Does anyone have some Barred Rock Silkie crosses? Hen or Roo.

Arztwolf

Songster
5 Years
Aug 5, 2014
474
25
116
SW Texas
My black Silkie, Sponge, is right now sitting on a clutch of eggs and I'm just wondering what they may look like. The roo is a Barred Rock and I have a feeling they are going to look interesting.
 
Don't have any but I know the genetics so I can give you an idea! Shame it wasn't the other way around - Barred BLACK roo over black BARRED hens woulda given you black sex links! EDIT: I'm an idiot. Disregard my previous typo.

A barred bird is white barring over black base. A black bird is, well, black. If your male is a pure BR he'll be homozygous for Barring, female is homozyous non-Barred so you throw in a punnet square and you get 100% heterozygous Barred offspring. And Silkie feathering is recessive, so all babies will be phenotypically flat feathered; although they will carry the Silkie gene. Beard/muff and crest are incomplete dominant, as is lef feathering, so the offspring will get about half as much of each as the mom has. The 5-toe gene is pretty weird, but you'll probably get either 4 toes, 4 toes with a lil stub growing out, or potentially 4 toes on one foot and 5 on the other. Occasionally you'll get cross babies with all 5 toes both feet, but not often. Black skin is also variable, although the Barring gene is known to have the effect of lightening dark skinned birds, so take from that what you will.

So in short the babies will be a darker Barred (think Cuckoo-ish), with a small crest and beard, small ear muffs, and light foot feathering, who may have 4-5 toes and may or may not have dark-ish skin.
 
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Shame it wasn't the other way around - Barred roo over black hens woulda given you black sex links!

Isn't that what arztwolf said he had? Barred roo and black hen?

Anyway I find this stuff interesting I'm just trying to learn how the genetics work so thanks for your detailed post
 
 Isn't that what arztwolf said he had? Barred roo and black hen?

Anyway I find this stuff interesting I'm just trying to learn how the genetics work so thanks for your detailed post


Um, yes, yes it is. I'm just an idiot who types to fast. What I meant to say was black roo over barred hen, but my fingers were apparently going faster than my brain when I wrote that post.

Glad to be of service though!
 
Don't have any but I know the genetics so I can give you an idea! Shame it wasn't the other way around - Barred BLACK roo over black BARRED hens woulda given you black sex links! EDIT: I'm an idiot. Disregard my previous typo.

A barred bird is white barring over black base. A black bird is, well, black. If your male is a pure BR he'll be homozygous for Barring, female is homozyous non-Barred so you throw in a punnet square and you get 100% heterozygous Barred offspring. And Silkie feathering is recessive, so all babies will be phenotypically flat feathered; although they will carry the Silkie gene. Beard/muff and crest are incomplete dominant, as is lef feathering, so the offspring will get about half as much of each as the mom has. The 5-toe gene is pretty weird, but you'll probably get either 4 toes, 4 toes with a lil stub growing out, or potentially 4 toes on one foot and 5 on the other. Occasionally you'll get cross babies with all 5 toes both feet, but not often. Black skin is also variable, although the Barring gene is known to have the effect of lightening dark skinned birds, so take from that what you will.

So in short the babies will be a darker Barred (think Cuckoo-ish), with a small crest and beard, small ear muffs, and light foot feathering, who may have 4-5 toes and may or may not have dark-ish skin.

Thanks, that was very informative! The one thing I'm hoping for is that they get Jo Jo's (the roo's) temperament. The hen, Sponge, is not aggressive or anything, but Jo Jo is a one of a kind bird and I hope some of his offspring will have inherited his friendliness.
 

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