Barring...?

[Troubadour05]

Hello! So I am working on my silkie and sizzle breeding projects, and one of my hens took off and came back with 11 chicks. I am very new to chicken breeding and genetics, but this one puzzled me... The hen is a paint frizzled silkie, and the two roosters she was in contact with are a patridge silkie, and a 1st generation sizzle, though he looks more like his cochin parent. Out of the chicks, all are frizzled except 2 are smooth. There are lots of black, a couple paints, but there is also 2 light buff colored chicks, and one light barred chick.... I'll post pictures from my phone in a minute, where the heck did this come from?? I've read barred is a sex-linked gene, and that the father must pass it down..? If this is correct I am confused because neither rooster is barred, and I know the silkie roo does not carry any barring. Is it possible that one of the other two have passed it along? I am not sure about either of their backgrounds.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Hello! So I am working on my silkie and sizzle breeding projects, and one of my hens took off and came back with 11 chicks. I am very new to chicken breeding and genetics, but this one puzzled me... The hen is a paint frizzled silkie, and the two roosters she was in contact with are a patridge silkie, and a 1st generation sizzle, though he looks more like his cochin parent. Out of the chicks, all are frizzled except 2 are smooth. There are lots of black, a couple paints, but there is also 2 light buff colored chicks, and one light barred chick.... I'll post pictures from my phone in a minute, where the heck did this come from?? I've read barred is a sex-linked gene, and that the father must pass it down..? If this is correct I am confused because neither rooster is barred, and I know the silkie roo does not carry any barring. Is it possible that one of the other two have passed it along? I am not sure about either of their backgrounds.

Hello and welcome!
A couple of thoughts as I read through your post. On the issue of barring and sex linkage - in a sex linked cross using barring, the barred bird used is the female and the barring is passed to male offspring. Which would lead to my next question of - what other hens are in your flock? I think the fatal flaw in your attempt to sort out the father of the brood is you seem to be assuming all of the chicks hatched from eggs laid by the female in question. In a flock situation, it is quite common for a broody to wind up on a clutch of eggs that have been laid by multiple hens - so you are working not only with more than one potential father, but multiple potential mothers for each chick.

 

[Troubadour05]

Thank you! The other hens in the pen were all purebred silkies, a blue, a buff, and a partridge. I do know the backgrounds of those, no barring there. My mind is boggled on this one. I'm attaching pictures of that chick, and the paint hen and also the lighter buff colored one that, I noticed during our photo shoot, also has very faint barring. Its pretty hard to see in the picture. After re-reading the first post I realized I forgot to mention the frizzled rooster is black with brown on his wings and around the hackles, I'll add that picture if I can find one.





And the rooster..

 

[donrae]

Mystery solved....this isn't true barring. It's a stage of juvenile plumage the bird is going through. I'm not sure what the bird will look like when mature, but it won't be barred.

 

[Troubadour05]

Never thought of that! Thanks!

 

[maranfarmer563]

I raised some bantys Wyandotte, partridge. This year I got a pure white Wyandotte rooster,thinking I would get white with partridge marking. Every chick came cuckoo like bantum Dominique. As they matured cockerels got gold in their hackles.will i ever get white partridge out of these?

 

[keesmom]

I raised some bantys Wyandotte, partridge. This year I got a pure white Wyandotte rooster,thinking I would get white with partridge marking. Every chick came cuckoo like bantum Dominique. As they matured cockerels got gold in their hackles.will i ever get white partridge out of these?

No, because white partridge cannot occur. The white gene acts as an off switch, preventing colors and patterns from showing. Breeding to white is unpredictable and can give you just about anything. In your case your white male carries barring, producing barred chicks.

 

[maranfarmer563]

Ok that'll explain it, I hatched 30 of these, is there a variety of cuckoo Wyandotte bantums

 

[Troubadour05]

Wanted to update..

The chick I started this thread about has feathered out and is looking lovely...






Sorry for the blur, she's (he's?) a busy-body.


This one is from the same bunch, started out completely black and grew out as this really dark version of the pattern above.


I also now have a younger smooth feathered version



I'm calling it partridge, is that correct?

 

[donrae]

I was thinking partridge or a wild-type coloring.