Do these feathers look like Silkie feathers?????

[ESofVA]

Yikes, my apologies! My rant was directed at the article only, not at you at all. I knew it wasn't 'your fault' in any way. I do wish they would edit that page as it gets referenced to quite often.

Got to run, wanted to get above to you right away and will come back to discuss a bit. Fm expression doesn't seem to be so simple or straightfoward.

I didn't think you were ranting at me . I have seen some people on here get all of their feathers ruffled (pun intended) too easily. I am not like that. I am a "peacemaker". I am finding out that not much is straightforward when it comes to color genes..as well as others! LOL!
Getting late here but can't wait to learn more tomorrow!!!

 

[Kev]

Good, the thick skin comment made me worry.

Fm is autosomal dominant. But a lot of things affect how it expresses and inconsistently at that so it can be confusing and hard to explain. A lot of feather color diluters like blue dominant white, sex linked barring can or will dilute the Fm expression. Inconsistent by how a group of blues would have varying shades while their black siblings all have dark skin.

Then there are odd things like hatching out with nice black skin only to dilute out to varying degrees, some even to almost normal looking skin. I don't know why this is. Worse on roosters due to testerone.

In other words it seems simple on paper.. but reality is if your goal is black skinned birds, it will take several generations to reliably produce black skins, especially on roosters.

 

[hdowden]

all your little ones have smooth feathers no silkied feathers in those pics

 

[ESofVA]

Actually I am more interested in color and keeping hookless feathers, puffy crests, cheek tufts, beards and feathered legs. Skin color is not really important although I would like black.