Silkie thread!

[GoldBarRanch]

What do you think about the colors of this little darling?

Gotta love those partridge

 

[SilverSilkie]

Think of sex-linked birds....the females get ONE allele of the color gene, where as males get TWO alleles - making them different and sex linked
Autosomal means it affects both genders not one or the other. autosomal colors both sexes have 2 alleles

Whites - you have recessive white and Dominant white. - which is c/c and I/I both males and females have this formula in their makeup. So he was saying she was mistaken about the hens having 1 color gene - white is autosomal meaning there are two and it is entirely possible for there to be leakage or another color bleeding through


***though it is a bit odd on a white bird except when they are actually paint atleast to MY understanding....

Okay, I'll give it a shot....

Have you ever tried to paint a room in a lighter color than is already on the wall? If you don't prime it first, you will get leakage of color, usually in uneven patches. The dominant white gene (I) works like paint without primer over the rest of the color genes in the chicken. Black is covered completely, but red will leak if it is present. In this case, the chicken could have autosomal red, or one of the black "bases" like e+ that gives hens a salmon breast in addition to the 'I'. Because it is dominant, you only need one copy of the gene for it to express so it could come from either parent.

With the recessive white, think of it as primer (a recessive 'c') plus the coat of paint (another recessive 'c') which provides complete coverage (masking) of any other color genes, black or red, that may be present. You get a pure white bird. This color needs the recessive gene from each parent i.e. two copies to express.

Indeed it's kind of as painting a wall, but first you must look what kind of wall it is !

Basic color genetics in a nutshell !

Every chicken haven a "ground-color" (= a base pattern), this is one of the 5 possibilities on the E-locus (= were these 5 can be located).
The ground-color can be "pure" (= homozygous).
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]E/E is called Extended Black, ER/ER is called Birchen, eWh/eWh is called wheaten, eb/eb is called Asiatic Partridge, e+/e+[/FONT] is called Bankiva Partridge.
(The ground-color can also be "unpure (= heterozygous), I not go deeper on this to not make things complicater as necessary to understand the BASICS).

This ground-color (the base pattern) is based on gold s+/s+ for males or s+/- for females OR on his mutant Silver S/S for males or S/- for females (this is a sex-linked gene).
Chickens with a ground-color based on gold have a base pattern consisting out of Black and gold, these based on Silver have a base pattern consiting out of Black and Silver (Silver we see as white)

This ground color based on gold or Silver can be affected by different other color-genes.

These other color-genes can be diluters, intensifiers, restrictors, inhibitors. Some of them inhirit in a Dominant way, others in a recessive way, or in an epistatic way, or in an incomplete Dominant way or in a sex-linked way.

So when you look at your chickens color/pattern always start by the ground-color (1 of the 5 "E"-forms) which is based on gold or Silver and ONLY THAN you look at the color-genes that affect this totality "E & S".


PS you could see "E & S" is the wall, the other color-genes affecting it are the different paints

 

[SilverSilkie]

They have them in Canada and Europe and Australia.

Silkies are originally not big sized nor bantam sized, they are a size in between.
The Silkies you have in the US are as the original size (weight between 1,0 Kg and 1,2 Kg).
In Holland they wanted to create a "bantam" Silkie (weight between 0,5 Kg and 0,6 Kg) so half the size of the original weight.
But here came in a problem, these bantam became always more bigger over the years breeding so there was almost nomore a difference between the "bantam" and the original !
So they started to make the original more bigger (weight between 1,6 Kg and 2,0 Kg).
In this way in EU we became 2 sizes of Silkies, in the US they stayed as the original.

 

[SilverSilkie]

Question about color. I have a white pullet, yes she has laid eggs so I know its a she, with light buff around the underside of her beard like a necklace..
I thought hens couldn't only have 1 color gene. I'm confused!

Sometimes the expression can go against all basic color genetic rules !

You have to know there are different kinds of "red".
There is the gold indicated by the symbol "s+:" which is sex-linked, there is the Autosomale red sometimes indicated by the symbol "Ar", there is the Salmon-red as on the chest of e+ hens or as on the entire body of eWh hens, there are as many different kinds of red as there are different proteins that produce it. So "red" is complicated stuff !!

This white hen here, leaking red, should be a mix with unpure ground-color eWh/e+ based on s+/- not completely overtaken by the epistatic recessive gene c/c =>resulting in this phenotype.

Just know this is an exception on the basic color genetic rules !!!

 

[stoopid]

Aack! I need some people who know their silkies to help me decide which batch of eggs to order!

Can't decide!!!!

Just get all of them now. It will save you from having to make a choice later on

And welcome to the wonderful world of Silkies!

 

[Debbi]

Sometimes the expression can go against all basic color genetic rules !

You have to know there are different kinds of "red".
There is the gold indicated by the symbol "s+:" which is sex-linked, there is the Autosomale red sometimes indicated by the symbol "Ar", there is the Salmon-red as on the chest of e+ hens or as on the entire body of eWh hens, there are as many different kinds of red as there are different proteins that produce it. So "red" is complicated stuff !!

This white hen here, leaking red, should be a mix with unpure ground-color eWh/e+ based on s+/- not completely overtaken by the epistatic recessive gene c/c =>resulting in this phenotype.

Just know this is an exception on the basic color genetic rules !!!

Would you look at the intense glare coming from that cat!! RUN, Silkie, RUN!!!!

 

[Sanna]

yep its also the same with adult birds u also see ppl say i have a bbs pen which consist of blue/black/splash so it dosent just stand for eggs and chicks but u get what it mean

Got it! Finally. I'm a little slow at times. I am a blonde after all. lol

 

[ThaiChick]

Okay, I'll give it a shot....

Have you ever tried to paint a room in a lighter color than is already on the wall?  If you don't prime it first, you will get leakage of color, usually in uneven patches.   The dominant white gene (I) works like paint without primer over the rest of the color genes in the chicken.  Black is covered completely, but red will leak if it is present.  In this case, the chicken could have autosomal red, or one of the black "bases" like e+ that gives hens a salmon breast in addition to the 'I'.    Because it is dominant, you only need one copy of the gene for it to express so it could come from either parent. 

With the recessive white, think of it as primer (a recessive 'c') plus the coat of paint (another recessive 'c') which provides complete coverage (masking) of any other color genes, black or red, that may be present.  You get a pure white bird.  This color needs the recessive gene from each parent i.e. two copies to express.

Great example!

 

[SilverSilkie]

Would you look at the intense glare coming from that cat!! RUN, Silkie, RUN!!!!

But noooo, it's eyes say "ti amo" ;-)

 

[Hawkeye95]

I had a splash and 2 blues hatch out partridge and then they feathered out proper colored...

Also know others who get actual partridge out of BBS pens, not as uncommon as you'd think.

OH that is wild! Weeeellll then, I'm really excited to see how this one grows out. I'll be taking plenty of pictures of it's stages to see if it turns into a BBS color or if it stays partridge.

But noooo, it's eyes say "ti amo" ;-)

Pretty cat! Or is it "te quiero pollo" yum

No really, the cat looks like it wants to cuddle up with the chicken, so funny!