Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[AngBantamLuv]

Flinstones! I’m old enough to remember that! Love it!
Believe it or not, my paternal grandparents were named Wilma and Fred!

Aww what sweet grandparents names!

I was thinking the flecked clothes they would wear looks like the paints

I wonderrrr.... think it could be possible to keep a LF polish roo plus a silkie roo together? If i can only have 1, id keep the silkie. They do have a legal limit of 1 roo here w the city... and if more than one means crowing competition...

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I don’t know for sure that your birds have Colombian in them. They just look like they do. The Colombian markings, as far as I understand, look like the bird is wearing a necklace of different colored feathers.
The tail often has these colors in it as well. Think Columbian Wyandotte as an example. Several of your birds appear to have these kind of markings. Another color that you see with these kind of markings is birchen which gives a silver color in these neck feathers. I honestly don’t know how these are inherited, it is above and beyond my knowledge at this point anyway!
You can try posting pictures of your birds in the genetics forum, there are many more knowledgeable folks than me who will see it and may be able to answer your questions.
I know for laced birds that both parents have to carry the gene for lacing for the chicks to have it. Chicks that hatch from only one parent with the lacing gene will be “partially laced”.

I sure will dig deeper there...had no idea byc had such a thing!
Thank u sooooo much!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Aww what sweet grandparents names!

I was thinking the flecked clothes they would wear looks like the paints

I wonderrrr.... think it could be possible to keep a LF polish roo plus a silkie roo together? If i can only have 1, id keep the silkie. They do have a legal limit of 1 roo here w the city... and if more than one means crowing competition...

Boys raised together normally get along if there are no girls to compete for! Though it has been done before. I guess you’ll have to just wait and see how they do when the hormones kick in!

 

[chickengr]

I don’t know for sure that your birds have Colombian in them. They just look like they do. The Colombian markings, as far as I understand, look like the bird is wearing a necklace of different colored feathers.
The tail often has these colors in it as well. Think Columbian Wyandotte as an example. Several of your birds appear to have these kind of markings. Another color that you see with these kind of markings is birchen which gives a silver color in these neck feathers. I honestly don’t know how these are inherited, it is above and beyond my knowledge at this point anyway!
You can try posting pictures of your birds in the genetics forum, there are many more knowledgeable folks than me who will see it and may be able to answer your questions.
I know for laced birds that both parents have to carry the gene for lacing for the chicks to have it. Chicks that hatch from only one parent with the lacing gene will be “partially laced”.

sussex light, brahma light, lakenvelder, etc. have columbian pattern.

 

[kurby22]

Aww what sweet grandparents names!

I was thinking the flecked clothes they would wear looks like the paints

I wonderrrr.... think it could be possible to keep a LF polish roo plus a silkie roo together? If i can only have 1, id keep the silkie. They do have a legal limit of 1 roo here w the city... and if more than one means crowing competition...

I am attempting this right now with my two Ameraucana boys! One matured faster than the other and now that Fluff is catching up they are fighting more but so far nothing too crazy. I think it depends on how many ladies there are and how easy going they are!

 

[chickengr]

Aww what sweet grandparents names!

I was thinking the flecked clothes they would wear looks like the paints

I wonderrrr.... think it could be possible to keep a LF polish roo plus a silkie roo together? If i can only have 1, id keep the silkie. They do have a legal limit of 1 roo here w the city... and if more than one means crowing competition...

I have 2 roos in the same coop/run. only the dominant one crows.

 

[LynnaePB]

I sure will dig deeper there...had no idea byc had such a thing!
Thank u sooooo much!

There are certain sites that have some information on chicken genetics and the different genes too.

This one has quite a bit but chicken genetics are pretty complicated and this may be a bit overwhelming for a beginner beginner. it is still a LOT for me and I am more of an advanced beginner at this point.


http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html


It is my understanding that Columbian is an incompletely dominant eumelanin restrictor. Eumelanin being black pigment and its dilutes (like blue). Columbian pushes the black pigment to the hackles, tail, and wingtips. With just a single copy of Columbian the restriction won't be as thorough as with two copies. Since it is dominant (although incompletely) it will show to some degree on any bird that inherits at least one copy that is based on an E allele that it has a visible affect on.

There are other Columbian like restrictors that can look kind of like Columbian. Like Db (dark brown).

I'm afraid I don't know enough about how penciling is inherited to give a good guess on what your silkie x satin pairs would produce but like @LadiesAndJane said probably mostly black with a black silkie male as the father. They will likely have some degree of leakage in the hackles and maybe breast as well (possibly even in other areas). The color of the leakage in the girls will depend on what ground color dad has (silver or gold or carrying both). The boys if they have leakage will have silver leakage since moms are silver based and will give one copy of silver to their sons. The pattern gene I believe (which is responsible for penciling) is incompletely dominant so maybe you'll get partial patterning in the areas where leakage is present. I'm not sure exactly how that works though. Also penciling expresses differently in males and females. It's the females who get to keep the pretty concentric black rings on the feathers throughout their body even as adults so they are the ones the patterning is likely to be most noticeable on. If your black boy happens to be split on his E allele you might get some colors other than black with leakage too.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

There are certain sites that have some information on chicken genetics and the different genes too.

This one has quite a bit but chicken genetics are pretty complicated and this may be a bit overwhelming for a beginner beginner. it is still a LOT for me and I am more of an advanced beginner at this point.


http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/mutations1.html


It is my understanding that Columbian is an incompletely dominant eumelanin restrictor. Eumelanin being black pigment and its dilutes (like blue). Columbian pushes the black pigment to the hackles, tail, and wingtips. With just a single copy of Columbian the restriction won't be as thorough as with two copies. Since it is dominant (although incompletely) it will show to some degree on any bird that inherits at least one copy that is based on an E allele that it has a visible affect on.

There are other Columbian like restrictors that can look kind of like Columbian. Like Db (dark brown).

I'm afraid I don't know enough about how penciling is inherited to give a good guess on what your silkie x satin pairs would produce but like @LadiesAndJane said probably mostly black with a black silkie male as the father. They will likely have some degree of leakage in the hackles and maybe breast as well (possibly even in other areas). The color of the leakage in the girls will depend on what ground color dad has (silver or gold or carrying both). The boys if they have leakage will have silver leakage since moms are silver based and will give one copy of silver to their sons. The pattern gene I believe (which is responsible for penciling) is incompletely dominant so maybe you'll get partial patterning in the areas where leakage is present. I'm not sure exactly how that works though. Also penciling expresses differently in males and females. It's the females who get to keep the pretty concentric black rings on the feathers throughout their body even as adults so they are the ones the patterning is likely to be most noticeable on. If your black boy happens to be split on his E allele you might get some colors other than black with leakage too.

Yeah these terms r just over my head.
But basically sounds like you and @LadiesAndJane are saying my black silkie even with my 2 satin girls will most likely give me black chicks....right?
If that is the case I don't need to keep Mango for mating purposes right?

 

[LabMomma]

I am getting two silkie chicks in July, and I was wondering at what age did everyone's silkies start laying? How old were they when they first went broody? How many times a year and what time of year do they go broody? How do your silkie roosters get along with your other breeds of rooster? Thank you!

 

[kurby22]

I am getting two silkie chicks in July, and I was wondering at what age did everyone's silkies start laying? How old were they when they first went broody? How many times a year and what time of year do they go broody? How do your silkie roosters get along with your other breeds of rooster? Thank you!

I can’t speak to any of your other questions, but one of my silkies started laying at 8 months and the other one 10 months.