Showgirl Roo X Silkie Hen Equals?

[wegotchickens]

Ya'll crack me up! A homo showgirl is a good thing?

Mine's a hetero. Poor baby....

 

[Chef]

I know I was cracking up too when I was reading this

Chef

 

[insiderart]

Well that is a pretty fancy bowtie.

 

[Chef]

Well thank you! I will be sure to tell him you said so!

Chef

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Homozygous & heterozygous--whether the two copies of a gene have the same or different variations (blue & blue vs blue & not-blue; or silver & silver vs silver & gold). Most of us say "hom" or "het" if we abbreviate.

 

[Kev]

It's a little tricky with showgirls as rose and/or pea comb can be involved. Pea comb reduces the amount of feathering on a bird, which can make a het look hom, especially with a reduced bowtie.

First.. do you know what his parents were? If it was a showgirl x silkie.. he is a het, no ifs or buts about it. If it was showgirl x showgirl then both het and hom are possible.

Second.. homs are also more naked in other areas, not just on the neck. Their shoulders are exposed, larger naked areas under wing, breast, vent area and also on the back- two parallel lines of naked areas on each side of the feather tract going down the middle. However if pea comb is involved.. a het can be more naked in those areas too.

Birds with both crest and pea seem to typically have a large naked area around the comb area and extends along the bottom of head knob.

 

[kelliepulido]

I heard that it is better to breed your showgirl back to silkie so as not to lose more feathers.

 

[Chef]

Quote:
He came from a white showgirl roo who was with a white silkie and a partridge showgirl. Out of those three I hatched only partridge showgirls, white silkies and white showgirls. I dont know if it matters but the person I bought them from said that the white silkie that was used was offspring of showgirl X showgirl.

 

[Kev]

Do you or the breeder know if the partridge showgirl had white in its background or not? Because if the partridge is not a white carrier then all white offspring are out of the white silkie hen. However if there was white in the partridge's line.. then she will throw half white chicks with the white roo.. making it much harder to tell which white chick was out of which hen.

For silkies, white x white=100% white as white is recessive.

Any chicks without naked neck does not have the gene at all, even if one or both of its parents were naked necked. This is because naked neck is dominant.. so if the bird has it in any way, it shows, period. If it's not visible then it's "totally gone" from the bird.

As for:

I heard that it is better to breed your showgirl back to silkie so as not to lose more feathers.

This is actually a case of getting homozygous(pure) naked neck offspring.. not the idea of birds progressively losing more feathers if bred naked neck to naked neck. The naked neck has a dosage effect.. which means there is a visible difference in birds with one or two copies of the gene. Let's set aside showgirls for this example. In Turkens, birds with only one copy have a much larger bowtie that covers the entire lower front of neck and crop area. Birds with two copies are much more naked, with tiny bowties plus the lower front neck and crop area are extremely visible. It's pretty straightfoward most of the time.

However, the naked neck gene is also affected by non-related genes.. like pea comb already mentioned earlier. By itself, the pea comb gene also has the effect of reducing the overall number of feathers on a bird. This effect is easily observant on a bird with pea comb gene plus the naked neck gene.. a bird with just one naked neck gene can and often looks as naked as a turken with two naked neck genes.

So if a showgirl has pea comb from a silkie with genetically true walnut comb(which is rose + pea).. they are going to tend to have smallish bow ties even with just one naked neck gene.. and those with pea comb plus two naked neck genes can look "extremely naked". But that's the effect of the pea comb not because of naked x naked breedings.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

You know, when I read that about "losing feathers" I just assumed it meant as in having larger areas that were naked, not continually losing more and more feathers--that idea just didn't occur to me.

However it seems like many folks equate the issues of a homozygous frizzle with those of homozygous naked neck, but they are completely unrelated. With frizzle there are health and feather quality issues. To the best of my knowledge naked neck has no such issues.