Silkie breeding feathering

[Samkeidenkeiran]

Hi everyone

I have a hard feather silkie x bantam as seen in picture with my 11 year old below....if we put this silkie roo over her would the feathers be hard like hers or would they be fluffy? Or a mix. I have zero idea how this works. Thanks so much

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hi everyone

I have a hard feather silkie x bantam as seen in picture with my 11 year old below....if we put this silkie roo over her would the feathers be hard like hers or would they be fluffy? Or a mix. I have zero idea how this works. Thanks so much

Silkie feathering is recessive. So if your hen has one parent who was a Silkie and one parent who had hard feathering, all chicks from such a cross will have hard feathering but then carry the gene for the silkied feathering. When this cross is then crossed with a normal Silkie, which has two copies of the recessive feathering gene, 50% of the chicks will be hard feathered and 50% will be silkie feathered.

 

[Samkeidenkeiran]

Silkie feathering is recessive. So if your hen has one parent who was a Silkie and one parent who had hard feathering, all chicks from such a cross will have hard feathering but then carry the gene for the silkied feathering. When this cross is then crossed with a normal Silkie, which has two copies of the recessive feathering gene, 50% of the chicks will be hard feathered and 50% will be silkie feathered.

Wow thank you so much! Thats quite amazing how that works thank you!