Needing Help With Silkie Genetics!

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Another update on my chick that has the beard!

She's filling out nicely

Still stumped as to how her beard is far bigger than both her parents (mother no beard, father little beard).

Regardless, I love how she's turning out!

 

[msiler]

Another update on my chick that has the beard!

She's filling out nicely

Still stumped as to how her beard is far bigger than both her parents (mother no beard, father little beard).

Regardless, I love how she's turning out!

View attachment 1933736
View attachment 1933733
View attachment 1933734
View attachment 1933732

She turned out quite nicely!!
I would venture to say that your rooster is Partially bearded, which is why his beard is small.
I had a rooster who wws fully bearded genetically, but the other flock members kept it nice and "trim".... if you didn't know better you would think he he was non bearded!
When crossed over non bearded hens, his babies all have the same style of beard as yours does here. Not a full beard, but kind of tufty!

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

She turned out quite nicely!!
I would venture to say that your rooster is Partially bearded, which is why his beard is small.
I had a rooster who wws fully bearded genetically, but the other flock members kept it nice and "trim".... if you didn't know better you would think he he was non bearded!
When crossed over non bearded hens, his babies all have the same style of beard as yours does here. Not a full beard, but kind of tufty!

Ah that's great to hear then! It's hard to see what genetics they are hiding and such but I am pleased with how his chicks look.

Aw I can just imagine your rooster getting his daily trim from the others in the flock

This growers beard isn't the 'fullest' like what my USA Silkie is but she's still bearded enough to be passed for showing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what my partially bearded male bred to my USA bearded hen will throw!

I'll report back here when I hatch some

 

[msiler]

Ah that's great to hear then! It's hard to see what genetics they are hiding and such but I am pleased with how his chicks look.

Aw I can just imagine your rooster getting his daily trim from the others in the flock

This growers beard isn't the 'fullest' like what my USA Silkie is but she's still bearded enough to be passed for showing.

I'm looking forward to seeing what my partially bearded male bred to my USA bearded hen will throw!

I'll report back here when I hatch some

Sounds good to me! You should create a thread in the Pictures and Stories of my Chicken forum so we can all follow it

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Sounds good to me! You should create a thread in the Pictures and Stories of my Chicken forum so we can all follow it

That sounds like a good idea!

I have been considering doing a general 'flock follow along' kind of thread in that section so that people interested in my flock and the chicks they hatch can follow in one place.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Posting this here instead of making another thread.

I've pretty much come to to co conclusion that my breeding male is a recessive white that's partridge based.

When breeding him to my pure white hens, I get pure white.

When breeding him to my gold partridge, I get partridges.

I'm aware that for chicks to be white in his case, there needs to be two copies of the recessive white gene.

So...

When breeding him to my blue, I got blue chicks and white chicks.

When breeding him to my gold, I got gold chicks and white chicks.

I'm curious as to how this works, what genetics are at play here? Do my blue and gold also carry white genes but don't pass them on to every chick?

Chicks from gold hen:

Chicks from th partridge hen:

Partridge chicks from the partridge hen, whites from my white hen:

Chicks from my white hen:

Chick from my blue hen:

Chicks from my blue hen:

Chick from my white hen:

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

@The Moonshiner I hope you don't mind me tagging you here but you seem to be quite knowledgeable on genetics and such.

Maybe you have an idea about my question in my last post/comment here?

I originally thought if a hen carries a recessive white (but isn't physically white) and bred her to a recessive white rooster (that is white) I'd always get pure white chicks no matter what.

I'm getting pure whites from my recessive whites x recessive whites (both also physically white) but when breeding my recessive white rooster to my gold hen I've got both white chicks and gold chicks. Also when breeding my blue hen to recessive white rooster I get blue chicks and white chicks

My recessive white rooster is partridge based. When I breed him to my gold partridge hen, I always get partridge chicks.

If they do carry the recessive white gene, does it not 'always' get passed on hence why not all chicks are white?

Sorry, I'm just curious and still learning genetics!

 

[The Moonshiner]

If they do carry the recessive white gene, does it not 'always' get passed on hence why not all chicks are white?

[COLOR=#000000]This is correct.
Unless sex linked all genes come in pairs.
Recessive white is not sex linked and is "c".
C+ is the color gene. (Non recessive white which allows color)
When your bird carries recessive white c it also carries the color gene C+ so it can pass either to an offspring.
In other words the offspring has a 50% chance of getting the c recessive white gene and a 50% chance of getting the C+ color gene.
Make sense?
All offspring from your recessive white rooster will carry a recessive white gene from him since he has two recessive white genes.
If you're getting partridge, blue, etc. chicks from crossing him expect whites to be popping up in future breedings of those offspring.[/COLOR]

 

[The Moonshiner]

Posting this here instead of making another thread.

I've pretty much come to to co conclusion that my breeding male is a recessive white that's partridge based.

When breeding him to my pure white hens, I get pure white.

When breeding him to my gold partridge, I get partridges.

I'm aware that for chicks to be white in his case, there needs to be two copies of the recessive white gene.

So...

When breeding him to my blue, I got blue chicks and white chicks.

When breeding him to my gold, I got gold chicks and white chicks.

I'm curious as to how this works, what genetics are at play here? Do my blue and gold also carry white genes but don't pass them on to every chick?

Chicks from gold hen:
View attachment 1953874

Chicks from th partridge hen:
View attachment 1953879

Partridge chicks from the partridge hen, whites from my white hen:
View attachment 1953881

Chicks from my white hen:
View attachment 1953880

Chick from my blue hen:
View attachment 1953884

Chicks from my blue hen:
View attachment 1953886

Chick from my white hen:
View attachment 1953885

This all sounds correct.
Yes your rooster is partridge based.
Yes your gold and your blue carry one recessive white gene.
Your blue should also have the same chance of producing black chicks as she does blue chicks.
Your partridge seems to not carry recessive white since they've not produced any whites.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

[COLOR=#000000]This is correct.
Unless sex linked all genes come in pairs.
Recessive white is not sex linked and is "c".
C+ is the color gene. (Non recessive white which allows color)
When your bird carries recessive white c it also carries the color gene C+ so it can pass either to an offspring.
In other words the offspring has a 50% chance of getting the c recessive white gene and a 50% chance of getting the C+ color gene.
Make sense?
All offspring from your recessive white rooster will carry a recessive white gene from him since he has two recessive white genes.
If you're getting partridge, blue, etc. chicks from crossing him expect whites to be popping up in future breedings of those offspring.[/COLOR]

This all sounds correct.
Yes your rooster is partridge based.
Yes your gold and your blue carry one recessive white gene.
Your blue should also have the same chance of producing black chicks as she does blue chicks.
Your partridge seems to not carry recessive white since they've not produced any whites.

Ah Thankyou so much!

I'm quite pleased to hear that, plus I'm feeling like I'm starting to get a better understanding of my flocks genetics.

Now that you've mentioned I could potentially get a black in quite looking forward to some more future hatches from her, maybe one will pop up sometime.

As for the chicks producing white offspring in the future is alright by me, I'm just still happy I get some different coloured chicks from the parents