Cuckoo silkie has a white feather patch on his head

[Silkies4everr]

Not sure if it's some random leakage or a mess up in his pigments when he grew the feathers, but I was curious. I thought he just had a bald patch and some down was poking through, but it turns out he has a patch of white and partially white feathers in his crest. I got him and some others as chicks from Meyer Hatchery, some had gold leakage in their necks so I wouldn't be surprised if he carried something random. He's double barred. He's in my breeding pen and I've set some eggs from the pen a few days ago so now I'm curious if it's a genetic thing or just his barring messing up.

You can see that the feathers are randomly white in the spot. The down is also white. Some of them are still in sheaths. Including a picture of my other cockerel's crest below for comparison.

 

[Silkies4everr]

I did some research on google and maybe he has the gene to make his crest white like some polish colors? A lot of the images I saw have the front of the crest a normal color but a patch towards the back white. Unclear whether it's dominant or recessive or incomplete since google doesn't really say.

 

[Debbie292d]

I wonder if he's a cuckoo crossed with a white. If so, he'd have one cuckoo gene.

Otherwise, perhaps a splash or partridge. I have a partridge silver partridge with a black head. That's got a name even, moorhead.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see something like that here because we've got a lot of variations of silkies and every so often we get one that we scratch our head about.

This guy is s perfect example

He's a satin, frizzle, cuckoo, with leakage.





I wound up getting a black silkie hen from his pen at the time, and she's got a red crown on her neck. She had to get it from him. Neither of these birds are for SOP breeding, just my fun pen.

 

[Silkies4everr]

I wonder if he's a cuckoo crossed with a white. If so, he'd have one cuckoo gene.

Otherwise, perhaps a splash or partridge. I have a partridge silver partridge with a black head. That's got a name even, moorhead.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see something like that here because we've got a lot of variations of silkies and every so often we get one that we scratch our head about.

This guy is s perfect example

He's a satin, frizzle, cuckoo, with leakage.

View attachment 4307968

View attachment 4307967

I wound up getting a black silkie hen from his pen at the time, and she's got a red crown on her neck. She had to get it from him. Neither of these birds are for SOP breeding, just my fun pen.

Your rooster is really pretty!

My cockerel was a bit paler than the others as a chick and originally I thought he was going to be a blue cuckoo because he was so much paler. Not sure what they have in their pens but definitely some leaky birds. I know some of their males must not be double barred since a few of the birds were black and not barred, and interestingly higher quality than the barred ones.

I have chicks hatching in about two weeks so some may potentially be his.

I won't be able to test anything for sure until I get formal breeding pens set up. Right now all my silkie colors are in one pen so based on a genetic calculator I'm expecting barred, black, and buff colombian chicks.