Silkie Genetics - Banyard Suprises

[adubsroit]

Earlier this summer I hatched an egg from a friend flock. The chick (a male) is coming up on 5 weeks now, and is very interesting in his color. I do not have pictures yet, but his color/pattern means little in terms of my question.

He is the progeny of an OEGB (father) and a F2 Silkie cross (mother). The mother is almost entirely silkie feathered, and our little guy is normal feathered. He has some very light leg feathers (all above the "knee"?) and in comparison to other bantams his age he is a tad small. Also, a single comb rather than his mothers Silkie looking comb.

What I want to know is how his genetics would work when being paired with a true silkie? Could I expect some fully silkied progeny? I know that the silkied feather gene is recessive, but how does it work when passed down to offspring that would be only about an 1/8th Silkie?

I will try and get pictures up ASAP of the chicken in question.

 

[onthespot]

Silkie feathers is a recessive gene. If one parent carries it and is crossed with a silkied feathered bird, each offspring has a fifty fifty chance to be silkied, or normal feathered split to silkie. Single comb, same thing. It is recessive to silkie walnut comb. If the offspring is single combed, both parents carry at least one copy of the gene. You can get single combs from "puerbred" silkies, not that uncommon, sometimes a very frustrating problem in some of the nicer looking lines. Not sure why. Can't answer about the color, because I haven't seen a photo.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Our little Sizzle Sunshine (SilkiexCochin) got together with our bantam Columbian Wyandotte Pepe. So we decided to throw some eggs into the incubator to see what the results would be. Well most of the babies look like the mom for the most part. Most have black feet, 5 toes, silkie feathers, BUT...no feathers on their feet, and they have the cochin comb. They're adorable little chicks! A few have dad's light feet and only 4 toes. And out of this last hatch, we have one that totally looks like dad.

So now my experiment is going to be to see if the ones with the black feet and 5 toes are different sexes than the ones with the lighter feet and 4 toes.

Laurie