Silkied Ameraucana Project

[EdenCamp]

My nail biting will start in a few days.... first lav cuckoos and then yours...... got pics of the smokey?

 

[LBKS]

My nail biting will start in a few days.... first lav cuckoos and then yours...... got pics of the smokey?

Please tell me you are doing a lav cuckoo silkied Am project! /hopeful

 

[EdenCamp]

U know it......and likely cuckoo and choc cuckoo........and red pyle I'm hoping.....mottled.....choc mottled....

Some more black silkieds wouldn't hurt things......

I haz projects!

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

My nail biting will start in a few days.... first lav cuckoos and then yours...... got pics of the smokey?

The above 2 pics are the same chick. I have some weird gene- possibly the smokey gene- or some kind of modifier happening in my Black Silkied pen. Last year I was breeding smooth feather Blacks split to Lav split to Silkied feathering and hatching insane amounts of chicks trying to hatch enough Silkied Lavs. I was getting the expected Black and Lavender chicks in both smooth and silkied but then I get this strange smokey looking chick. It was obviously not Black and definitely not Lavender.

At first I thought maybe it was Blue and how the heck did I hatch a Blue chick from Blacks- and my guys are definitely black- very very Black with nice green sheen and all. So I put the chick in the brooder and forget about it. Couple weeks goes by and I start looking for my crazy Blue chick and don't you know I can't find it! The chick turned Black and blended in with all the others

Eventually I hatch 2 more like that first one but this time I tagged them lol. Both of them also turned Black except 1 is a lighter Black color and can easily be picked out. This pick below shows the 3 different colored chicks I got from my Black split to Lav pen- The one that looks like a Blue is not a Blue and actually turned Black.


After doing some research and talking with a few people way smarter than me it seems I could have a mutation possibly, maybe even the rare smokey mutation. And considering these birds had a feather mutation why not a color mutation too lol.

From what I understand the smokey mutation is partly dominant and recessive. 1 copy shows in the chick down but 2 copies are needed to keep the color. I have no idea if this is what I have but seems possible.

Unfortunately the 2 tagged chicks both turned out to be roos so I can not breed them. I have 1 of the "smokey" roos over his P1s and I'm curious to see what I hatch now.

Trish

 

[EdenCamp]

hmmm never heard of smokey gene. Dosen't mean there isn't one, just never heard of it. Did they give you any links for reference?
I'm wondering if possibly a silver based black or dark blue crossed with lav somewhere ? People don't always know to only use gold based blacks with lavs.

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html

Smoky IS The smoky gene is an allele belonging to the dominant white locus. Smoky is dominant to dominant white in both chick down and adult plumage in that extended black with I/IS (E/E I/IS)results in grey chick down and adult plumage. Research to date indicates that i+/IS heterozygotes express more the wild-type phenotype with respect to this gene indicating a recessive character with respect to the wild-type. Smoky is dominant on the chick down of IS/i+ heterozygotes in that down that should be black is grey. The melanosomes resulting from the expression of smoky resemble those resulting from Andalusian Blue. Smoky dilutes black much more than red/gold. An important difference between Smoky and Andalusian Blue is that Smoky in the homozygote state produces a grey/blue bird while Andalusian Blue homozygotes are splash. Therefore, Smoky fowl will breed true.​

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

hmmm never heard of smokey gene. Dosen't mean there isn't one, just never heard of it. Did they give you any links for reference?
I'm wondering if possibly a silver based black or dark blue crossed with lav somewhere ? People don't always know to only use gold based blacks with lavs.

I suppose those could be possible as well. The only way to know for sure is to breed and see what I get

Any case I'm having fun because it's such a mystery to me lol.

Here is the roo that hatched "smokey" and stay a lighter color- you can see he is not quite Blue and not really Black




His comb is also very strange as it is almost completely smooth.


Here is the other roo that also hatched "smokey" he has turned completely Black.

 

[LBKS]

Can't wait to see what you find as you investigate the smokey chicks. Without context I would have thought it was a blue based on that second baby picture, when it was next to a lav and a black.

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

Can't wait to see what you find as you investigate the smokey chicks. Without context I would have thought it was a blue based on that second baby picture, when it was next to a lav and a black.

Me neither

Very exciting having this mystery to work on. I only wish it didn't take so long to be able to figure it out lol.


And I thought the same thing about the Blue chick at first. I was really scratching my head trying to figure out how the heck I hatched a Blue chick from all Blacks. It was so obviously a Blue that I never tagged it thinking I would easily be able to tell it apart. I was pretty surprised when it turned Black.

The only thing I can think of to explain why 2 of them turned completely Black and 1 stayed a lighter greyish black color is maybe that one also carries Lav? IDK but it's pretty crazy.

Here are a few of the girls I was hatching from last year- you can see they are clearly Blacks and not dark Blues. The roo I was using has already been culled but he was the same nice black color as the girls. I have pics of him too but I need to dig a little for them. Also zero chance of a fence jumper as they are in an enclosed indoor pen.




My first hatch from him is due the 12th and I'm really really excited to see what I get

 

[wlhtx]

I've been lurking here for quite a bit, but since I am planning to dive headfirst into your lavender project, Trish, I thought I'd chime in because I also think the smokey chicks are fascinating.

So, do you think your adult roo that stayed slightly lighter than your blacks may actually have 2 copies of the smokey gene compared to your other 2 smokey chicks that turned black as they grew in their adult feathers? Reading the info above, 1 copy of the gene equates to smokey chick down, black adult feathering. But 2 copies of the gene equates to both smokey chick down AND smokey adult feathering. Since you actually HAVE an adult bird that is displaying a dark gray color, it seems to me that that roo must be homozygous.