That sounds pretty definite!
So if the hens appear to have light skin, and I can see that the chick definitely appears to have dark skin, I guess it comes down to one of the hens actually having the gene for dark skin, or else the chick actually having the gene for light skin. (Or the chick...
That's the one that should be a skin-color sexlink, right? Light skin mother, light skin son?
Definitely puzzling.
Maybe the mother actually had the gene for dark skin but some other gene made her skin look light?
Maybe the son has genetically light skin, but some other gene is making it look...
I'll be curious to see how it looks as it gets older yet.
I see why you think it's a cockerel, but I also see why it "should" be a pullet, so I don't know what it really is :confused: I suppose you can't go by comb color, because that will just be black.
I think we went down this path:
And we've now established that we don't actually know for sure if all Dark Cornish are wheaten based, or if just some of them are, so we're probably back at "don't know" about the chick too.
Rather a roundabout way of going nowhere...
Somewhere a few years ago, I read that the Dark Cornish in Australia are Wheaten based, and there were photos of light wheaten-looking chicks. Unfortunately I can't remember where I found that.
But the chicks I've seen in the USA mostly had stripes that made me think e+
Here is a relatively...
Sorry, I've got too many other things in life that I'm being forced to think about lately :( So I'm short on brainpower for chicken genetic puzzles.
Edit to add: and your puzzles actually take thinking, because you know enough genetics that the things I find obvious are also obvious to you.
Do you mean the bantam variety is the only one they permit? If so, you mean they "accept" it.
Or do you mean the bantam variety is the exception, and all the other forms are in the SOP? (I don't think that's correct, but it is how I first read your sentence.)
In that case, you could look to see which source of Silkies has the traits you want.
Or you could assemble those traits from other breeds. For example, Houdans have a crest and beard and a fifth toe, but not feathered feet or Silkie feathers. I don't know if they have vaulted skulls or not, but...
They both look about the same color to me.
That could mean my screen is not showing the image accurately. Or it could mean they are both actually white. Or it could mean that khaki looks very similar to white, and I haven't learned to recognize the differences. I really don't know which it is...
If the chick has yellow skin, neither parent is PURE for white skin. Both parents might show white skin, but they must both carry the recessive gene for yellow skin, or the chick couldn't have it.
So that would mean Bigfoot has only one copy of the vulture hocks gene, and one copy of not-vulture hocks. He could sire a chick with vulture hocks or without them.
So as a possible father of the oddball chick, I don't think we can rule him out, but we can't prove he is either. That leaves us...
How can Bigfoot have two copies of the Vulture Hocks gene, if one of his parents is a Silkie?
Everything I can find about Silkies says they are not allowed to have Vulture Hocks, and are disqualified in a show if they do have them.
So if the Silkie has no Vulture Hocks gene, then Bigfoot could...
I think that Silkie mother must have the genes for both fibro and not-fibro, and the oddball chick got the not-fibro from the mother and also from its father.
Have you gotten Silkie-mixes that show fibro? If yes, then it shows fibro is dominant gene.
And if fibro is dominant, then a chicken that shows fibro can sometimes carry not-fibro.
When two such chickens are bred together, about 1/4 of their chicks would show not-fibro.
But if you breed a...