Is there a larger breed of silkie or variety? Sorry, just slightly clueless here.
Genetics 101
Making a black meat bird from a silkie. The black pigment in the sikie is due to the autosomal dominant fibromelanosis gene and the recessive sex linked dermal melanin gene. To get the best pigmentation the bird must carry both of the genes. If you carry out the following breeding regimen, you can make some black meat birds. The silkie has a number of other characteristics that you can breed out over time or do not worry about if you want a large black meat bird.
1. Find a large black male silkie. Silkies can vary in size and people do not usually want the larger birds unless they use the females to hatch chicks.
2. Cross the male silkie with a standard size female black chicken. I would use a black australorp. The cross
must be a male sikie over a black australorp female. Hatch at least 10 F1 chicks and pick out the largest male and the 2 largest females to cross (
do not worry about color just size). ( the F1 means the offspring from the first cross) Eat the other F1 birds once you have raised the next generation.
3. Cross the largest F1 male with largest F1 female - this produces the F2 generation.
Hatch chicks until you produce a large F2 male and a few large F2 females that have black skin, comb, shanks, feet, and beak. Pick out the largest ( they should be close to or standard size) properly pigmented male and females from the F2 for the next cross.
the above F1 xF1 cross will produce a few of the birds you want. This cross will produce other varieties you do not want. You have to get the correct combination of genes in the F2 offspring for them to be a black meat bird. Eat the birds you do not want to breed. Always save 3 males as breeders.
4. Do not cross F2 birds that have lighter colored shanks and feet. The shanks and feet will indicate the amount of black pigment inside the bird. Lighter colored shanks ( blue) will have much less black pigment in the meat- do not cross birds with blue shanks. You want to cross birds that have dark black skin, black combs and face , and dark black shanks and feet.
Cross the largest and darkest pigmented F2 male with the largest best pigmented F2 females- This cross should produce ( F3) more of the birds you want.
From now on cross the best birds with the best birds until you consistently produce the bird you want.
Some silkie birds will show up in the F2 and following generatons. Silkie is a recessive trait. All the other characteristics will also be present. Crest and muffs and beard are incompletely dominant traits and will be difficult to breed out. I would not worry about crest or muffs and beard. Same thing goes for polytactyly and feathered feet. You can breed out any of the traits by consistently not breeding birds with the trait. If you produce a bird that does not have a trait ( you want to eliminate the trait)- use that bird as a breeder.
The best way to eliminate dominant traits is to back cross to a bird that lacks the trait. As an example, if you hatch a
properly pigmented bird that does not have a crest, then back cross to this bird to produce more birds without a crest.
Feathered feet is controlled by 2 sets of genes and will be difficult to eliminate if the bird has the correct combination of genes.
Tim
