So my freind has some Silkie/Duccle crosses, now if i breed them back to a silkie i should get a silkied feathered chicken right? Then what if i bred the F1 back to a duccle, would any percent of the chicks be silkied? I guess what im asking is it possible to create a silkie duccle with a silkie? Im not sure how the silkie gene works so i was just wondering.
The Silkied feathering is recessive, so no, breeding a bird that is 1/4 D'Uccle and 3/4 Silkie back to a D'uccle will not create a Silkied bird. Really, it will take a LONG time to actually get a Silkied D'Uccle, as Silkies have a very different body type, plus you'd need to get rid of the fifth toe, the dark pigmentation, the vaulted skull and crest, and then of course work on the upright body, upright tail, etc. Remember, Silkies have both silkied feathering alleles. Crossing to a D'Uccle will make offspring with only one allele. Crossing back to the Silkie again will ruin the D'uccle body, but you'll get a 50% chance of Silkied birds. From there, you'd need to work on crossing them back to a half D'Uccle, half Silkie again. And still, you're going to run through a lot of problems with getting rid of the Silkie type. If you want a mutt with Silkied feathering, you can make that.
Quote:Humm yeah, well im getting the cross with the hopes of using them as broodies, so idk if it was possible. So it's possible but it would take YEARS lol. What if i used a Serama? That would be closer to type? (now were talking Theoretically, lol)
Yes, breeding to silkied serama would be better than silkie. It will take years though. If I were going to do it, I would do the cross with silkied serama,(hatch as many as possible)-(choose best suited f1's for your goal) mate siblings together, again hatch as many as possible(f2's), choose best silkied birds for your goal and breed the only the silkied f2's back to d'uclle. The keep repeating this whole process, until you reach your goal. Good luck
Shop around. I have seen some d'Uccles that had almost silkied feathers already. I don't care for them: I prefer hard, tight shiny feathers. But I've seen them out there, in both lavender and millie.
