The article at BrownEggBlueEgg.com by Dr. W. F. Hollander Silkie Genetics lists several of the Silkie breed's genes. Many poultry fanciers give this double-mating question some hard knocks, but we have only the Club Standards to blame. The main identifier is in the feather pattern: Each feather has three distinct pencil lines that are even and straight. The eye color calculator uses Mendelian genetics to calculate the probability of inheriting certain phenotypes (in this case, eye color) from parents. It is important that the crest DOES NOT obscure the vision of the fowl. For example the mahogany colored Rhode Island Red. Grey Silkie colour genetics - eb/eb S S pg+/pg+ or Pg/pg+ (Cha/Cha)Once again, the undesirable black crest can be attributed to the presence of Cha. Your experiences may be different to mine. WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY LIABILITY ARISING FORM SUCH ERRORS, OMISSIONS, LOST OF DATA, INTERRUPTIONS OR DELAYS OR ANY ONGOING OBLIGATION OR RESPONSIBILITY TO OPERATE THIS WEBSITE OR IN THE PROVISION OF ITS SERVICES. In fact, much of the brown pigment can be buffed off with a common kitchen (plastic) scrubbing sponge and warm soapy water. This gene allows beak and sometimes plumage pigmentation in dominant white homozygotes. About 1/4 of the chicks they produced were whites. If you breed a solid color rooster to a cuckoo hen, only the . What will I get if I cross my splash roo with my white hen? Research to date indicates that i+/IS heterozygotes express more the wild-type phenotype with respect to this gene indicating a recessive character with respect to the wild-type. (US & Worldwide Statistics in 2023). BANTAM eb/eb s+/s+ Pg/Pg Mh/Mh Db/Db or Db/db+ and recessive black, STANDARD eWh/eWh Pg/pg+ or pg+/pg+ Mh/Mh Db/Db and recessive black. For example, more than ten genes influence eye color! Extended black, hackle, shoulder and saddle of the males may leak groundcolor (eg red) depending on unknown absent genes. It may not display this or other websites correctly. In practice one would not number the genes as I have done in this paragraph. Red Silkie colour genetics - BANTAM eb/eb s+/s+ Pg/Pg Mh/Mh Db/Db or Db/db+ and recessive black. Well while the impure ones will look a little dirtier and perhaps even show a gold feather or 2 in the hackle and tail or shoulder ,the only way you can be sure he is pure is by progeny testing your cock bird. Learn more. the cock, remembering the hen passes nothing on to her daughters from the sex chromosome).The cock birds on the other hand can carry both silver and gold because they receive the gene for silver or gold of both the mother and the father. According to the American Poultry Association (APA), Silkies are only accepted in six colors: white, black, blue, buff, partridge, and splash. Dominant alleles are superior in terms of strength - if a dominant allele is present, the trait it carries will always be visible. Inhibits black pigment, eumalanin. The White Silkie is one of the most common Silkie variations available, and like all Silkies, they have a black face and skin. In the cockerel breeding pen of any variety the male will be a tip-top show specimen and his mates females that are not show birds, but merely breeders likely to throw high-class cockerels when mated to the exhibition male.The pullets from this mating will, of course, be " duds " and not fit for show purposes. Silkies can have a beard and associated muffs. 'If you are a masochist, raise buffs as there is a lot of culling involved.If you are a die hard for punishment, raise partridge as this is one of the hardest patterns and colours to get right.Greys are a patterned bird; blues are essentially solid coloured.Grey is partridge with silver rather than gold. Oh my gosh that was way more than I can understand! The white eggshell colour is due to an absence of blue and brown, and perhaps some modifying factors (genes), since there are different shades of white. Now the dominant silver gene and its recessive Allele gold, are located on the sex chromosome of the fowl (along with at least a dozen other genes) and the hen passes nothing on to her daughters from the sex chromosome, so she can only pass on this silver or gold gene to her sons. The Na allele is associated with increased tolerance for heat, which is probably due to the 30% reduction in overall plumage for heterozygotes and 40% for homozygotes. na+ - Recessive, wild-type gene. both my showgirl and rooster are mostly white with a couple small black patches. Here's a short list of rules to follow: The blood type inheritance makes a good example of a trait that is perfect to use in the Punnett square calculator. His partner is healthy, and has no traces of the disease in their family. This time though you will get some pure as well as impure silver cockerels. The Partridge Silkie is a difficult variation to perfect, however. So if white is a dominant color, if I have a white pair, (not knowing background) they should always produce white chicks? You are using an out of date browser. It causes a structure abnormality in the feather and abnormalities of internal organs (enlarged heart, spleen, gizzard and alimentary canal) are common. Click to expand. In the diagram above, "A" shows a vaulted skull, whereas "B" shows a normal skull. Roosters get a bit of gold or silver in their hackles at about 1.5 years of age as they are rarely on extended black. Sometimes referred to as triple comb. es -Males: black breast and abdomen; non-black hackle, saddle and wings. It is difficult to breed the black out of buffs, so only buff varieties should be bred together to achieve the breed standard. Melanin, which affects hair color, is of two types: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Db more powerful on males. Recessive. I noticed that combining white with black will produce white. They are perfect for diluting the dark mahogany colour that comes from breeding brown red to brown red for long periods of time. There are only 7 recognized colors of Silkies; buff, blue, black, splash, partrige, gray, and of course white. (Autosomal inheritance means that described genes are located on regular chromosomes [1-22], and not sex chromosomes [X,Y]). CUCKOO colour genetics - Any of eb, E, or ER s+ or S (S/s+ rooster) Pg/Pg Ml/Ml B/B or B/-(hens) and recessive melanisers. Because the female fowl have differing sex chromosomes, the long one, Z, and the short one, W, the Z chromosome has gene