creating a silked easter egger

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

I saw that MPC has a new bantam called a silked easter egger. I have 8 silkies in the brooder right now. They are straight run white silkies. i have 8, I am hoping for 4 females, one female for my neighbor and 3 for me. I will also be keeping the best and friendliest cockerel. this April I am placing an order thru IDEAL hatchery, i am getting a buff sebright
a silver sebright,
a golden sebright
4 different types of bantam cochin
2 blrw
1 blue wyandotte
and 2 easter egger bantams
I am so excited to cross some of these birds with a silkie to see what I can get. If you have any of these bantams crossed with a silkie, pics would be appreciated.
I think I will try to cross the bantam EE's with the silkie. Will this give me a silked easter egger?( i know not all of them will lay colored eggs or be silked) I also have LF EE's that I could cross to.
Any feedback is appreciated!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I have a Blue Wheaton EE that I want to mix with my TSC Silkie rooster. Once in Craigslist I saw an EE Silkie mix that I fell in love with, so I've been wanting to do that.
As far as breeding with two sizes of chickens, I have heard it said to breed smaller roosters to bigger hens for if you do it the other way around, there won't be enough room in the egg when it gets near the time of hatching. So my suggestion is: have a bantam rooster breed with a Silkie hen.

 

[The Moonshiner]

None of the crosses will be silkied.
The silkie feather gene is recessive so it takes two copies to be expressed.
When you make the cross the offspring will only get one copy.
You can cross the offspring back to a silkie to produce about 50% silkied offspring or cross the first chicks to each other for about 25% silkied offspring.

 

[nicalandia]

None of the crosses will be silkied.
The silkie feather gene is recessive so it takes two copies to be expressed.
When you make the cross the offspring will only get one copy.
You can cross the offspring back to a silkie to produce about 50% silkied offspring or cross the first chicks to each other for about 25% silkied offspring.

I agree with this, it's a sound plan

 

[msiler]

It will have to be a multi-generational project! I have been wanting to do this myself... just waiting for the Silkies to get old enough!

If you want to jumpstart it, I would keep an eye out for Silkies crosses on Craigslist, there seems to be a lot of them and not much demand. The first generational Silkie crosses will be smooth feathered, but they will have the silkie feathering hidden in their genes. When you cross back to a silkie you will get 50% silkie feathered and 50% smooth with silkie feathering hidden.

As someone said earlier, you can also breed a Silkie to a bantam EE. All of the babies will be smooth feathered with Silkie feathering underneath. You could cross the siblings together, but I would use two different hens and cross half siblings together later on.

• The half-siblings from the Silkie/Bantam EE would together produce half silkied chicks and half smooth feathered with silkie hidden.
• The final step would be to keep the chicks with Silkie feathering from your third generation. All results from the crossing will have Silkie feathering and equal background of Silkies and Easter Eggers!

I hope this helps! If you end up continuing, start a new thread to keep all of us updated!

 

[The Moonshiner]

The half sibling silkie/EE crosses would produce 25% silkied 50% smooth that carry silkie and 25% smooth that do not carry silkied.
And of course you realize the more you breed towards the silkie the further you breed away from the blue egg gene.

 

[msiler]

The half sibling silkie/EE crosses would produce 25% silkied 50% smooth that carry silkie and 25% smooth that do not carry silkied.
And of course you realize the more you breed towards the silkie the further you breed away from the blue egg gene.

Oh yes... my bad!!

I am not sure about blue egg genetics... but hopefully someone else knows!

 

[nicalandia]

And of course you realize the more you breed towards the silkie the further you breed away from the blue egg gene.

The BC1(Back cross to Silkies) have the same 50% chance of inheriting the blue egg shell gene than the BC2,3,4,5. As long as the breeding stock used are confirmed as blue egg layers and no attempts are made to make them homozygous for the blue egg shell gene.