That's cheaper than feeding a bird out.
Yeah.
Figuring it out.
And yeah.
Brittany (18:04):
And it's super quick.
When you mail your samples, thelongest part of the whole
process.
Is the mail getting me thesamples?
Once we get the samples here inthe lab, we have, we work to get
results out the same night.
So they arrive to me, the mailruns here at 11 o'clock and I,
we bust tail and stay upsometimes till midnight
submitting, results.
(18:26):
But we try our best to get yourresults in same day because
that's just.
I don't know.
I don't like waiting.
I'm impatient and I know otherpeople are as well, and that's,
it's one thing that makes usstand out because there's so
many different labs is our speedof getting the results out.
And we really focus a lot oncustomer service as well,
(18:47):
because I don't like to justsubmit money to somebody and be
like, okay, here's my money.
I'm done.
I don't like that.
Jennifer (18:53):
So your impatience is your business model.
I guess
Carey (18:58):
so what she's saying is she can relate to her ideal
customer.
Brittany (19:03):
Yeah.
Carey (19:04):
So she understands that they're impatient and she is
too.
So as soon as it arrives, she'sgotta get it out.
Jennifer (19:10):
Yeah.
And y'all listeners out therewe're just poking fine because
we have to wait with the breezewe've chosen, we have to wait
months and feed them lots offeed and space in order to know
if they're worth feeding out.
Carey (19:25):
Look there.
There's times like I'll do onchickens.
I'll do my first coal if I'mcolon.
Out of the hatcher, but there'stimes that birds, I have fed
them for six months anddiscovered something that.
Just pops out and I get so madat myself.
(19:47):
Yeah.
I'm like, I should have knownthat.
I should have saw that comingmonths ago.
Brittany (19:52):
Same with Silkies.
You can like, as soon as they'rehatched, you can look at skin
color, you can look at thenumber of toes, the spacing of
toes, but what you can't seeuntil months later is how they
hold their wings.
Whether they're gonna be thenice.
Fat type or the little scrawnyones like, it's the same with in
the silky world,
Jennifer (20:10):
it's the
Brittany (20:11):
same.
Jennifer (20:11):
Yep.
Yeah.
What about the fibro gene?
Is that a new test?
They're still working on that?
Brittany (20:17):
Fibro is very complicated.
I don't foresee us having it fora while.
It's we are actively trying toget a grasp on it, but that
fibro test.
Takes so many different genesand different things into
account that it's a serioustest.
It's gonna be hecka complicated.
(20:38):
It is.
It's a hard one.
Oh, okay.
Jennifer (20:41):
That one's difficult,
Brittany (20:43):
huh?
Inter
Jennifer (20:43):
those multi polygenic traits or what?
Tell everybody where they canfind you and all that good
Brittany (20:51):
stuff.
We obviously have our page onFacebook, Knights Poultry and
Lab llc.
But we also have a website,which is
www.knightspoultryandlab.com.
Jennifer (21:05):
Nice.
That's where I found you was onFacebook.
Yeah.
Brittany (21:09):
The Facebook is it's, our page is growing.
Like it's really blowing my mindwhen we first started, I was
just doing it for myself, andthen I reached out to locals and
then I was like I guess I, I'malready doing it for locals.
I might as well offer it to the,everybody.
And when I lit, started puttingit out on Facebook.
Holy bananas, we grew so fast.
(21:29):
It was like we went from less, Iwould say probably somewhere
around 700 followers.
And then now it's over 4,000followers in three months, four
months.
It's
Jennifer (21:39):
crazy.
Okay.
So if y'all haven't noticed, shehas a tiny bit of an accent.
She's a southern gal.
And so we were talking before wehit record about hurricanes.
What do you do with your silkieswhen a hurricane is coming?
You hunker'em down.
That's pretty much all you
Brittany (22:00):
can do, honestly.
If you have to evacuate, I look.
We have, we're not so close tothe coast to where we have to
deal with the surge, which isthe number one problem with
hurricanes.
This is surge so we're not soclose that the surge has never
made it up to us.
But as far as like the badweather and stuff like that, all
(22:20):
you can do is hun them babiesdown and pray for'em.
You don't bring them inside andjust line'em up.
I love chickens.
I do.
I love chickens as much aseverybody, but I
Jennifer (22:32):
not bringing'em in.
Huh?
It's
Brittany (22:34):
gonna have to be bad for, I'll put'em in my garage,
but it's gonna have to be badfor them.
Things to come in my house.
That many.
I got a bunch of chickens.
Carey (22:42):
She's, look, she's gonna get her favorite breeder pears.
Brittany (22:46):
Oh, absolutely.
She
Carey (22:47):
go get a couple of those
Brittany (22:48):
favorites.
Carey (22:49):
Yeah.
They're coming on to the arc.
The rest of them.
Brittany (22:54):
Thankfully we've never had that float
Carey (22:56):
or swim baby.
Brittany (22:57):
Yeah, pretty much.
You know the, I don't wanna sayfavorites'cause you can't say
favorite.
'cause as soon as you sayfavorites, something happens to
them.
The not favorites, you knowthose can come in.
Okay.
So what's your favorite color?
Blue cream and black probably.
I would say those are my twofavorite colors.
If I had to choose.
(23:18):
Yeah.
The black, is that purple
Carey (23:20):
still key
Brittany (23:21):
lavenders?
Yeah, we got lavender.
Carey (23:23):
Oh really?
Yeah.
But is it like lavender or is itmore purple?
It's just
Brittany (23:27):
It's like lavender, self blue, like everything else.
It's not purple.
Carey (23:31):
Nah, I need purple
Brittany (23:32):
now.
Like the blue creams do have apurple hue.
Pretty pretty, yeah, that'dprobably be your closest to
having a purple.
Carey (23:42):
Man.
I bet I could find a mineralthat would bring that out.
Brittany (23:46):
I bet you
Carey (23:46):
could mix it in with their feed and make it happen.
Brittany (23:50):
Yeah, you probably could.
You could probably, I don'tknow.
I'm sure they have pet safe diethat you could just get a white
one.
Carey (23:56):
That would be too extremist.
Jennifer (24:01):
We appreciate you coming on and talking about it.
I had, I mean I just, it's notsomething we need and it never
really occurred to me till Icame across your Facebook page.
Yeah.
I
Brittany (24:10):
totally appreciate y'all.
You have no idea.
Like I was super nervous, butit's been pretty fun.
Yeah.
Jennifer (24:17):
Yeah.
Brittany (24:17):
And we try
Jennifer (24:17):
to be fun.
Brittany (24:18):
Yeah.
Jennifer (24:20):
Alright, thank you.
Yep.
Thank.
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