Silkie cross - always feathered legs?

[Teila]

Hey there

I note it was mentioned that “Silkie crosses should always have feathered legs and have five toes as those traits are dominant.” I just wanted to mention that this is not always the case. I have a Silkie X who has 5 toes but her legs are not feathered and I have had pet quality Silkies who while they had feathered legs, did not have 5 toes.

This gal is a Silkie X with 5 toes but no leg feathers:



This gal is a pet quality Silkie with very minimal leg feathers and only 4 toes:

 

[Ducks4us]

I also have 3 silkie crosses, and none of them have feathered legs. However they arent half silkie.
Mom was half silkie and dad was pure ameraucana.
They all have 5 toes but no feathered legs.

 

[Teila]

Yeah, I was thinking about it some more; may be it is the case only if one of the parents was a pure Silkie with feathered legs and 5 toes.

This little cutie, also only had 4 toes but black skin and obviously lots of Silkie:

 

[User395221]

Thanks, it's complicated, isn't it?

I'm pretty sure that the 2 "different" ones aren't silkie crosses. Every day they look a bit more different to the others (not to mention their exponential growth compared to the little ones).

My girls from the chook farm could be anything (they've got silkie in them too, so I'm told), but I met the parents of the eggs I got. The silkies are a couple (Mr and Mrs White LOL) and the polish I think is "just polish" so the cross is only first-generation. 2 of the "black ones" have black legs, the other 2 have the yellow-ish ones.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Check out the SOP for silkies, because they are definitely supposed to have feathered legs. If your silkies are just pet or hatchery quality, it is possible that they would not have feathered legs and other important silkie traits. A disqualification for silkies is to not have feathered shanks. They're still cute though!

 

[Teila]

Yeah potato chip, it is complicated

TheKindaFarmGal I did know that Silkies SOP requires feathered legs and 5 toes.

Thank you, I love my little feathered friends, regardless of who their daddy was

I guess I was just trying to point out that even though they may not have feathered legs and/or 5 toes they can still be Silkie X's just not crossed with SOP Silkies which was not clear in “Silkie crosses should always have feathered legs and have five toes as those traits are dominant.”

Sorry, just me being pedantic, a bad trait which I picked up .. lol

 

[User395221]

Thank you, I love my little feathered friends, regardless of who their daddy was

Yes, me too, I'm just impatient/curious to know which of my eggs turned into babies. I lost a couple, I had thought only one of the dark eggs had hatched, that's why I was a bit confused as to whether I've got marans, one or two. I'm pretty sure now (thanks everyone) that I've got 2. I hope at least one is a hen, I've heard their eggs are really nice.

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

Yeah potato chip, it is complicated

TheKindaFarmGal I did know that Silkies SOP requires feathered legs and 5 toes.

Thank you, I love my little feathered friends, regardless of who their daddy was

I guess I was just trying to point out that even though they may not have feathered legs and/or 5 toes they can still be Silkie X's just not crossed with SOP Silkies which was not clear in “Silkie crosses should always have feathered legs and have five toes as those traits are dominant.”

Sorry, just me being pedantic, a bad trait which I picked up .. lol

Haha! It's fine!

True silkies breed true and are homozygous in the dominant traits of feathered legs and five toes. Which means that all F1 offspring, regardless of other parent, would have feathered shanks and five toes. As the OP was asking about silkies, I assumed these are true silkies not just pet/hatchery quality. A true silkie cross will have feathered shanks and five toes. If you aren't looking to breed to the SOP or show, it doesn't really matter. As not having those traits is a disqualification for the breed, a "silkie" that doesn't have feathered shanks isn't really a silkie.

But, they still make good fluffy buddies. Yours are very cute.

 

[User395221]

As the OP was asking about silkies, I assumed these are true silkies not just pet/hatchery quality.

As far as I know, both of the parents are pure silkie, but they wouldn't be show quality, they are just somebody's backyard chooks.

Does anyone have an idea as to what sort of "hairdo" the polish/silkie crosses will have, or will it just be "whatever it turns out to be"? I wonder whether they'll get "proper" feathers or fluffy silkie feathers....

Again, I'm just lucky I'm in the suburbs, otherwise there'd be a breeding frenzy out there Maybe I could indulge my curiosity on my budgies.... My problem is that I don't like giving any of my pets away, I wouldn't want to let any babies go to another home.

 

[junebuggena]

As far as I know, both of the parents are pure silkie, but they wouldn't be show quality, they are just somebody's backyard chooks.

Does anyone have an idea as to what sort of "hairdo" the polish/silkie crosses will have, or will it just be "whatever it turns out to be"? I wonder whether they'll get "proper" feathers or fluffy silkie feathers....

Again, I'm just lucky I'm in the suburbs, otherwise there'd be a breeding frenzy out there Maybe I could indulge my curiosity on my budgies.... My problem is that I don't like giving any of my pets away, I wouldn't want to let any babies go to another home.

Since the gene for silkie feathering is recessive, it's most likely that none will have silkie feathering, but they will be carrying a single copy of the gene.