The "Ask Anything" to Nicalandia Thread

[MysteryChicken]

My friend has a pure silkie rooster. He is solid white with black skin and feathered legs. If he is covering clean legged hens like Australorp, Sussex, and Americaunas how much of a chance will it be to get chicks without feathered legs? I really like the idea of clean legged birds who are half silkie. We keep our hens as pets in our backyard would love one as friendly as a silkie with better laying habits and clean legs because we live in a VERY, VERY WET part of our nation.

Leg feather inheritance is 50%-50%. It's a dominant trait. Some offspring may not have feathered legs, skimpy, or moderate feathered legs.

The ones that inherited the feather leg gene are Split for it: Pti/pti+

 

[MysteryChicken]

Hello
I have a Cockerel whom I bought as a Buff Sussex. The thing is he lacks any black feathers (there's some small black streaks on some of his tail feathers) and he also has yellow feet.
My question is what has caused him to be white and is it possible for him to actually be pure Sussex or is he crossed with something?

He's more likely a crossbreed. He has yellow legs, & also the white feathers you mentioned.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

He's more likely a crossbreed. He has yellow legs, & also the white feathers you mentioned.

The legs do make me think crossbred. Any idea what he could be crossed with to make the feathers that colour? It doesn't really affect me whether he's a cross as I already have myself two lovely pure boys, unless I decided to keep him for fun as the colour is very pretty.

 

[MysteryChicken]

The legs do make me think crossbred. Any idea what he could be crossed with to make the feathers that colour? It doesn't really affect me whether he's a cross as I already have myself two lovely pure boys, unless I decided to keep him for fun as the colour is very pretty.

Anything with White plumage. Well, dominant white. So, it can be anything like a Leghorn, White Rock( I think they carry dominant white), or Red Sex-link as examples.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I've already ruled out vitiligo, since that effects young chickens of a few months of age, & it's an autoimmune disease situation.

Out of curiosity, what's your source on this? All of the cases I've seen in backyard flocks have been in birds ~18 months of age or older as its manifestation coincided with an adult molt. I do know there's a line that was bred for a genetic trigger early on that are used to study the condition, Smyth line chickens, but that certainly does not mean that chickens only get vitiligo at that age.

Also, in dogs and cats at least, it's not always autoimmune; yes, that is the most common cause, but not the only cause. It's not studied well in chickens (outside of those Smyth line birds that do have a known heritable autoimmune cause) as far as I've been able to find, so it's hard to say if that's the case for them as well.

Remember that the definition of vitiligo is the development of patches that completely or partially lack pigment where previously they were fully pigmented, often without a known cause. So your bird does have vitiligo by the definition of the word, we just don't know what the cause of it is.

Leg feather inheritance is 50%-50%. It's a dominant trait. Some offspring may not have feathered legs, skimpy, or moderate feathered legs.

The ones that inherited the feather leg gene are Split for it: Pti/pti+

There's actually more than one leg feathering gene, which is why there can be a spectrum of amounts of leg feathering in mixed offspring. I never remember how many genes off the top of my head, but at least one is recessive and others are partially dominant. Breeding a Silkie with full leg feathering to a clean-legged bird most likely will get you offspring with lighter leg feathering than their Silkie parent, but all with leg feathering nonetheless.

White Rock( I think they carry dominant white),

White Plymouth Rocks are generally recessive white.

 

[nicalandia]

Picture of the Day..

 

[nicalandia]

My friend has a pure silkie rooster. He is solid white with black skin and feathered legs. If he is covering clean legged hens like Australorp, Sussex, and Americaunas how much of a chance will it be to get chicks without feathered legs? I really like the idea of clean legged birds who are half silkie. We keep our hens as pets in our backyard would love one as friendly as a silkie with better laying habits and clean legs because we live in a VERY, VERY WET part of our nation.

No chance. Since Feathered shanks are dominant. They will have less, but will have them

 

[MysteryChicken]

Out of curiosity, what's your source on this? All of the cases I've seen in backyard flocks have been in birds ~18 months of age or older as its manifestation coincided with an adult molt. I do know there's a line that was bred for a genetic trigger early on that are used to study the condition, Smyth line chickens, but that certainly does not mean that chickens only get vitiligo at that age.

Also, in dogs and cats at least, it's not always autoimmune; yes, that is the most common cause, but not the only cause. It's not studied well in chickens (outside of those Smyth line birds that do have a known heritable autoimmune cause) as far as I've been able to find, so it's hard to say if that's the case for them as well.

Remember that the definition of vitiligo is the development of patches that completely or partially lack pigment where previously they were fully pigmented, often without a known cause. So your bird does have vitiligo by the definition of the word, we just don't know what the cause of it is.





There's actually more than one leg feathering gene, which is why there can be a spectrum of amounts of leg feathering in mixed offspring. I never remember how many genes off the top of my head, but at least one is recessive and others are partially dominant. Breeding a Silkie with full leg feathering to a clean-legged bird most likely will get you offspring with lighter leg feathering than their Silkie parent, but all with leg feathering nonetheless.





White Plymouth Rocks are generally recessive white.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/vitiligo#:~:text=Chickens from this line develop,and 12 weeks of age.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9082495/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi7_4axqMT7AhXvGFkFHbrqDhUQFnoECBQQAQ&url=https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/5531/7/mosupiemang_u_130705.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2N7JpxcHqtIo6O_ZEZ7hWL
(I did find one that mentioned a genetic cause of vitiligo, but forgot to link it)

I'm certain it's not Vitiligo based on the mother of the bird in question. Doesn't line up very well despite similarities. Part of the reason I'm gonna experiment. Thinking about referring to it as spontaneous Piebaldism rather then vitiligo.(Both the mother, & hen in question have had solid, or mostly solid white in some wing feathers since chickhood- mother has always had white down feathers)

I only know of the dominant leg feathering gene. So, I used that one.


Good to know the white Rock are, or mostly recessive white.

 

[nicalandia]

Hello
I have a Cockerel whom I bought as a Buff Sussex. The thing is he lacks any black feathers (there's some small black streaks on some of his tail feathers) and he also has yellow feet.
My question is what has caused him to be white and is it possible for him to actually be pure Sussex or is he crossed with something?

He is a cross, the white in his hackle indicates it has dominant white

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/vitiligo#:~:text=Chickens from this line develop,and 12 weeks of age.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9082495/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi7_4axqMT7AhXvGFkFHbrqDhUQFnoECBQQAQ&url=https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/5531/7/mosupiemang_u_130705.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2N7JpxcHqtIo6O_ZEZ7hWL
(I did find one that mentioned a genetic cause of vitiligo, but forgot to link it)

I'm certain it's not Vitiligo based on the mother of the bird in question. Doesn't line up very well despite similarities. Part of the reason I'm gonna experiment. Thinking about referring to it as spontaneous Piebaldism rather then vitiligo.(Both the mother, & hen in question have had solid, or mostly solid white in some wing feathers since chickhood- mother has always had white down feathers)

Yes, these are all about Smyth line chickens who are known to have a genetic trigger that causes them to develop vitiligo at a young age. This still does not mean that all vitiligo in chickens occurs at those ages. It literally says that they develop vitiligo early 'in this line' or refers to it as SL (Smyth line) vitiligo to distinguish from other forms of vitiligo in chickens.

Again, the definition of vitiligo is the loss of pigment in patches that previously were fully pigmented, often without a known cause. Your bird is exhibiting the definition of vitiligo. I'm not sure what you hope to gain by denying this?