splash? - Page 2

Using the barred/cuckoo roo should give you all barred babies both male and female in the F1 offspring, but the roos produced from this cross will be heterozygous (one copy of the barring gene). Breed het. roo back to a barred/cuckoo female and you would get all barred offspring. Breeding the het. roo back to a solid hen, one half of the offspring both male and female will carry the barred/cuckoo gene the other half will be solid.
If you don't have a cuckoo female you can breed the females of this F1 cross back to the cuckoo roos and get all barred babies.

If you used a solid roo over a cuckoo hen only the male offspring would be barred as a barred female can only contribute the barring gene to her male offspring.

I believe cuckoo birds are genetically black birds, so with that being said:

Black x Splash = 100 % blue (Cuckoo roo x splash hen = all blue barred offspring,  males being heterozygous)
Black x Blue = 50% blue, 50% black  (Cuckoo roo x blue hen= half black barred offspring and half blue barred offspring, males being het.)
Black x Black= 100 % black (Cuckoo roo x black hen= all black barred offspring, males being het.)

If I have made a mistake.....please someone correct me.   Hope this helps!

For F1s you are assuming that the barred roos have two copies of the gene.  Since we're talking silkies, chances are that they do not, in which case about half the ffspring will inherit barring and about half won't.  There is no gender linkage.

Cuckoo/barring does not require an underlying black bird, although that is most common.  Barring does not show as well on lighter colours.  Blue barred/cuckoo is really pretty.

Yes I was assuming that the barred roos had 2 copies of the gene.....I should have said that, Thank you! I do not work with Silkies  (except for hatching out some silkie cross EE bantams for fun for my mother) I did not know that, it is good to know. I really only experiment with EE's with my barred hens just for fun. It makes my head whirl. 

will white x blue=splash?