Needing Help With Silkie Genetics!

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I hoped to ask this at the start of my journey on BYC but wasn't sure if it's something people could help with.

So here I am now

I'm going to be acquiring some more point of lay Silkie hens very soon. They are going to be part of my breeding show Silkies.

I've pretty much got everything planned out, set and ready to go. I've spoken to judges and they've helped me with my birds and given me some breeding tips so to say.

However, there is one thing I've just never been able to find any information on.

The genetics of the birds! Primarily, what traits are dominant and recessive etc.

I have heard that white is recessive but after that, nothing.

I have Silkies with very varied traits but it'd probably still be helpful to have an idea of what I could potentially hatch.

I really suck at genetics despite studying it previously. The only thing I understood was the Mendelian genetics tables. However, in order for me to work them out, I need an idea of what traits are dominant and such.

Some traits I'm looking for help on are:

• Crest size (are larger ones dominant or smaller ones dominant?)
• Skin colour/wattles/comb (is black dominant or is mullberry dominant)
• Colour (is black dominant? How about Paint/Splash? What about blue?)

Any other traits are helpful too!

As I say, I find genetics so confusing and a little understanding would greatly help

Many people forget I'm still relatively new to this and I'm still learning myself ​

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Bumping this up quickly ​

 

[NNYchick]

I wish I could understand genetics better. I have heard Sigrid van Dort’s books on genetics are very useful and she has one specific to Silkies but it’s not in my budget now. http://www.chickencolours.com/
There is also a Facebook group called poultry colour and genetics that could help answer your questions.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I wish I could understand genetics better. I have heard Sigrid van Dort’s books on genetics are very useful and she has one specific to Silkies but it’s not in my budget now. http://www.chickencolours.com/
There is also a Facebook group called poultry colour and genetics that could help answer your questions.

Thankyou for the reply!

I have previously messaged Sigrid about it and they helped out a little but it's still very confusing

Unfortunately I don't have Facebook myself but I may have a lend of a family members to have an ask on there!​

 

[msiler]

I'm not to great on the genetic part of things (so I will be watching this thread!), hopefully someone comes along that can help! One thing that will help people help you is to know what color(s) you are breeding and showing. That way they can give specific help!

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I'm not to great on the genetic part of things (so I will be watching this thread!), hopefully someone comes along that can help! One thing that will help people help you is to know what color(s) you are breeding and showing. That way they can give specific help!

I do hope so too! Genetics is difficult at times!

That's a good thing for me to add though as it may help somone give an answer so here we go...

I currently have:

• Pure white Silkie Cockerel (black skin with mulberry walnut comb and wattles, a small comb, non-bearded and very light baby blue earlobes).
• Pure white Silkie Pullet (black skin, very small black comb and wattles, very large poofy comb, non-bearded and electric blue earlobes).
• Cuckoo Silkie Pullet (black skin but very small pink comb, no wattles as is a bearded variety, very big poofy crest and beard and pinky blue earlobes).
• Gold Silkie Pullet (black skin and very small black comb, no wattles at all, non-bearded, big poofy crest and electric blue earlobes).

I did also have two other pure white females but they only had 4 toes so I sold them on as pet quality.

Please note that I do know crossing colours isn't reccomend because if I was to sell offspring as show quality, they may produce different colours to the parents etc.

However, I will only ever be selling my Silkies as pets. If someone wishes to show them that's their decision. Of course, I'd be keeping the best quality ones for myself anyways to show myself.

