How common is this?

[jessupfamily]

This is Six Shooter, it's almost 6 months old and we're not sure if it's a hen or roo (any guesses). What I'm curious about is the toes. It has 6 on one foot and 5 on the other. It is a 2nd generation Silkie mix. Papa is a Buff Orp./Black Silkie mix. Mama is a Black Austroplorp/Black Silkie mix. So it is an all of the above mix. We have a lot of mixes and a lot of them have the extra Silkie toe on one foot or the other or both, but never 2 extra toes. How common is this?
We also like what we call it's crunchy wing feathers. We haven't had a mix show these different features before. We sure hope it's a hen!

 

[chickiebaby]

Jessupfamily, that's a cool birdie! Nice kid, too. In case you didnt see the thread, wanted to let you know that I LOVED the croatian movie you put up. Tx, and hope you solve the mystery of the mutt bird!

 

[jessupfamily]

Thanks! That video is one of the best subjects we've seen in awhile!
As for Six Shooter, I just wish I knew more about the Silkie mix genetics! We love our mixes, but I want to understand why the extra extra toe?!!!!

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Depending on who the daddy was, th silkie genetics can get pretty amazing. You can get the 5 toes without the silkie wings or butt.

The six toes thing is not as rare as one may think in the silkie family. Many times one will get 4 toes (sorta a fused type) on one foot and the 5 on the over. Cross breed birds can also have many wonderful colors too.

Although these breeds: Dorking, Faverolle, Houden and Sultan have five toes they are generally never in the same "plane" as the rest of the toes. They usually pointing upwards.

Nice bird you have there.

 

[key west chick]

Looks like a pullet to me.

 

[jessupfamily]

Quote:
Yeah we've had a lot of the fused toes. And 4 on one foot and 5 on the other and everything in between, but the 6 toes on one foot was a completely new experience. And we've had over 150 Silkie mixes hatch over the last 4 years. So I was pretty surprised after that many that this was the first to show up with these.

 

[muscovy94]

looks female to me

 

[Kev]

Polydactyly(extra digits) is not a very "stable trait". A bird with the gene for P can have anything from 4 to 6 toes on a foot, with or without "crab pinchers"(toes split into two). Ditto for the size and position of the extra toe, ideally in show silkies the extra toe should be long, rigid and point clearly upwards.. yet this extra toe can be short, point downwards, or be parallel to the hind toe etc etc.

It can be made more or less stable in selecting for stock that more consistently throw the correct extra toe appearance and position.

That bird happened to get two copies of the silkie feathering gene. Silky feathering appearence can also be selected for, what you are seeing on the wings are called 'hard feathers' in the silkie fancy, the goal is to have as little of that possible. The wings on her is normal for a silkie that might not have been selected for better silking, or if you like, the first "silky feathered" birds to show up in domestication very likely looked like this and people decided to make a breed out of them and 'improved' on them.