What color will I get.

[Nimueh Alene]

I'm breeding a cuckoo silked serama cockerel over a koi / tri colored silked feathered and partridge colored silked feathered hen. Will the cuckoo color dominate or will I get a variety of colors from this trio.
I have 2 mottled silked feathered pullets, 1 brown and white and 1 black and white ,that I want to add to that pen eventually.. What will they produce cuckoo and mottled?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have a clue what a koi / tri colored silked feathered hen looks like or what genetics are involved so no idea with her.

Cuckoo involves three conditions. You gave to have a barred gene, which is dominant. You will see its effects if it is present. That is the easy one.

Cuckoo are typically black. There are different genetic ways to make black. A common one is the extended black gene which is dominant over many other genes but there can be other genes that modify extended black and change it to other colors. But you can also get black with other genetic combinations which may or may not be dominant. You cannot tell by looking at a black bird what is making them black.

The third one is the fast feathering genetics. The speed the feather grows determines if it is sharp crisp barring or that scattered cuckoo pattern. The slow feathering gene, which is dominant causes crisp sharp barring like a good Barred Rock should have. The recessive fast feathering gene causes that irregular cuckoo pattern.

"Pure" means that both genes at that gene pair are the same. "Mixed" means they are different. If your Cuckoo cockerel is pure for barring all his offspring will be barred. If he is mixed at that gene about half will be barred, male and female. If he is pure for what is making him black most of the time that will override anything partridge has to offer so the offspring should be black. The fast-slow feathering gen is tricky. For the cockerel to be cuckoo he has to have two fast feathering genes at that gene pair. If the hen has a fast-feathering gene then all barred chicks will have the cuckoo pattern. That fast-slow gene is sex linked though. The hen will give what she has to her sons and will not give what she has to her daughters. If the hen has the dominant slow-feathering gene her sons will be crisp barred while her daughters will be cuckoo. There is no telling what any of your hens have.

With those Silked feathers in the mix I'd question just how pure any of your chickens are. Silkies are notorious for being mixed. If they are mixed you can get a rainbow of colors and patterns when you hatch any of them.

If they are all pure for the relevant genetics, a cuckoo male over any of those females (other than koi) should give you black cuckoo or black barred chicks. They will not be mottled. You will likely see some leakage from some of those chicks. That means a few random feathers of a different than expected color could show up, in your case probably red but white is possible. But basically they should be black.

The mottling gene is a recessive gene. The chick would have to get a copy of that gene from both parents to show mottling. They will get a mottling gene from those mottled hens but will not from their father so mottling will not show in this generation.

Basically the only way to be sure is to hatch some. Should be exciting to see what you get.

 

[Nimueh Alene]

So silked feathered Serama are mixed? With what? All mine are yellow shanks and 4 toes, white skins and single comb. So why was I charged so much for them from the breeder? Was told it was a rare?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I may have misunderstood the term "silked? I assumed it meant Silkies. If it has some other meaning then there is probably no reason to believe yours are mixed.

The rest still holds.

 

[Nimueh Alene]

Thank you.. So the just of it is. If I use the cuckoo male, I'll have a flock of black or barred serama .Well I well make the most of it and bred those colors to SOP. And look for a non barred or mottled silked feathered Serama rooster .

 

[Amer]

Most likely you will have leaky barred chicks. The male chicks will only be single barred.