I'm an amateur chicken raiser. I began five years ago and this was only the second time I've ever had a standard-sized hen hatch out chicks. (Bantams now...) But I'm also a biology major and I like to think that I have a good understanding of general genetics. The chicks I have do not seem to follow Mendel's laws.
The facts are as follows:
Silkie white is recessive to almost everything and therefore automatically homozygous
Blue chickens have a lavender and a black color allele. Heterozygous, but co-dominant, and you can tell by looking at the chicken what the colors are.
They're her eggs--she lays a very distinctive pale brown, pointed egg.
The silkie is definitely the rooster, as all of the chicks all have some combination of fuzzy legs, six toes, and black skin. The hen has pale skin, five toes, and clean legs.
I should have half blue/lavender chicks and half black chicks, according to everything I've read (this useful site and a few others.) I was rather looking forward to that offspring, really. But what I've got is three chicks that are definitely blue (one has yellow spots on his head, but his plumage, thus far, is blue) and four chicks that are yellowish-brown in color--like slightly paler Rhode Island Red chicks before they get their adult feathers.
So if anyone knows what is happening here, I would really like to know. Thank you for any help.
Silkie hen (she looks like the roosters, but we got rid of them. Ergo, no pictures. And she's dirty, not yellow.)
Blue hen. She looks a little pale in the picture.
Yellow Chick.
Blue chick.
Blurry picture of Crele rooster that is obviously not the father (he throws barred every time)
The facts are as follows:
Silkie white is recessive to almost everything and therefore automatically homozygous
Blue chickens have a lavender and a black color allele. Heterozygous, but co-dominant, and you can tell by looking at the chicken what the colors are.
They're her eggs--she lays a very distinctive pale brown, pointed egg.
The silkie is definitely the rooster, as all of the chicks all have some combination of fuzzy legs, six toes, and black skin. The hen has pale skin, five toes, and clean legs.
I should have half blue/lavender chicks and half black chicks, according to everything I've read (this useful site and a few others.) I was rather looking forward to that offspring, really. But what I've got is three chicks that are definitely blue (one has yellow spots on his head, but his plumage, thus far, is blue) and four chicks that are yellowish-brown in color--like slightly paler Rhode Island Red chicks before they get their adult feathers.
So if anyone knows what is happening here, I would really like to know. Thank you for any help.
Silkie hen (she looks like the roosters, but we got rid of them. Ergo, no pictures. And she's dirty, not yellow.)
Blue hen. She looks a little pale in the picture.
Yellow Chick.
Blue chick.