Silkie Breeders: Help Me to Figure This One Out!

[weegarden]

I bred a beautiful splash silkie female with a white silkie male, and am getting the most beautiful, evenly colored, blue silkie chicks. How is that possible?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That’s not surprising at all. How well do you know how genetics work? I’ll assume some knowledge on how genes get passed on to offspring and some knowledge of dominant/recessive.

It sounds like the white Silkie male is white because of the recessive white gene. The way this gene works is that if there are two copies of this gene together they turn the chicken white. It is an extremely powerful gene when it pairs up. It is so powerful you don’t know what is hiding under the white. But since it is recessive, if there is only one copy of this gene in the DNA it has no effect at all.

The gene that makes Splash is a weird one. It’s called the “blue” gene. If there are two copies of this gene present you get Splash. If there is only one copy of this gene in the gene pair you get blue. If there are no copies of this gene in the gene pair, you get black. But this gene only works on feathers that would normally be black. It does not have any effect on feathers that would normally be other colors.

Your Splash hen has two copies of that blue gene. She is also black under that Splash so she will pass one blue and one black to all her offspring. Black is a very powerful color and will overpower many other colors. You don’t know what that white male is passing down genetically but the chicks from this cross will have one blue gene, at least enough genetics to make black, and only one recessive white gene. The chicks should be blue.

This does not work for all white chickens. If that male were white because of dominant white instead of recessive white you would get white chickens. Dominant white is not as powerful as recessive white because dominant white only affects black feathers. Even one copy of dominant white will turn black feathers white so the blue gene would not show up. That’s why white is a hard color to work with genetically unless you know quite a bit about the individual chicken’s genetics. You can’t tell by looking whether it is dominant or recessive white causing it to be white and you don’t know what is hiding under that white.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Ridgerunner, sorry if I'm repeating you, I didn't read your whole post, lol!
Some one with more experience correct me if I'm wrong...
Blue chicks can come from crossing a black to a splash. Your little white dude probably has primarily black genes, and is white from a recessive gene somewhere back in his family tree. Therefor, you're basically crossing a black to a splash and will get blue/black/splash chicks. Possibly a couple white because that recessive gene is there.
Again, I'm not an expert...but I did get several blue chicks from breeding a splash hen to a black rooster, and know the blue/black/splash rule and that white tends to show up after generations of no white birds (I had a white chick hatch last year from pure SQ silver partridge lines!) That white chick grew into a beautiful roo, and throws primarily white chicks, which are ALL roosters. And thoughts on why that is? It's very annoying, I want a white hen

I breed him to black hens, since I have none of his colour and had some extra blacks. Normally my colours are seperated...should I try crossing him with different hens? Is it possible that I've unknowingly done something to make sex-linked Silkies?
I've only gotten one white hen ever, and she came from my paints. Unfortunately, I thought she was a roo and sold her, only to get an update later that she'd layed an egg

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I bred a beautiful splash silkie female with a white silkie male, and am getting the most beautiful, evenly colored, blue silkie chicks. How is that possible?

That’s not surprising at all. How well do you know how genetics work? I’ll assume some knowledge on how genes get passed on to offspring and some knowledge of dominant/recessive.

It sounds like the white Silkie male is white because of the recessive white gene. The way this gene works is that if there are two copies of this gene together they turn the chicken white. It is an extremely powerful gene when it pairs up. It is so powerful you don’t know what is hiding under the white. But since it is recessive, if there is only one copy of this gene in the DNA it has no effect at all.

The gene that makes Splash is a weird one. It’s called the “blue” gene. If there are two copies of this gene present you get Splash. If there is only one copy of this gene in the gene pair you get blue. If there are no copies of this gene in the gene pair, you get black. But this gene only works on feathers that would normally be black. It does not have any effect on feathers that would normally be other colors.

Your Splash hen has two copies of that blue gene. She is also black under that Splash so she will pass one blue and one black to all her offspring. Black is a very powerful color and will overpower many other colors. You don’t know what that white male is passing down genetically but the chicks from this cross will have one blue gene, at least enough genetics to make black, and only one recessive white gene. The chicks should be blue.
NO. There is no "black gene." She will give a copy of the blue gene to all her offspring, and a copy of whichever base (E-allele) genes she has. Black can be built on any E-allele, although it is most difficult on wheaten, by adding sufficient melanizers. Many blue or black chicks, especially from cross breeding, begin showing other colouring as they mature; usually as leakage, sometimes as patterns. This would be gold, golden or silver, depending on what they inherited from their parents.

