The "Ask Anything" to Nicalandia Thread

[JacinLarkwell]

My niece wants to breed Showgirls (Naked Necks x Silkies). We have 7 Red looking Naked Neck Pullets and one black pullet with gold lacing and 3 Red Naked Neck Roo babies. Only one Naked Neck pullet has a completely bare neck. All the other have bowties. There are 4 partridge Silkie pullets and one black pullet. 1 partridge Silkie rooster baby. What would you suggest for the pairings to create the prettiest Showgirls? What would they look like?

The completely naked neck will pass it on to all the chicks. The boetied ones will pass a naked neck to half the chicks approximately.

All wi be smooth feathered but will carry the silkied gene

 

[NatJ]

My niece wants to breed Showgirls (Naked Necks x Silkies). We have 7 Red looking Naked Neck Pullets and one black pullet with gold lacing and 3 Red Naked Neck Roo babies. Only one Naked Neck pullet has a completely bare neck. All the other have bowties. There are 4 partridge Silkie pullets and one black pullet. 1 partridge Silkie rooster baby. What would you suggest for the pairings to create the prettiest Showgirls? What would they look like?

You only listed pullets, but I'm pretty sure the Naked Neck in the middle of the first picture is male.

If you're asking about color, breeding black with red-looking ones or partridge is likely to produce black babies (although they might show some red leakage as they grow up.) Breeding red-looking ones to each other will probably produce ones that look red. Partridge crossed to the red ones will probably give something that's not really partridge but looks similar (red/brown with some black markings.)

The completely naked neck will pass it on to all the chicks. The boetied ones will pass a naked neck to half the chicks approximately.

All will be smooth feathered but will carry the silkied gene

The crossed chicks should also have crests and some feathers on their feet, maybe 5th toes, and a chance of the Silkie dark skin. Combs may look like Silkie combs, or may be something odd that comes from mixing comb genes. Breeding the first generation back to Silkies will give some chicks with silkied feathers, and the other traits will generally be closer to Silkies too (heavier foot feathering, higher chance of dark skin, etc.)

 

[Rosto]

Ok What if I purchased Showgirls. Should I get pullets or roos? What colors? Then how would you divide them into breeding groups?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ok What if I purchased Showgirls. Should I get pullets or roos? What colors? Then how would you divide them into breeding groups?

Personally I would get both and just breed them. But you can get females and breed to your silkie male and get Showgirls and normal silkies. Or you can buy Stripper pullets and breed those to the male silkie to get only showgirls.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If you managed to find grey/silver partridge females, you could make sexlinks with the partridge male

 

[NatJ]

Ok What if I purchased Showgirls. Should I get pullets or roos? What colors? Then how would you divide them into breeding groups?

Males or females: depends on what you've got now. Since you've got Silkie pullets, then definitely a male, and maybe some females to go with your Silkie cockerel. Take a good look at what you have, decide who are the best birds, and then think about what gender/color/traits will work best with them.

Breeding groups: put Showgirl male with Silkie females, and vice versa. Of course you can put Showgirls with Showgirls, and Silkies with Silkies.

Colors: breeding within a color usually works well (black with black, partridge with partridge, and so forth.)

You can put blacks with blue or splash, or with paints, or both.
If you get a blue Showgirl rooster to put with your black Silkie hen, you will get some black chicks and some blue chicks.
If you get a paint rooster to put with your black Silkie hen, you will get some black chicks and some paint chicks.

And as @JacinLarkwell pointed out, you could put gray (silver partridge) females with the partridge male to get sexlinks (partridge daughters, silver partridge sons.)

 

[MysteryChicken]

What would be the best way to introduce Mottling into Malays? All I have is a Blue Mottled Japanese bantam mix hen.

 

[NatJ]

What would be the best way to introduce Mottling into Malays? All I have is a Blue Mottled Japanese bantam mix hen.

If you don't want to buy any other mottled chickens, cross a Malay to your bantam hen. All F1 chicks must carry the mottling gene.

After that, you've got some choices:
--You can breed F1 chicks to each other, to get about 25% mottled chicks. Pick the most Malay-like of the mottled ones, and cross back to Malay again.

--You can cross an F1 chick back to the mottled hen, to get 50% mottled chicks. Pick the most Malay-like of the mottled ones, and cross back to Malay again.

For either of these, you can just keep repeating the same steps, but after the first time you use a part-Malay bird with mottling rather than the original hen, so you are increasing the amount of Malay in the mottled birds.

--Or you can cross an F1 chick back to Malay, to get 50% that CARRY mottling (but don't show it). Raise a number of these, then test-mate with a known mottled chicken (like their mother) to see which ones carry mottling. Cross one of them back to Malay, again getting 50% that carry mottling and need to be test-mated to see which ones. This requires a lot of test-mating, but may overall be a faster way to get as many Malay genes as possible in a bird that also carries mottling. At some point, cross two mottled-carriers to get ones that actually show mottling.

I've read that mottling is sometimes visible in the juvenile plumage of chickens that carry it, even though it won't show in the adult plumage. If yours do that, you may be able to pick out the carriers of mottling without having to test mate them, which could save a lot of time. From what I remember reading, it was partly determined by what base color the chicken had: I think it showed more on Extended Black than on some of the other e-locus alleles. If you have several colors of Malays, you could try several options and see which (if any) work to let you spot the mottled-carriers as chicks.

 

[MysteryChicken]

If you don't want to buy any other mottled chickens, cross a Malay to your bantam hen. All F1 chicks must carry the mottling gene.

After that, you've got some choices:
--You can breed F1 chicks to each other, to get about 25% mottled chicks. Pick the most Malay-like of the mottled ones, and cross back to Malay again.

--You can cross an F1 chick back to the mottled hen, to get 50% mottled chicks. Pick the most Malay-like of the mottled ones, and cross back to Malay again.

For either of these, you can just keep repeating the same steps, but after the first time you use a part-Malay bird with mottling rather than the original hen, so you are increasing the amount of Malay in the mottled birds.

--Or you can cross an F1 chick back to Malay, to get 50% that CARRY mottling (but don't show it). Raise a number of these, then test-mate with a known mottled chicken (like their mother) to see which ones carry mottling. Cross one of them back to Malay, again getting 50% that carry mottling and need to be test-mated to see which ones. This requires a lot of test-mating, but may overall be a faster way to get as many Malay genes as possible in a bird that also carries mottling. At some point, cross two mottled-carriers to get ones that actually show mottling.

I've read that mottling is sometimes visible in the juvenile plumage of chickens that carry it, even though it won't show in the adult plumage. If yours do that, you may be able to pick out the carriers of mottling without having to test mate them, which could save a lot of time. From what I remember reading, it was partly determined by what base color the chicken had: I think it showed more on Extended Black than on some of the other e-locus alleles. If you have several colors of Malays, you could try several options and see which (if any) work to let you spot the mottled-carriers as chicks.

But, the bantam breeding would probably downsize the offspring. So, to avoid the recessive bantam Dwarfism gene I would have to breed back to the Malays to avoid that. A complication I wanted to avoid, but may have to risk, or make a blue mottled bantam Malay.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I do have Bigfoot, who is a midsized bird, but he has too many things, like fibromelanosis, beard, feathered legs, Five toes, & a crest. But is most likely split for mottling.

I would use him, but he has too many traits to breed out of the offspring.