Silkie mix colors - possible sex link or just coincidence?

[PrincessKiara]

Genetics for your rooster, and his parents, as far as I can figure them out.

I'm using this genetics calculator:
https://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html
And I'm just going down the list of genes.
(genes are listed as two things with / between, because the chicken has one from each parent, so two total. Any gene with + is thought to be the original form found in the Red Jungle Fowl, with all other forms being mutations.)

Your rooster:
e+/e+ duckwing or e+/E^Wh
e+ causes stripey chicks. It's recessive to most of the other options there, so I think either he's pure for it, or he has one copy of e+ and one of e^Wh

I think he has the __+ form of quite a few genes, so I'll just list the ones he does not (those are the default settings when you open the page)

Mh or mh+ I don't know if he has Mahogany (makes gold be more red) or not
s+/s+ he has gold/wildtype, not Silver (this is what you need to create sexlinks)
B/b+ he has one copy of the barring gene (not two, because his mom had none to give him)

Everything else in the list, I'm pretty sure he's got the __+ form of.

His mother:
E/e+ (Extended Black because of her color, e+ because she was able to pass it to her son)
s+/- (gold/wildtype on her Z chromosome, because she gave it to her son. Being a hen, she only has one Z chromosome)
b+/- (no barring, which we can tell by looking at her picture)
bl+/bl+ not blue
i+/i+ not Dominant White
Most of the others have no effect on black chickens, or are recessive so we cannot tell if she had one copy (lav is lavender, c is recessive white: we know she did not have two copies of either of these, because she was not lavender or white, but we don't know whether she had one copy vs. no copies of them.)

His father:
Probably E/e+ (Extended Black, which was then diluted to white; e+ because it was passed on to his son)
s+/?? (gold because he passed it to his son, don't know if he was pure for gold or was gold/silver split)
B/?? (Barring because he passed it to his son, I don't know if he had one copy of it or two--it didn't really show on him!)
I/i+ (one copy of Dominant White, which turns black to white but can be a bit leaky--this on a black background is what caused his appearance of mostly white with some black showing in places. One copy of i+ because that's what he gave to his son, your rooster.)

Like with the mother of your rooster, I cannot tell what other genes he did or did not have--most would not show up, given what color he was. So we only know what we can see, and what he passed to his son.

For your white silkies, they have any or all of the following:
S/- silver is needed to get sexlinks. (Because they're hens, and it's on the Z chromosome, they can only have one copy.) But we don't know for sure if they have it or not--unless your chicks show us.

E and I together can make a white bird (Extended Black and Dominant White--like the father of your rooster, but with careful selection to get a clean white.)

c/c is recessive white, and it makes a bird white no matter what other color genes the bird has (try it in the genetics calculator: c/c makes the little picture go white, no matter what you do to the other genes.)

At least one silkie must be e+/?? because of what gene got passed to the chicks: e+/e+ gives stripey chicks. (Always a chance that the stripey ones are e+/e^Wh, but that has no effect on whether they're sexlinks or not, so I'm mostly ignoring it.)

I think that's all the genes I've got figured out. I'm leaving out genes for feathered feet, crested heads, muff/beard, comb type, eggshell color--because they aren't on that version of the calculator, and because they have nothing to do with whether you've got sexlinks or not.

But it can be great fun to just start clicking things in the calculator, and watch the pictures change to show the effects of the genes. I often forget to have it cross the chickens and predict offspring, because I just enjoy making different colors of chicken pictures

Thank you! That's super fascinating.

Oh and I talked to the man who sold me the hens. He says he bred them himself and they were born with white chick fuzz. Now that I think of it, I do think Silkies keep the color they're born with, unlike other chickens. I'm not 100% though.

 

[NatJ]

Forgot to add:
If the white silkies are c/c recessive white
And if the rooster happens to be C/c (one copy of recessive white, so it doesn't show)

Then, you would expect half the chicks to be c/c (one copy from each parent), and half the chicks to be C/c (C from rooster, c from silkie hen). So you'd get half white chicks, half not-white chicks.

Clearly, you do not have half white chicks. But whether they're white from being sexlinks, or white from recessive white, you would expect half white ones either way. But it's easy enough to get 5:2 instead of 4:3.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you! That's super fascinating.

Oh and I talked to the man who sold me the hens. He says he bred them himself and they were born with white chick fuzz. Now that I think of it, I do think Silkies keep the color they're born with, unlike other chickens. I'm not 100% though.

White fuzz on the silkies leaves us with the same several possibilities about their genetics

I think silkies often keep the same color as they grow just because they are often solid colors, and solid colored adults are often solid colored as chicks, too. (Examples: White Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, and Rhode Island Reds tend to be almost the same colors as chicks and as adults.) As for why so many silkies are solid colors, I think it's because complicated patterns on the feathers just don't show up well when they're fuzzy like that-- not much point in having lacing when you can't see it very well.

 

[PrincessKiara]

Old thread I know. But! Update!

They aren't sex links, since one of the browns at least, possibly two, turned out to be roos. However, I believe all of the white ones have been roos! And all but those two of the browns, hens. Is it coincidence?

 

[NatJ]

They aren't sex links, since one of the browns at least, possibly two, turned out to be roos. However, I believe all of the white ones have been roos! And all but those two of the browns, hens. Is it coincidence?

Thanks for the update!
You're right, they aren't really sexlinks if some browns are each gender.
The white ones being males-- not sure if that's the sex-linked silver gene (in which case any other white ones would also be males), or if that's one of the other genes for white (in which case white being male is just co-incidence.)

Since there are some brown males, then at least one of your white hens is genetically gold, and will never produce sexlink chicks.

I've forgotten how many total chicks you have. If it's less than about a dozen, then coincidence is just as likely as any other explanation

 

[PrincessKiara]

Thanks for the update!
You're right, they aren't really sexlinks if some browns are each gender.
The white ones being males-- not sure if that's the sex-linked silver gene (in which case any other white ones would also be males), or if that's one of the other genes for white (in which case white being male is just co-incidence.)

Since there are some brown males, then at least one of your white hens is genetically gold, and will never produce sexlink chicks.

I've forgotten how many total chicks you have. If it's less than about a dozen, then coincidence is just as likely as any other explanation

About fifteen chicks total, all with the same mother and father my other hen just mated with my buff roo and produced a pure white silkie just like her...after two that looks like buffed up versions of the other chicks. I'm wondering now if Nugget somehow got to her even though I'm 99.5% sure he couldn't have... Because the white is definitely a silkie....but the browns...one has pink skin instead of black and one seems to be growing normal feathering. So I'm very confused

 

[NatJ]

So I'm very confused

Looks like I'm in good company then, because I'm confused too
But if a "pure silkie" has no silkie feathering, then it does seem that another rooster must be involved! (Because the silkie gene is recessive, so 2 silkie parents should always produce silkie chicks.)

 

[PrincessKiara]

Looks like I'm in good company then, because I'm confused too
But if a "pure silkie" has no silkie feathering, then it does seem that another rooster must be involved! (Because the silkie gene is recessive, so 2 silkie parents should always produce silkie chicks.)

That's what I thought. I'm pretty confident the first two must be Nugget's, though I have no idea how. I just had one hatch that is 100% a Silkie and totally white...but...