I've been inbreeding a line of Silkie/hardfeather bantams for about 3 generations (probably the last time).
The original pair was a beautiful white, pure Silkie rooster and a non-Silkie bantam (Hen #1--breed unknown--barred grey and white). We do not own these anymore.
We kept 4 chicks from that crossing--a rooster and three hens (Hens #2,3,4). None of them really look like Silkies--maybe some extra feathers--but show signs of their genetics, like blue ears. The hens are also larger than their mother and various colours.
These 4 chickens produced 3 more chicks--1 rooster, 2 hens (Hens #5 and #6). The two hens look a lot like the original Hen #1. Besides blue ears, and one having a "cap" of fluff, they are smooth-feathered, very small, and barred.
So in total we have 6 bantams--2 roosters and 4 hens (Hen #2 died).
Then we just hatched 4 more bantam chicks. I do not know which chicks came from which parents, but 3 of them are clean-legged and 2 of them have feathered legs!! I've never noticed that before, and I'm curious as to whether the feather-legged chicks will grow up to look more like Silkies than their parents. Do feathered legs necessarily mean a very fluffy chicken? Could they be throwbacks to the original Silkie rooster? ALL 4 chicks are five-toed.
Here's one of the feathered chicks:
I just read an article that said, "The feather type is recessive. Cross a silkie with any hard feathered bird, and the offspring will be hard feathered. Cross these offspring together and you will get some silkie feathered birds."
Another forum post said, "Crossing silkie to silkie will produce all silkie chicks.
Crossing silkie to non-silkie will produce non-silkie chicks. Each chick will carry one silkie gene (silkie gene carrier).
Crossing silkie to silkie gene carrier will produce some silkie and some non-silkie."
I'm at the 3rd generation for these chickens...
Is this my answer? Will I finally get some birds that look like Silkies? It's probably hard to tell, but, I'm interested in knowing if the feathered legs are significant.
I really hope they end up looking sort of like Silkies...
The original pair was a beautiful white, pure Silkie rooster and a non-Silkie bantam (Hen #1--breed unknown--barred grey and white). We do not own these anymore.
We kept 4 chicks from that crossing--a rooster and three hens (Hens #2,3,4). None of them really look like Silkies--maybe some extra feathers--but show signs of their genetics, like blue ears. The hens are also larger than their mother and various colours.
These 4 chickens produced 3 more chicks--1 rooster, 2 hens (Hens #5 and #6). The two hens look a lot like the original Hen #1. Besides blue ears, and one having a "cap" of fluff, they are smooth-feathered, very small, and barred.
So in total we have 6 bantams--2 roosters and 4 hens (Hen #2 died).
Then we just hatched 4 more bantam chicks. I do not know which chicks came from which parents, but 3 of them are clean-legged and 2 of them have feathered legs!! I've never noticed that before, and I'm curious as to whether the feather-legged chicks will grow up to look more like Silkies than their parents. Do feathered legs necessarily mean a very fluffy chicken? Could they be throwbacks to the original Silkie rooster? ALL 4 chicks are five-toed.
Here's one of the feathered chicks:
I just read an article that said, "The feather type is recessive. Cross a silkie with any hard feathered bird, and the offspring will be hard feathered. Cross these offspring together and you will get some silkie feathered birds."
Another forum post said, "Crossing silkie to silkie will produce all silkie chicks.
Crossing silkie to non-silkie will produce non-silkie chicks. Each chick will carry one silkie gene (silkie gene carrier).
Crossing silkie to silkie gene carrier will produce some silkie and some non-silkie."
I'm at the 3rd generation for these chickens...
Is this my answer? Will I finally get some birds that look like Silkies? It's probably hard to tell, but, I'm interested in knowing if the feathered legs are significant.
I really hope they end up looking sort of like Silkies...
