Question (and slight rant) about my new silkies

Paganbird

CrescentWood Farm
11 Years
Apr 25, 2009
1,418
3
189
Western Pa
I got some eggs from a BYCer recently. My chicks just hatched this past weekend beginning Thursday.
The eggs were supposed to be silkies & cochins with a chance of some being mixed due to an "infiltration" that occurred. I was okay with that and bought the eggs.
All 11 of the silkie & cochin eggs hatched. I was elated! I PMed the member & asked what the "infiltrator" was so I might know what to look for if any of the chicks were mixed. She told me that they might be mixed with BR, but all the cochins should not be mixed and some will be frizzled.
Of the 4 cochins, 2 are frizzled, 2 are not.
Well, a few days passed and I have ONE, maybe two, true silkies (white) and it looks like the rest will be SIZZLES. Even my beautiful blue chick that I had high hopes for.
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So my question is...
How does the Sizzle gene affect breeding. I would like blue silkies, but I don't particularly care (at all) for sizzles. What would be the best way (other than buying more eggs) to breed out the sizzle?
 
The sizzle almost certainly has only one copy of the frizzle gene, so half its offspring will not be frizzled. However, it probably does not have silkie feathering as that requires two copies of the gene. It will carry a copy, though. If bred to a silkie, of the half that do not receive frizzle will have silkie feathering as will half of those who receive the frizzle gene.

Now these percentages are statisical, and if you only breed a small number of offspring, the outcome could be considerably skewed--the more you breed the more accurate the percentages will be.

However if you want a blue silkie and not a blue sizzle, it might be easier to find someone to trade with. If you only have one blue, you don;t have anything to breed it with (white is NOT a good choice).
 
you can trade a few sizzles with me lol I would happily hatch you some white silkies
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I dont have any blue although I have a gray and splash cockerel and a few show girls in the bator about to hatch that may yeild a silke or 2
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I don't feel comfortable shipping chicks, but I will be selling them locally. I think I may keep the blue and black, but the whites & buff will be going, I'm afraid.
They're cute, but I wanted "silkie" silkies and I don't have room for any new projects. My DH is already at his limit with my chickens. He likes the blue sizzle, though. (I don't think he really had a clue what it will look like feathered out - it's just fluff with frizzle-wings right now.)
As for the genetics question...
What might I get if I try black sizzle to blue sizzle?
(Here's to hoping that I have a hen and a roo - since I have only 1 each of the black & blue sizzles.
All I have already are partridge silkies. Oh, and 2 white (non-sizzle) silkies from this hatch.
 
black to blue give 50% black, 50% blue

frizzle to frizzle gives 25% non frizzled, 50% frizzled, 25% curley/overly frizzled. It is generally not a good plan to breed frizzle to frizzle.
 
Quote:
LOL!
I finally get a near perfect hatch (22 out of 23 eggs hatched) but I still don't get my black silkie! All I wanted was a couple black & a couple white silkies. Now I have 2 partridge silkies, one white silkie, one white pink-skinned/beaked/footed silkie some cochins and 5 sizzles!
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I think I'm going to give up and stick to my standard chickens from now on! I've got a nice little flock of BRs and a promising pair of speckled sussex. Maybe I'll ditch these sizzles & count my losses... keep a couple silkies as broodies... hmmmm.
LOL!!!
My luck with hatching eggs seems to be nil this year. They either don't hatch - or they hatch & they're not what I thought they'd be.
I have some replacement peafowl eggs coming from the ones that were scrambled in shipping and THAT'S IT.
No more hatching this year after those eggs. I've already promised DH that I won't hatch any more chicken eggs this year, just the peafowl.
So, insiderart... got any pics of your showgirls? You did get to hatch some showgirls, right?
 

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