Silkie feather genetics

[inquisitivebird]

I have just hatched eggs from a rooster and hen that are siblings. They both have the same mother and father. The parents of the eggs have normal feathers, all 6 of the chicks look to be sprouting silkie feathers. Can someone explain to me if this is possible?

I was under the impression that the silkie feather gene was recessive and that 2 copies are needed to create silkie feathering. If each parent had one copy, then a punnet square would predict the chicks to be 25% silkied, 50% carriers with normal feathers and 25% with normal feathers and not carriers.

Is there something I am missing?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You are correct in what you're saying about the silkie-feather gene being recessive and needing 2 copies to express, and that two parents carrying the gene should produce about 25% silkied offspring, 75% non-silkied offspring. Odds might not be very high that you'll hit silkied feathering 6 times in a row with that cross, but it's far from impossible. If you keep hatching more and more of them and only ever get silkied feathering, then I'd think something weird was going on, but where you are now, it could easily still be coincidental.

 

[MysteryChicken]

What are the parent birds? A breed, or mixed breeds?

Pictures will help also.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The parents are mixes, half Dorking, one-quarter Orpington, one-quarter unknown mix. The OP has another thread detailing their crosses to get here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicks-growing-strange-feathers.1543199/

 

[MysteryChicken]

The parents are mixes, half Dorking, one-quarter Orpington, one-quarter unknown mix. The OP has another thread detailing their crosses to get here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicks-growing-strange-feathers.1543199/

Thanks for this.

 

[inquisitivebird]

You are correct in what you're saying about the silkie-feather gene being recessive and needing 2 copies to express, and that two parents carrying the gene should produce about 25% silkied offspring, 75% non-silkied offspring. Odds might not be very high that you'll hit silkied feathering 6 times in a row with that cross, but it's far from impossible. If you keep hatching more and more of them and only ever get silkied feathering, then I'd think something weird was going on, but where you are now, it could easily still be coincidental.

I have 7 more chicks from these parents that are 3 days old. I'm anxiously waiting for their feathers to come out enough for me to see.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Keep us posted! This could be quite interesting!