Somewhere in our EE line their must be a silkie gene. We DID NOT cross our EE with our silkies. We have benn hatching out some EE chicks that have silkie feathering, green legs, beards, and muffs. They have normal skin and toes. We plan to keep every chicks we get and start a breeding program with them. We are going to try and figure out which adult EE's are producing these chicks and keep them together.
So to give a little history, we bought our EE ( at the time we thought Ameracauna as alot of people do) eggs off of ebay. We kept all that hatched this was in the summer of "09". We ended up with 5 roosters and 5 hens. In Jan. of "10" they started laying so we set the eggs to hatch. After we had about 30 chicks we started to sell them. One night while helping a guy pick out some chicks I noticed that one I was holding had "silkied" feathers ( I knew this as I had just saw a post about this situation on an online message board) I very quickly put this bird in another pen and carefully watched all the other that the guy bought. After he left we search threw what was left and yet another silkie feather chick. Now right before this we sold 1 of the roo's and sent 2 others to a friend for him to use with his flock. After that we never got another silkied feather chick. After researching and talking ( threw message boards) with some other people who had this happen, we were under the impression both parents of these chicks had to carry the silkied gene ( kinda upset at this point as we sold a roo) Well a few months later we were at our friends house and he brought out a chick for me quess what it was a silkie feathered EE. So we went threw his brooder and found 2 more ( 3 total). So now we were up to 5 silkie feathered EE. One thing that got me was how did we get the silkied feather chicks if the roosters were breed to unrelated hens????? Well after a few months we lost 4 of them ( ALL pullets) And had one blue with some brassy neck feathers hen left. And she is not that pretty. So by the end of the year she was laying and produced 2 roosters normal feather ( which I keep to breed her back to). We put her in a pen with an unrelated Ameracauna rooster for the winter and started collecting her eggs Jan "11", at least all the chicks would carry the silkied gene ( be normal feathered) and could be bred back to her. To my surprise I have a silkie feathered chick in the brooder now (feb "11") So I guess I will never understand genetics but what the hell I am still getting silkie feathered EE chicks.
So to give a little history, we bought our EE ( at the time we thought Ameracauna as alot of people do) eggs off of ebay. We kept all that hatched this was in the summer of "09". We ended up with 5 roosters and 5 hens. In Jan. of "10" they started laying so we set the eggs to hatch. After we had about 30 chicks we started to sell them. One night while helping a guy pick out some chicks I noticed that one I was holding had "silkied" feathers ( I knew this as I had just saw a post about this situation on an online message board) I very quickly put this bird in another pen and carefully watched all the other that the guy bought. After he left we search threw what was left and yet another silkie feather chick. Now right before this we sold 1 of the roo's and sent 2 others to a friend for him to use with his flock. After that we never got another silkied feather chick. After researching and talking ( threw message boards) with some other people who had this happen, we were under the impression both parents of these chicks had to carry the silkied gene ( kinda upset at this point as we sold a roo) Well a few months later we were at our friends house and he brought out a chick for me quess what it was a silkie feathered EE. So we went threw his brooder and found 2 more ( 3 total). So now we were up to 5 silkie feathered EE. One thing that got me was how did we get the silkied feather chicks if the roosters were breed to unrelated hens????? Well after a few months we lost 4 of them ( ALL pullets) And had one blue with some brassy neck feathers hen left. And she is not that pretty. So by the end of the year she was laying and produced 2 roosters normal feather ( which I keep to breed her back to). We put her in a pen with an unrelated Ameracauna rooster for the winter and started collecting her eggs Jan "11", at least all the chicks would carry the silkied gene ( be normal feathered) and could be bred back to her. To my surprise I have a silkie feathered chick in the brooder now (feb "11") So I guess I will never understand genetics but what the hell I am still getting silkie feathered EE chicks.
Update 07/12/11
I could have not asked for better hatching and luck w/ these birds I have quite a few healthy silkie feathered and carriers growing out. I and happy to say come fall we will be able to sell some chicks!!!!