What the "bleep" is a "frosted"

[iajewel]

I was contected about my silkies.. Cuckoo Silkies if that helps and the person ask if I have "frosted" I know we live in the age of "designer" dogs, birds etc.. but Im lost.. what is "frosted"?

 

[ravencreek]

Maybe this will help....Look at the LAST bird.

http://www.windchyme.com/Images/Chickens/Non Standard Silkies/index.htm

 

[chickenfanatic]

wowwww frosted now theres a new one to me i dont blame you for freaking out hahaha.

 

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

Wow thats really nice acctually. Like a splash color but with bars.

 

[Vcomb]

judgin by that pic frosteds will only be roosters because what that rooster is is a cuckoo silkie with two genes for cuckoo. I refer to this as "double cuckoo" and I've also heard it called "silver cuckoo"

 

[Smoky73]

Must be the same person that contacted me about silkies, and she mentioned "frosted" as well.

 

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

Quote:
How do you get double cuckoo genes into one bird?

 

[Vcomb]

Quote:
How do you get double cuckoo genes into one bird?

it happens in roosters only. hens will only have 1 gene for cuckoo or no gene for cuckoo. roosters can have 1, 2 or none. if none they aren't barred. the darker cuckoos have only 1 gene. to get it you breed a cuckoo roo to a cuckoo hen.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

All chickens have two copies of every gene, one on each chromosome of a chromosome pair. EXCEPT for the sex chromosome pair.

Males have two Z chromosomes; females have one Z chromosome and one W chromosome. The Z chromosome is longer than the W chromosome, and thus contains genes that are not on the W. Think of it like this:

Z --------------------------------------------
W ---------------------------------

The genes that are on Z but not on W are the sex-linked genes.

Theoretically, any sex-linked gene could be used to create sex-linked offspring, but many are impractical because the trait is not apparent or doesn't develop until the bird is older.

The two genes most commonly used to create sex-links are silver and barring. If you breed a hen carrying the dominant allele to a cock carrying two copies of the recessive allele the offspring will be visually different at hatching.

With silver, S- + ss gives Ss sons and s- daughters. With barring, B- + bb gives Bb sons and b- daughters.

If you take the sex-linked males and try to re-create the link, you would have
Ss + S- and have SS, Ss, S- & s- offspring
or
Bb + B- and have BB, Bb, B- & b- offspring

When a hen creates an egg, she gives it a single set of chromosomes built from all the genes she carries. If she gives it a Z chromosome, the egg could develop into a son; if she gives it a W chromosome, the egg could develop into a daughter. When a cock fertilizes the egg, he gives it a single set of chromosomes built from all the genes he carries. He always supplies a Z chromosome.

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
He is a single gened cuckoo, I know because I bred him. I am having the hardest time reliably coming up with them though. Am working on that now though.

Windchyme