What color silkie should I get to breed with mille fleur d'Uccle?

[SBFChickenGirl]

Okay, we'll see what happens. I'm afraid I'd end up with a black rooster, would that mess things up? I'd like a mottled chicken with the silkie feathering.

F1 silkie crosses are hard-feathered
@Ruthster55 explained it well using all of the technical terms

 

[4yearsofchickens]

Note that silkie feathering is a recessive gene (h/h).

If you cross a Silkie with a D'Uccle, you will get a normal-feathered chicken that carries one copy of the Silkie feather gene. You could probably breed the offspring to each other to get 25% silkie-feathered, or breed the offspring back to the Silkies to get 50% silkie-feathered.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dominant-and-recessive-genes-feathers.1082509/

The offspring will probably also have feathered legs that looks somewhat like a D'Uccle's legs, but without the requisite vulture hocks of a D'Uccle (v/v).

I believe the overall leg feathering is dominant.

As to color, that all depends on the colors of the Silkies involved.

As mentioned above, it would be best to use mottled Silkies to breed with the D'Ucccles. That is because mottling (mo/mo) is recessive.

Check to see whether your relative thinks D'Uccles are cute and if they would like some crosses between Silkies and D'Uccles. They sound awfully cute!!!!

Thanks that was helpful! I do understand recessive/dominant and I knew that the mottled gene was recessive. I was planning on doing silkie x mille fleur, then offspring x silkie and offspring x offspring. Then I would do (offspring x silkie) x (offspring x offspring). Would that produce some with mille fleur coloring with silkie feathering in that batch? (I know each chick would probably be a little different) Or would I end up with genetic monsters at that point?

 

[4yearsofchickens]

I should clarify again that I plan to buy from mypetchicken.com because I am getting such a small amount of birds (6). They don't carry mottled silkies. I was going to get 3 assorted color silkie and 3 mfd. Them go with breeding from there.

 

[4yearsofchickens]

@Ruthster55 does this look right or am I off my rocker?

 

[Ruthster55]

Thanks that was helpful! I do understand recessive/dominant and I knew that the mottled gene was recessive. I was planning on doing silkie x mille fleur, then offspring x silkie and offspring x offspring. Then I would do (offspring x silkie) x (offspring x offspring). Would that produce some with mille fleur coloring with silkie feathering in that batch? (I know each chick would probably be a little different) Or would I end up with genetic monsters at that point?

It gets a little complicated when you're dealing with more than just 2 or 3 traits. You get stuff like 81-box Punnett squares or even worse, 256-box squares!

If you order from MPC, you probably won't be able to get mottled Silkies. You won't see mottling in the progeny unless you use a mottled Silkie.

For some of the other traits ----

Feathering:
D'Uccle - probably H/H unless there is a bit of Silkie mixed in - normal feathers
Silkie - h/h - floof
F1's - Offspring will have normal feathers. - all of them will be H/h
F2's - If you want totally cute, I would recommend mating the offspring back to the Silkies. That way, you can get 50% of the F2's with silkied feathers. If you just bred the offspring to each other, you would only get 25% with silkied feathers.

Vulture Hocks (from the D'Uccles):
D'Uccle - v/v - has vulture hocks
Silkie - V/V or V/v - no vulture hocks
Breeders generally try to eliminate vulture hocks in Silkies, so the Silkies are most likely to be V/V. Although with MPC or any other hatchery, who knows?
F1's - there should be no vulture hocks visible in the F1's, as long as the Silkie is homozygous for no-vulture hocks.
F2's - This is another case where I would recommend mating the offspring back to the Silkies. If the Silkie is homozygous no-vulture hocks (V/V), and you mate it to the offspring which are heterozygotes V/v, you will get 50% V/V and 50% heterozygotes V/v. You shouldn't see vulture hocks. They are a recessive gene from the D'Uccle which you probably don't really want in the offspring unless you think they're really cute or something.

Mottled:
D'Uccle - mo/mo - mottled
Silkie - Mo/Mo or Mo/mo - not mottled
Offspring if the Silkie is heterozygous for mottling which is Mo/mo:
25% Mo/Mo - 50% Mo/mo - 25% mo/mo -
If the Silkie is homozygous (2 copies) non-mottled, you won't get any mottled F1's.

Leg Feathering:
D'Uccle - Pti/Pti or Pti/pti
Silkie - Pti/Pti or Pti/pti

The F1's will either all be wearing pants! (Pti is ptilopody, and it's usually dominant), or if the Silkie and D'Uccle are both heterozygotes, 75% will be feather-footers and 25% clean-legged.
The F2's should mostly be wearing pants as well, but you would need to give away any clean-legged offspring that result.

 

[Ruthster55]

@Ruthster55 does this look right or am I off my rocker? View attachment 2417478

The Silkie feathering is recessive - h/h
Mottling in the D'Uccle is recessive - mo/mo
Vulture Hocks in the D'Uccle are recessive - v/v
Leg Feathering in both the Silkie and D'Uccle is dominant - Pti/Pti or Pti/pti

Because you will be mating a mottled bird to a non-mottled, the non-mottled will prevail, unless the Silkie is heterozygous for mottling. In that case, you will get 50% non-mottled and 50% mottled. If the Silkie is homozygous non-mottled, you will get 100% heterozygotes for mottling.

I would only mate the F1's back to the D'Uccle if you really wanted mottled birds. The reason is the other factors noted above. You could wind up with a lot of normal-feathered birds with vulture hocks!

I have Punnett squares written, but I need to go lock up the chickens now...

 

[Ruthster55]

P.S. What colors of Silkies do YOU like?

This page helps with D'Uccle genetics and colors - http://www.edelras.nl/belgians/genetics.htm

 

[4yearsofchickens]

The Silkie feathering is recessive - h/h
Mottling in the D'Uccle is recessive - mo/mo
Vulture Hocks in the D'Uccle are recessive - v/v
Leg Feathering in both the Silkie and D'Uccle is dominant - Pti/Pti or Pti/pti

Because you will be mating a mottled bird to a non-mottled, the non-mottled will prevail, unless the Silkie is heterozygous for mottling. In that case, you will get 50% non-mottled and 50% mottled. If the Silkie is homozygous non-mottled, you will get 100% heterozygotes for mottling.

I would only mate the F1's back to the D'Uccle if you really wanted mottled birds. The reason is the other factors noted above. You could wind up with a lot of normal-feathered birds with vulture hocks!

I have Punnett squares written, but I need to go lock up the chickens now...

Okay thanks! I think I understand...

 

[4yearsofchickens]

P.S. What colors of Silkies do YOU like?

This page helps with D'Uccle genetics and colors - http://www.edelras.nl/belgians/genetics.htm

I like the lighter colored ones. Thanks for the link! I will study it.

 

[Ruthster55]

I like the lighter colored ones. Thanks for the link! I will study it.

The results might be really interesting if you got a Splash silkie, a Paint Silkie, and a blue Silkie and mated them with the d’Uccles.

Try searching for Paint Silkies and www.vjppoultry.com