This does not work for all white chickens. If that male were white because of dominant white instead of recessive white you would get white chickens. Dominant white is not as powerful as recessive white because dominant white only affects black feathers. Even one copy of dominant white will turn black feathers white so the blue gene would not show up. That’s why white is a hard color to work with genetically unless you know quite a bit about the individual chicken’s genetics. You can’t tell by looking whether it is dominant or recessive white causing it to be white and you don’t know what is hiding under that white.

Dominant white is quite leaky, and if the bird inherited blue, it is quite possible, and even likely that some blue leakage will occur unless other genes that help inhibit pigment (barring, silver) are also present.

Ridgerunner, sorry if I'm repeating you, I didn't read your whole post, lol!
Some one with more experience correct me if I'm wrong...
Blue chicks can come from crossing a black to a splash. Your little white dude probably has primarily black genes, and is white from a recessive gene somewhere back in his family tree. Therefor, you're basically crossing a black to a splash and will get blue/black/splash chicks. NO. Only blue from a black X splash pairing. Possibly a couple white because that recessive gene is there.
Again, I'm not an expert...but I did get several blue chicks from breeding a splash hen to a black rooster, and know the blue/black/splash rule and that white tends to show up after generations of no white birds (I had a white chick hatch last year from pure SQ silver partridge lines!) That white chick grew into a beautiful roo, and throws primarily white chicks, which are ALL roosters. And thoughts on why that is? It's very annoying, I want a white hen

I breed him to black hens, since I have none of his colour and had some extra blacks. Normally my colours are seperated...should I try crossing him with different hens? Is it possible that I've unknowingly done something to make sex-linked Silkies? Slightly possible that you have created solid silver birds, which are sex-linked, but the silver would also have to come from the hen. I'm guessing that the reality is that you have hatched small enough numbers that the rules of probability are not strong.
I've only gotten one white hen ever, and she came from my paints. Unfortunately, I thought she was a roo and sold her, only to get an update later that she'd layed an egg

Splash crossed with black gives 100% blue chicks.

Splash crossed with blue gives 50/50 splash/blue

Blue crossed with black gives 50/50 blue/black


A splash bird always passes a copy of the blue gene to its offspring. A blue bird has a 50% chance of passing the blue gene to its offspring.

Small numbers of hatchlings do not necessarily match up with expected probabilities. Hatch 100 and you will be pretty close to matching expected percentages.


Anything can be hidden by recessive white. The only way to tell what may be genetically present in a white bird is breeding records or DNA analysis.

 

[weegarden]

Thank you all for the great input. So far, I have 4 chicks, and they all appear to be nice solid blue babes. Is leakage when they get older and other colors bleed through? So, maybe they will not be the nice show quality that I am looking for? I will definitely get to find out. I will have around 12 total.

Now I need to get my Best of Show, blue hen a black rooster, and somehow, I need to get her laying again. She is getting older, and doesn't lay eggs very often. But, I really need babes from her, because she is pretty perfect. I do not like to hatch at this time of year, but I really want to get this line going, so am willing to raise chicks through the winter.

Thanks again for your help, and would love to hear any other input or discussion. Ok, while taking this picture, I did notice that one of them does have a tiny bit of gold color in a patch, on the back of it's head. I almost wonder if I am seeing things, but it looks like it is there, so that may happen more as they mature. It will be interesting. That is for sure!

Bummer, Where do I get a nice black rooster? I need one badly, for my award winning silkies, or I won't be able to continue my line that I worked so hard to establish.

 

[MadamPoofyBrow]

Sonoran, I have bred about seventy something of the chicks that seem to be sec-linked. About half white. The other half are blue and black, no concistant percentage of each. All of the white have been makes. All but one of the blues and blacks have been females, except one black who was a male. So it really looks like I've created sex-linked birds by accident, and little black dude was the exception to every rule.
And about the splash gene thing j don't know much about it except the blue/black/splash thing. And that I got my first white rooster from a black breeding-the white rooster who throws the 'see-linked' chicks when bred to black hens. I am fairly certain these hens are black crossed with buff though they are both black...