locations that the W chromosome does not. In this situation, 100% of babies will be born healthy. For example, if a child has a dark-hair allele and a light-hair allele, the hair will be dark. Most white silkies have the recessive white gene instead of the dominant white gene. Chromosomes contain genes that are responsible for the sex of the child, eye color, hair color, personality traits, and many other things that make us unique. This article was updated on December 28, 2022. If perfected, they make for one of the most beautiful Silkie variations. Chickens are social animals and they will become your friends. Silkie genetics work like all other poultry color genetics. I have only ever seen them in white. This usually means that it requires inbreeding to correctly propagate, resulting in birds with poor feather quality and overall weak genetics. The reason some don't appear to be gold or silver is they have other colours super-imposed on them. Confusing can be that wildtype colored males are often called "Black breasted Red". This year I am focusing on achieving the black breast on the males.Partridge Silkie colour genetics - eb/eb s+ Pg/Pg (Cha/Cha)The common fault of partridge silkies having a black crest can be attributed to the Cha (Charcoal) gene. Didn't find what you need? I have a splash roo and a white hen and a black "hen". The genes of the green egg layer are (O, O) with (Br, Br) assuming the locations of the blue and brown genes are not the same. Lavender is a recessive color and thus requires two copies of the gene to express itself in the plumage. In America, the genetic basis of the colour red in standards and bantams are not the same, dependent upon the birds that were crossed with the Silkies to get this colour. As things are at present, double-mating is necessary in many breeds, and I leave it at that. So, can we predict babys hair color? The pure silver is a much more pleasant colour to look at. Unknown amount of Columbian like Restriction. This article was updated on March 12, 2023. The same neighbor that bought the show quality grays also bought a Partridge rooster. This is generally considered to be an inferior trait particularly since the autosomal white skin does not have these side effects on yolk colour. The expression of silver is sometimes affected by hormonal levels and is considered to be incompletely dominant and highly influenced by modifying genes. Lethal in homozygous state. Here as before, I will use the fictitious symbol "Br" to represent brown eggshell genes. Hide Genotypes Use the search! In order to breed for a trait that will useful for sexing day-old chicks, the trait must be visible in the hatchling. The blue eggshell pigment, oocyanin, is a by-product of bile formation and is present throughout the eggshell.The eggshell colour genes interact in the following way. Lack of breda comb-less trait. The barring gene is on the long chromosome and not the short one, so therefore a female can have only one copy of the barring gene (always). Alleles can be dominant (main) and recessive (suppressed by the dominant version). We can use this concept when both of those alleles are dominant (AA). This is what anyone breeding silver fowls should be aiming to do (that is to breed only pure silver offspring) that way you don't get any wasters, (i.e. For example, lets consider a cross between a bird that has two frizzle genes, homozygous for frizzle, (F, F) and one that is without frizzle, (f+, f+). NOTE: Too many differing loci between parents is very time and CPU demanding (client PC)! Also feel free to copy the different genes off the images to get pure breeds to begin on in the calculator! OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there! The blue eggshell gene, O, expresses if it is present which is why it is considered to be dominant. There is a 25% chance (1/4) of giving birth to a child with cystic fibrosis. The silkie feathers are caused by a recessive gene, so crossing two pure Silkies should NEVER produce a bird with normal feathers. My personal experience with eggshell colour makes me believe that this genetics picture of eggshell colour is oversimplified (there are certainly more than one gene for brown eggshell colour. Check out 3 similar genetics calculators . That means all hens are either gold or silver. An increase in embryonic mortality of up to 10% is attributed to Na. The Leghorn is (o, o) with (br, br) for eggshell colour (white). A side effect of the presence of Mb is a reduced wattle size. All chickens have a ground colour, either Gold, Silver or in rare cases Albino (actually the absence of any colour pigments in the body). Colours of Silkie recognised for competitive showing includeblack, blue, buff, grey,partridge, andwhite.Alternative hues, such as cuckoo, lavender, red, and splash also exist. Long and stiff feathers on the posterior area of the tibia. What the chicken looks like (due to the combined action of the color genes). On eb based buffs its very hard to breed out the black, while on eWh the birds can tend to be white undercolour. Help, basics This the wildtype groundcolor. A Cuckoo Silkie varies from lavender to navy blue in color, with subtle barring throughout their plumage. The dominant white gene needs to be introduced from another breed, such as white leghorn.Naked neck Silkies, usually know as Showgirls, are not currently an official Silkie variety in the ABA, or APA standards. Not in my case, it produced black. The combination of idM, E and I produces a pale blue or green colour by about three months of age. For a gallery of Silkie and showgirl chicken images. My understanding at present is that the locations of the brown eggshell genes are not known and it is not known how many brown modifying genes there are or where they are in relationship to the genes of known locations. Mottle causes a white tip at the distal end (end farthest from the skin) of the feather. On top of its groundcolor a chicken can have a (diluted) black/eumelanin based pattern, like stippling, pencilling, lacing, etc What the chicken looks like (due to the combined action of the color genes). My personal experience with eggshell colour genetics leads me to believe it is more complex than this. Generally not as efficient at producing a solid white bird as are two copies of recessive white. This gene is leaky and will allow black specks through. impure silver cockerels.) 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