So here is what happened. In a pen I have a black silkie rooster, two grey silkies, and a mille fleur cochin bantam. The silkies I bought as a trio from a person who put her colors together indescriminantly. They are pretty average silkies: silkie feathered, crested, two bearded and one not, five toed, feather legged... slightly better than most hatchery quality and no where near show quality yet they are undoubtedly silkies. I bought them as a side project to make a little extra cash so I could support my serama breeding program which is my focus. The mille fleur cochin bantam came from stock originally from msbear here on byc. Again, the breed is unmistakable. A few months ago I collected eggs from the pen to hatch as a test for the cock's fertility. It was the first time I hatched from any of these chickens. They had had no access to other birds for several weeks prior to egg collection.
Papa
Mama 1
Mama 2
Mama 3
When the eggs hatched my initial thought was that I had three silkies and three silkieXcochin mixes. The silkies were all black, crested, extra toe, etc, yet two mysteriously ended up with single combs. I brushed it off as a fluke; a result of breeding less than quality birds together. The mixes were black with some white (mottled?), black with a lot of white (mottled.), and either pure white or splash. They were four toed, single combed, dark skinned and eyed, feather legged, everything you would expect from such a mix.
Now here's the catch: the chicks are now three weeks old and it has become apparent that they are ALL SILKIE FEATHERED.
Mottled
splash/white
black
The remaining "real" silkies. Unfortunatly the only one with a silkis comb died.
As we know, they only way to get a silkied chicken is to double up on the silkie gene, right? Silkie to silkie, silkie split to another split or a silkie to a split. Never pure smooth to pure smooth which creates pure smooth or pure smooth to silkie which creates splits. So how come my "mixes" are silkie feathered? Here are the only theories I can think of:
1. Weird silkie genes. The chicks are the result of mating a silkie to a silkie and just came out kind of funky looking. So where did the mottled coloring come from I wonder?
2. My cochin is somehow recessivly silkied. Ss instead of SS. It would explain the mottled coloring. So why are 100% of the chicks silkied if that is the case? Why not only 50% of them? Has there ever even been a silkied cochin before?
3. As far fetched as it sounds, maybe my silkies carry a dominant strain of the silkie gene. I have no idea how or why or if it is even true or not, but I am anxious to find out.
So I am going to test it out. I plan to mate the silkie cock to:
- both silkie hens
-the MF Cochin
-a hatchery barred rock
And carefully record which hens the eggs came from.
Why?
1. Silkie to Silkie hens: If they throw weird looking silkies with single combs, four toes and unusual colors, I can confirm my first theory as true. Weird silkie genes.
2. Silkie to MF cochin: If these throw smooth chicks, the dominant silkie idea is incorrect. If they are silkied, the cochin is either somehow a silkie split or the silkie gene is dominant.
3. Silkie to BR: I find it very unlikely your average hatchery BR is recessivly silkied. If the chicks are silkied I think we can confirm that this particular silkie is dominantly silkie feathered.
Another thought: The mottled chick... mottled silkies are few and far between, Incidently they were created by a cross of a silkie and a mottled cochin, but the first generation was always smooth feathered. If the chick turns out truly mottled it may be valuable for breeding. I am thinking I may want to start a mottled silkie color project with it by mating it to a typy black silkie to improve the silkie features while hopefully maintaining the mottling.
I'm here to document my experiment so if anyone has input, comments, stories, ideas, theories or even just encouragement, they would be appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read my story and helping me solve this mystery!
Papa
Mama 1
Mama 2
Mama 3
When the eggs hatched my initial thought was that I had three silkies and three silkieXcochin mixes. The silkies were all black, crested, extra toe, etc, yet two mysteriously ended up with single combs. I brushed it off as a fluke; a result of breeding less than quality birds together. The mixes were black with some white (mottled?), black with a lot of white (mottled.), and either pure white or splash. They were four toed, single combed, dark skinned and eyed, feather legged, everything you would expect from such a mix.
Now here's the catch: the chicks are now three weeks old and it has become apparent that they are ALL SILKIE FEATHERED.
Mottled
splash/white
black
The remaining "real" silkies. Unfortunatly the only one with a silkis comb died.
As we know, they only way to get a silkied chicken is to double up on the silkie gene, right? Silkie to silkie, silkie split to another split or a silkie to a split. Never pure smooth to pure smooth which creates pure smooth or pure smooth to silkie which creates splits. So how come my "mixes" are silkie feathered? Here are the only theories I can think of:
1. Weird silkie genes. The chicks are the result of mating a silkie to a silkie and just came out kind of funky looking. So where did the mottled coloring come from I wonder?
2. My cochin is somehow recessivly silkied. Ss instead of SS. It would explain the mottled coloring. So why are 100% of the chicks silkied if that is the case? Why not only 50% of them? Has there ever even been a silkied cochin before?
3. As far fetched as it sounds, maybe my silkies carry a dominant strain of the silkie gene. I have no idea how or why or if it is even true or not, but I am anxious to find out.
So I am going to test it out. I plan to mate the silkie cock to:
- both silkie hens
-the MF Cochin
-a hatchery barred rock
And carefully record which hens the eggs came from.
Why?
1. Silkie to Silkie hens: If they throw weird looking silkies with single combs, four toes and unusual colors, I can confirm my first theory as true. Weird silkie genes.
2. Silkie to MF cochin: If these throw smooth chicks, the dominant silkie idea is incorrect. If they are silkied, the cochin is either somehow a silkie split or the silkie gene is dominant.
3. Silkie to BR: I find it very unlikely your average hatchery BR is recessivly silkied. If the chicks are silkied I think we can confirm that this particular silkie is dominantly silkie feathered.
Another thought: The mottled chick... mottled silkies are few and far between, Incidently they were created by a cross of a silkie and a mottled cochin, but the first generation was always smooth feathered. If the chick turns out truly mottled it may be valuable for breeding. I am thinking I may want to start a mottled silkie color project with it by mating it to a typy black silkie to improve the silkie features while hopefully maintaining the mottling.
I'm here to document my experiment so if anyone has input, comments, stories, ideas, theories or even just encouragement, they would be appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read my story and helping me solve this mystery!
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