Silkie toes not right

[Keeperofmunchkins]

My hen has just hatched four silkie chicks from some shipped eggs. Out of the four, one has six toes on one foot, and two have four toes on one foot. The fourth chick only has the correct five toes on both feet. Furthermore a couple of them have strange almost greenish looking legs instead of dark blackish as expected.

Does anyone know what could be the cause of this? Ive had several silkie chicks in the past and, although I've seen lighter skin in one before, I've never had any with the wrong number of toes.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Does anyone know what could be the cause of this?

Poor quality genetics, or cross breeding of parent stock.

Still cute!

 

[Keeperofmunchkins]

Yes that's what I suspected but I contacted the breeder and they said they've never had any silkies with four or six toes.
Is there any possibility its down to incubation issues? They were hatched by a broody hen and popped out right on schedule on day 21, but the hen is a teeny tiny serama who only just barely was able to cover the four eggs.

Yes they are the fluffiest little weirdos I've ever seen. Their down seems to be longer than other chicks. This one is just a pompom with feet:

 

[Fluffnut]

One of mine had a toe bitten off when she was still in the feed store. She got around just fine, and one of my others has six toes on one foot, but two of them grew together very oddly. She is one of my most active (out of 26!). The toe amounts probably should not make a huge difference in their general lifestyle.
It could have been something disruptive before you got them, such as being shaken around or similar during shipping. How old is the company you bought from? It's probably a genetic thing that missed a couple generations (I'm not sure if that happens commonly, though )
Either way they are the cutest things!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Is there any possibility its down to incubation issues?

Nope... it's completely genetic. If you raise or lower your temp and humidity you might end up with bent toes or dead embryos, but I don't believe it can cause extra or missing individual toes. I bred and hatched Silkies for about 3 years and only saw one out of hundreds with funky toes, which I can't remember what they were right now.

It's possible one or more of her parent stock is hiding that toe gene. If it were me I would do test mating and hatching to eliminate it from my stock. It's a LOT of work to eliminate hidden genes. But what their excuse for the skin color?

I know there are some problems that can arise from incubation, such as ducklings being born without developed eyes due to too high of temp on a specific day during the process... And that was under a broody but ambient temps were like 110 degrees with no way to cool them I suppose, so maybe I am wrong!

What color are these Silkie babes supposed to be?

Getting Silkie toes exactly right was quite the challenge. To me... only about 1 or 2 out of every hundred birds that hatch are truly breeding quality. But I'm not an average back yarder.

 

[Fluffnut]

Nope... it's completely genetic. If you raise or lower your temp and humidity you might end up with bent toes or dead embryos, but I don't believe it can cause extra or missing individual toes. I bred and hatched Silkies for about 3 years and only saw one out of hundreds with funky toes, which I can't remember what they were right now.

It's possible one or more of her parent stock is hiding that toe gene. If it were me I would do test mating and hatching to eliminate it from my stock. It's a LOT of work to eliminate hidden genes. But what their excuse for the skin color?

I know there are some problems that can arise from incubation, such as ducklings being born without developed eyes due to too high of temp on a specific day during the process... And that was under a broody but ambient temps were like 110 degrees with no way to cool them I suppose, so maybe I am wrong!

What color are these Silkie babes supposed to be?

Getting Silkie toes exactly right was quite the challenge. To me... only about 1 or 2 out of every hundred birds that hatch are truly breeding quality. But I'm not an average back yarder.

So is it a recessive gene? I don't know anything about genetics but am interested. Is there a thread/forum for this?

 

[sourland]

I agree with 100% genetic.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

So is it a recessive gene? I don't know anything about genetics but am interested. Is there a thread/forum for this?

No, I don't believe recessive and hidden are the same thing.

But I am here to learn as well, and genetics is complicated and fascinating!

 

[Keeperofmunchkins]

They are mixed colours. One is black with four toes on one foot,
One is a yellow and splotchy colour chick possibly a red later with six toes on one foot,
One is a brown partridge with four toes on one foot.
And one is a buff/gold that has the correct number of toes and the right skin colour (photo shown above).

They are from several different breeding groups from the same ebay seller. The photos on their advert looked good but the toes weren't really visible.
It's so strange that 3 out of 4 chicks from different groups have incorrect toes!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

It's so strange that 3 out of 4 chicks from different groups have incorrect toes!

Hmm, it's interesting, to say the least!

I recognize the Partridge, and have seen lots of not quite right skin color on them. Never associated it with green, but also never looked as I'm only looking for the black.

When working with project colors like paint, I had some hatch with lighter colored toes or skin.

At least you let the "breeder" know that you hatched some abnormalities, So if they weren't lying about never seeing it they can be on the look out.

Please know, I'm not accusing them... I'm just suspicious of everyone! But if someone was hatching from my stock THIS year and got cross beak, I had never seen it before... but this is a new breed I am working with for the first time this year... and I hatched (and culled upon discovery) about 3 cross beaks so far even though NONE of my parent stock exhibit it. I'm trying to figure out does that mean that ONE of my birds is hiding it, hen or roo? Or is it one of my hens hiding it AND my rooster and it only shows up when a chick gets it from both. Well, 3 chicks out of only 30... came from 5 hens and 1 rooster.