I also know the Cuckoo isn't show standard, she's just a pet. However, all the others are show quality. I'd still like to know what I could hatch from her and my Cockerel though.​

 

[nicalandia]

Cuckoo Silkie Pullet (black skin but very small pink comb, no wattles as is a bearded variety, very big poofy crest and beard and pinky blue earlobes)

I would love to see pics of your Cuckoo Silkie pullets skin, It seems like finally the Silkie breeders have isolated and breed the id+/-, B/- recombinants, previously when the barring gene(cuckoo, barring) was introduced to the Silkie breed they were struggling to even have black skin, that is because the sex linked barring gene B(B/B for males and B/- for females) is linked to the sex linked dermal inhibitor gene Id(Id/Id for males and Id/- for females), about 2 centimorgan/Map units, this means that there is a 98% chance of Barring and Id to be inherited by the same bird, only 2% chance of Barring and id+(the gene that allows full expression of Fibromelanotic and black skin on silkies, cemani etc) B/b+, Id/id+, Fm/fm+ males will have white skin and B/B, Id/id+, Fm/Fm males will also have white skin, so one has to breed very large numbers to obtain the Barring(B), id+(dermal melanin booster) recombinants.

Edit.

Since the Barring gene is also a powerful melanin inhibitor, even black skin recombinants will have red face, breeding for full black face on them is going to be a very difficult task, perhaps introducing the mulberry face of other breeds like Sumatras​

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I would love to see pics of your Cuckoo Silkie pullets skin, It seems like finally the Silkie breeders have isolated and breed the id+/-, B/- recombinants, previously when the barring gene(cuckoo, barring) was introduced to the Silkie breed they were struggling to even have black skin, that is because the sex linked barring gene B(B/B for males and B/- for females) is linked to the sex linked dermal inhibitor gene Id(Id/Id for males and Id/- for females), about 2 centimorgan/Map units, this means that there is a 98% chance of Barring and Id to be inherited by the same bird, only 2% chance of Barring and id+(the gene that allows full expression of Fibromelanotic and black skin on silkies, cemani etc) B/b+, Id/id+, Fm/fm+ males will have white skin and B/B, Id/id+, Fm/Fm males will also have white skin, so one has to breed very large numbers to obtain the Barring(B), id+(dermal melanin booster) recombinants.

Edit.

Since the Barring gene is also a powerful melanin inhibitor, even black skin recombinants will have red face, breeding for full black face on them is going to be a very difficult task, perhaps introducing the mulberry face of other breeds like Sumatras​

Oh wow well this sounds interesting!

I didn't know about there being a struggle for them to have black skin! The only thing that lets her down is the pink on her face. However, she couldn't be shown anyways as sadly they aren't a recognised colour here

Anyways, here's some temporary photos of her face so you can see what I mean about the colour!

I've just got home now so later on I'll get some photos of her legs and skin

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I would love to see pics of your Cuckoo Silkie pullets skin, It seems like finally the Silkie breeders have isolated and breed the id+/-, B/- recombinants, previously when the barring gene(cuckoo, barring) was introduced to the Silkie breed they were struggling to even have black skin, that is because the sex linked barring gene B(B/B for males and B/- for females) is linked to the sex linked dermal inhibitor gene Id(Id/Id for males and Id/- for females), about 2 centimorgan/Map units, this means that there is a 98% chance of Barring and Id to be inherited by the same bird, only 2% chance of Barring and id+(the gene that allows full expression of Fibromelanotic and black skin on silkies, cemani etc) B/b+, Id/id+, Fm/fm+ males will have white skin and B/B, Id/id+, Fm/Fm males will also have white skin, so one has to breed very large numbers to obtain the Barring(B), id+(dermal melanin booster) recombinants.

Edit.

Since the Barring gene is also a powerful melanin inhibitor, even black skin recombinants will have red face, breeding for full black face on them is going to be a very difficult task, perhaps introducing the mulberry face of other breeds like Sumatras​

So I went out and caught Audrey!

I was a little surprised to find what I did though so I'm glad you mentioned this so that I checked.

Turns out she's got the black feet like I knew she did as seen here:

However, turns out her skin is actually patchy...

She's got pink with some black patches. I'm guessing she's an in-between chicken haha!

I'm pretty sure when I got her she had darker skin, can skin colour change?

I would have gotten better pictures but she's gross right now as she decided to go free-ranging in the rain ​

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Bumping this up again, still looking for help on colours etc.​