silkie seramas

[key west chick]

I have a pair of silkie seramas. Will the roo pass on silkie feathers if he is with my regular feathered hens?

 

[SeramaLife]

I don't think so, but I'm no expert.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

You will only get silkied chicks if the hens are heterozygous (Ss) for the silkie gene...Im pretty sure its a recessive gene and he would be homozygous (ss) for it...

If the hens are double dominant (SS) for smooth feathers they can only pass on the one gene and it will be dominate (S) the silkied recessive (s).
So all the chicks would be Ss and not show silkied feathers.
But you could breed him back to the next generation of his daughters and hope to get double recessive for silkied. (ss)

I dont raise silkied seramas, but Mr.W (Ss) bred back to his daughters (Ss) had 25% show up so they both must have been heterozygous for it..

Did I make any sense? lol

 

[LilPeeps]

Yep, it’s recessive. You will only hatch out silkied chicks if the hens are heterozygous (carrying one gene) for silkie feathering. If that's the case, you'll get 50% silkied, 50% smooth, het for silkied. If the hens aren't het for silkied, you'll get 100% het for silkied and when bred back to the silkied, you'll get the above percentages. If the f1 birds are bred together, you'll get 25% silkied, 50% smooth, het for silkied, and 25% smooth, no silkie gene. The birds that are het for the gene would be indistinguishable from the birds that do not carry the gene.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Sometimes its good to find that you know what you are talking about! lol

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Yes, except thta the gene is h, not s

(H stands for hook, which is what holds the barbules together on regular feathers, like velcro; h is not-hook, aka silkie)

 

[key west chick]

Well, I was trying to downsize and thought about getting rid of my silkie roo and keeping just a barred roo with a few regular hens and a silkie hen. I guess if I ever want more silkies down the line, I best keep both of 'em huh.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Quote:
Yes, except thta the gene is h, not s

(H stands for hook, which is what holds the barbules together on regular feathers, like velcro; h is not-hook, aka silkie)

LOL Thanks! Now I know! I was using "s" as an example! Next time, Ill use "H"!! Hook! Interesting!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Yes, h is for silkie; S is for silver (and s for gold).

 

[CindyS]

I know this does not answer your question but a few years ago I got some eggs from someone with silkied seramas, the egg that hatched was marked ss which means it was from the silked pen. It was a cockerel and he did not have silkie featering. I kept him and raised several of his offspring. After 4 generations i had forgotten about the silkie gene. This spring the 5th generation from this one rooster, I hatced out 2 silked pullets!