Frizzle gene

[Jean]

Does anyone know if somewhere way back when, if there could be frizzle genes in the ameraucana lines?  Is it possible for this gene to appear out of the blue?

Someone just posted a picture of some splash birds they hatched from a breeder that appear to be frizzled (silkie).  The original breeder does not know where it came from either.

Thanks,

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

I\'m confused.   Silkie is not frizzle - it\'s two seperate phenotypes.    Years ago Jerry Segler had silkie feathered large fowl hatch from his Silver Ameraucanas, but that\'s the only case I know of.   Never heard of a frizzle Ameraucana, but then random spontaneous mutations can occur on very rare occasions..

[Jean]

Sorry, Mike, I am not familiar with the correct terms.  If you go to this page you can see a picture of what I mean:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=98335

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

They do have silkie feathers.   It would be interesting to know who sold the owner the hatching eggs so we could inquire as to the background on his/her stock.    The silkie feathering gene is recessive (unlike frizzle which is dominant) so could potentially be carried in a line of birds for many years until two birds are mated that both carry the gene for it.    Same principle as getting single combs from two rose comb Wyandottes for example, which frequently occurs.    There are reports of silkie feathered colored egg chickens in South America, where some of the ancestors of  Ameraucanas came from.   Please let us know if you are able to learn any more information about these birds, and thanks for the report.

[Guest]

Hi!  I am the owner of the two silkie ameraucanas above.  I\'m glad jean posted my question while I was waiting to get registered.  

I have contacted the breeder that I got the eggs from to see if she can give me more information about her breeding stock.

I\'ll let you know what I can find out.

I didn\'t realize how rare my chickens were, until I posted the picture.  

[John]

They are novel Easter Eggers really...not Ameraucanas.  Some Silkie owners like to cross their Silkes with almost every breed out there.  Why, I don\'t know.  They must like the unusual.  
When the Easter Eggers first came on the scene they where crossed with just about everything also.
It reminds me of the so-called new breeds of dogs.  They cross two breeds and call the result a new breed and they can become a recognized breed with enough support for it.

[Guest]

Yes, I understand that these chickens don\'t fit the standard, and there is definitely something in their genetics to cause the silkie gene to surface.

I was surprised that there were not more like them around.  I got quite a reaction to posting the picture, which made me very curious to see what I could learn about them.

[Guest]

I received a little more information from the breeder about the chickens.  

She has two pens of Ameraucanas.  One pen is Blue/Black/Splash which she bought the eggs from jean about a year ago.  The other pen is Blue/Splash which she got from a lady named Pat in Josephine, TX about three years ago.

I bought the eggs from her Blue/Splash pen on eggbid last spring, so the eggs are not from jean, but from the other pen.

This person says she has never owned Silkies and has not crossed them with her birds.   She says she has hatched many of her own eggs and has never seen the sillkie feathering come of her eggs, nor has anyone she sold eggs to ever told her about having silkie feathered chickens.  She was amazed when I sent her the picture of my chickens.

So I still don\'t know where the silkie gene came from, but was able to narrow it down a little further.