Silkie influence?

[TurtleFeathers]

Hi all -

A friend wants some large brown eggs from my free range laying flock for hatching - I think she's expecting "regular" chickens, but I fear she may be in for a surprise!

See, my only breeding rooster with that flock is a mixed breed - his father was a silkie and his mother was an EE (I hatched him from a blue egg), so he has a small crest and beard, a smooth dark red comb that's almost perfectly oval, black feathered legs and feet, and 5 toes on each foot - here's a pic from when he was younger (obviously, he's the one on the right):

The hens in my laying flock are various different pure breeds and mixes: black copper marans, cuckoo marans, BBS Ameraucanas, EE's, BLRW's, SLW, speckled sussex, barred rock, dominique, BSL, light brahma, buff orp cross, etc...

Now, I know these eggs will produce quite an array of colored mixed breeds, but I'm wondering about the silkie influence of the rooster on his offspring. I've hatched a few of their eggs recently and I got various combinations of 4/5 toes, feathered/clean legs, crests/no crests, beard/no beard, greenish/greyish/yellow legs, single/flat combs. These chicks are only a week old now, and are the first I've ever hatched from this flock, so I have no idea what they'll develop into down the road.

My questions are these:

I was under the impression that most of silkie type traits were dominant, but maybe I'm wrong? OR... could these 4 toed clean/yellow legged crestless chicks be from my BLRW rooster that died back on Thanksgiving day? But after all this time, I would think that the "influence" of the BLRW rooster would have been long gone, wouldn't it?

Plus, the way I figure, even tho I'm giving my friend only BROWN eggs to hatch, she *could* possibly end up with green egg laying hens, correct? I mean, since my rooster may carry the blue egg gene from his EE mother?

Thanks so much for any light you can shed on this for me - I'd just like to be able to let my friend know what she might expect from these eggs!

 

[perolane]

I would consider your flock "mixed".....your friend would get an assortment of all of the above...I would call them "delightful surprizes"!

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Quote:
LOL! Ya THINK???

My friend is looking forward to this, and when I told her it would be a big variety, she just said "sounds like fun". She's actually my mail carrier, and her son is the one that really wants to start a backyard laying flock. The son has never been here and seen my chickens tho, so I'm hoping that he won't be disappointed if they ALL turn out to have floofy top knots and feet that look like feather dusters! LOL!

I wasn't really looking for percentages or specifics, as I realize there will be a big variety from this flock... I am just surprised by what I'm seeing so far, and was hoping someone that knows more about genetics could give me an idea of how the genetics of silkie type genes work to control crests, beards, 5 toes, black skin and feathered legs/feet. Anyone?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
The reason that his offspring re not all displaying dominant silkie traits is that he is impure for them, meaning he has one copy of the dominant trait from his silkie papa, and one copy of the recessive allele from his EE mama. Each of his offspring will receive one of the two copies he caries for each gene, and likelwise will receive one of each copy from their mama. So, some of his offspring will inherit some recessive alleles, and some will inherit some dominant alleles. Most of these genes are not linked together, so inheriting dominant all silkie genes is random; someone better at math than I can calculate the probability. The second generation of a cross tends to produce the widest array of genotypes (and thus phenotypes). A first generation cross can be pretty predictable (assuming each parent is at least mostly homozygous for the genes carried), but in the next generation the mix of genes becomes quite broad. Assuming that one is selecting for certain characteristics in subsequent generations, the genotypes begins narrowing. If there is no selection then that does not hold.

The only closely linked genes are pea comb and blue egg gene. His comb is a walnut comb variation, meaning that he carries both pea comb and walnut comb. Pretty good chance that he has two copies of pea comb, one linked to blue eggshell gene O and the other linked to the non-blue eggshell gene o+. So you really will not be able to guess by comb type whether the offspring are likely to lay a blue egg or not.

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Thanks Sonoran!! Thats just the answer I was looking for, and it now makes perfect sense - I just couldn't seem to work it all out in my own mind

While I have you, can you make a guess at (or tell me exactly) how I would plug this guy's coloring into the chicken calculator? I'm thinking he's a golden duckwing, but he's got this partial lacing (I think - or spangling?) on his breast and black in his hackles that I can't seem to account for on the calculator.

Thanks so much!!!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

He has silver, mahogany and db or co. Possibly both. Probably e^b, but possibly wheaten (what colour is his undercoat?). Ask at the coop for better guesses--lots of experienced poultry geneticists enjoy this type of guessing game; just be prepared for some differences of opinion. He looks a lot like this guy of mine:

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Do you notice that your first generation silkie crosses have a downy undercoat at all? They certainly look "fluffy"! When first generation cross brother/sister are bred together, what percentage of silkied offspring is likely?

I am in love. I will need to borrow a Silkie roo for my girls at some point!

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
25%

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
25% silkied, 25% not carrying silkie, 50% carrying one copy.

Fluffiness debends on breed. Hard feathered breed such as game breeds tend to have less fluffy offspring when crossed to silkie; soft featehred breeds such as cochin tend to have fluffy offspring when crossed to a silkie. Once in a while you can end up with a partially silkie feathered bird. Never have quite figured that one out.