Smooth Silkies

[Kev]

Think of recessive as "being PURE for the GENE" to show it.

Therefore all silky feathered birds are pure for the recessive silky feathering.

Your bird, having normal feathers is not "pure" for the silky feathering gene. This is the reason for answers above saying they are not pure, and they are correct. You got the eggs from someone... how do you know for sure a smooth bird was not a parent?

For example.. if you cross a silkie with a cochin, you get birds feathered like a cochin(but it can look or feel a little softer). That is because the cochin does not have the silky feather gene.. the cross babies carry the silky feather gene but since they are not 'pure' for it, they cannot have the silky feathers.

Now if you breed the silkie-cochin cross birds to a silkie, you will get half smooth feather and half silky feather. That is what you are seeing with your birds. As long as you breed a smooth, you will continue to get some smooth, some silky. Only when you breed silky to silky, there will be 100% silky babies.

As for to keep or cull, that is completely up to you. if you like it, that's all the reason you need to continue breeding them. If you don't like it then that is also a perfectly valid reason to cull.

 

[keesmom]

Similar to how its best to breed a frizzle and a smooth rather than 2 frizzles... etc

There is a valid reason to only breed frizzles to a normal feathered bird. Breeding frizzle to frizzle can result in a frazzle, a chick with 2 copies of the frizzle gene. Not a pretty sight. It can cause extremely brittle feathering, resulting in some very naked birds.

As for your smooth silkies, I agree with Kev. If they do not have silkied feathers then they cannot be pure silkies.

 

[learycow]

Thank you Kev. Great explanation!

keesmom- thanks for the pictures. I had read that about the frizzles but never actually seen one! Those birds certainly wouldn't do well here in Maine, haha.
So is this only if breeding 2 frizzled birds? Or does the gene work the same way if you breed a frizzle with a smooth carrying frizzle as well?

I only have a frizzled rooster, no hens. But some of the babies I am raising could be fathered by him.

 

[Kev]

Glad to help.

Frizzle is a dominant* gene, if the bird has the gene "in any capacity/form" it very plainly shows the frizzled feathers. A smooth feather is totally absent of the frizzle gene, even if it came from two frizzled parents. In this sense, there are no frizzled carriers.. only frizzles vs non-frizzles.

*it is actually a semi dominant, because there is a visible difference between a bird with one dose of frizzle vs. a bird with two dose of frizzle. Basically a dose effect.. like one drop of red dye in cookie batter, you end up with pink cookies.. use two drops, you get red cookies.

There are some who do believe that using a smooth from a frizzle breeding helps make better 'frizzles' but that's due to separate genes unrelated to the frizzle gene but so happens to help with the feather curling.

Lastly.... this is where it can get confusing... there is a separate gene that represses the effects of frizzling. If a frizzle gets this gene, they are almost barely noticeable as being frizzled, there is only a very slight curling to tip of their feathers.

Just trying to cover all the bases because all too often there will be someone who likes to pipe in with the "exceptions" and seemingly complicate where a simple, straightforward answer would have largely sufficed for 'now'...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Most likely your eggs came from someone working on a sizzle project. I agree that it is not correct to call them silkies since they do not have silkie feathering.

 

[silkiefluff]

Very pretty bird, nonetheless.

 

[BluChick]

I know I'm late to the game, it being nearly mid-September...

But I wanted to pipe in that I just picked up a gaggle of "Silkie" chicks from a breeder a couple weeks ago. I used quotations because two of my new chickies are coming in smooth-feathered. The breeder had both frizzles and showgirls in with her regular silkies (and some pretty gorgeous colors, too)...[She's working on getting a Showgirl breeding group going]. So I am assuming my "smooth feathered silkies" are the smooth-feathered off-shoots of a frizzle mix? Which is confusing since I was under the impression Smooth feathering was dominant... and frizzle was recessive... So... help please! If she has nothing but silkie-feathered adults, how could chicks be smooth?

If I start breeding, the two smooth-feathered chicks (regardless if hen or rooster) would throw smooth feathered babies, correct? Even when bred to a pure Silkie. Or is there a chance they carry the silkie gene, and half could be silkie, half could be smooth?
Thanks for (trying to) help me understand all this mess.

 

[Jennifer Cappi Williams]

Now I am confused on what I have. I love my rooster but is he not a Silkie? Is that why he does not have the big poof head? He is 6 months old and I have had him about a week. I want to get him a poofy headed female.

 

[Jmcggnj6]

He looks like a silkie to me, some have bigger poofs than others just like some have vaulted skulls and some don't

 

[TattooedChickenChic]

I also hatched some eggs from a breeder that are all pure silkie and ended up with several smooths. I almost thought they scammed me until I started doing some research. Also some of them don't have the black skin which will not be used for breeders but still very unusual. Here's one of my smooth silkies I just hatched and a silkie feathered I hatched from same group. Both have black skin, six toes, and a top knot. Also, I'm curious to understand how the smooth silkie is used in frizzle breeding? I recently purchased done sizzle chicks and want to incorporate them into my breeding. I know you can't bed sizzle to sizzle because it compromises feather quality. What happens if I breed sizzle to smooth? Chances of smooth, frizzle, and silkie????