Can someone please answer a couple questions on color and genes for me?
This rooster is a cross between a silkie and a maran, I am interested in playing with this cross a bit but wondering about the outcome of the offspring.
Questions:
1. If I cross this rooster back to a black silkie hen will the color delute to black?
2. If I cross back to silkie hen can I expect some chicks to hatch with this color pattern with silked feathers?
3. Will the dark maran colored egg be passed onto the chicks?
4. Would it be better for me to cross this bird back to a maran hen, and if I did could I still end up with some silked feather chicks?
My goal here is to reproduce this bird some with regular feathers and some with silked feathers. What I want to avoid is loosing the vibrant color pattern, bright blue earlobes, awesome crest, and feathered feet.
Any input would be helpful
)
This rooster is a cross between a silkie and a maran, I am interested in playing with this cross a bit but wondering about the outcome of the offspring.
Questions:
1. If I cross this rooster back to a black silkie hen will the color delute to black?
2. If I cross back to silkie hen can I expect some chicks to hatch with this color pattern with silked feathers?
3. Will the dark maran colored egg be passed onto the chicks?
4. Would it be better for me to cross this bird back to a maran hen, and if I did could I still end up with some silked feather chicks?
My goal here is to reproduce this bird some with regular feathers and some with silked feathers. What I want to avoid is loosing the vibrant color pattern, bright blue earlobes, awesome crest, and feathered feet.
Any input would be helpful


