Pastel Silkie Pullet #2

Here's the scoop.... I have 2 of these off-color silkie pullets. I will be listing separate auctions for each one. I can combine shipping if you get both. My farm is NPIP #1058 and has a hatchery permit from the state of MN.

Both of these girls were hatched last June/July which puts them at 9-10 months old right now. They have been in a group pen this winter and are not in perfect condition any more... foot feathers are worn and crests have been picked at. I will include pics taken today and from a few months ago too when they were still in full feather. Both of these girls were laying for the last couple months and recently went broody. They weren't exactly cooperative for pics today. They will be bathed and be free of any external parasites. Both birds were shown last fall as AOV's: porcelain & blue fawn. These are not the true 'porcelains' which are lavendar diluted mille fleur. They are crop-outs from blue/splash pen. Not exactly sure what genetics are responsible here.

In true auction spirit, I'll start each of these birds at $1. Shipping and a new Horizon box will be a set $65. If you win both of my auctions, I can combine shipping for an additional $5 ($70 total). I accept Paypal, check, or MO. I will ship after payment is received and weather is permissible on both ends. I am NPIP and am tested for PT only. AI testing is not required here in MN. If your state requires additional testing or a CVI, then we can work something out. I don't vaccinate for Mareks, Coryza, etc. I do use Frontline & Ivermectin on my birds though.

On this second auction, the pullet wears wingband #288. She has darker skin compared to her sister. Toes are decent, but some webbing between 4/5th toes.

Here are the pics taken today:







Here she is with her sister in a bit different lighting:




Here are some pics of them taken back in December. Obviously they were in better feather condition then.

I have two 'sisters' to these pullets. I can tell that they are out of condition, because the crests and cushions on mine, which looked similar int he younger pictures, are much larger. I'm betting the type and fluff on these girls is much better than it appears to be int he most recent photos. Gotta love what breeding does to the girls!
Here are some pictures of one of mine from January, unbathed and unfluffed, pulled right from the pen, to give you an idea of what these girls look like when dirty but not out of condition from the breeding pen.

These girls are definitely out of condition. After accidentally incubating a few of their eggs, I realized that I HAVE to get them out of my breeding pens now. They are now acting very broody in the last week. The commotion of a bath, staying in the house all week, and a roadtrip will hopefully break them of that. I don't do AOV's and they just got left. My splash pen was producing a bunch of these last year.

Here is another of their full sisters that was raised by Hannah Misner from PA:





For the heck of it I kept these 2 girls back just to see what they would turn out like. This is what they looked like as chicks:


At about 3-4 months of age they looked like this:





I have no idea what is going on for genetics here.... Originally they were were birds from Bobbi Porto in 2007 and now they are 2-3rd generation birds from them. Some were from very notable lines, but most of them were apparently split to lavendar. In 2008-2009 I was getting lavendars out of that same pen. See below for a pic of one of those babies. I switched cocks and saved back the best splash cockerel from 2009. All through 2010 I was getting a few of thes pastel looking birds. The rooster who fathered these has already been disposed of and the rest of those girls are going to be replaced too.

G'morning!!!
I definitely agree with you Jen and that was why I was very clear on this in my initial description. There are too many people out there just assigning that name to this coloration in silkies. Porcelain already has a defined description. In the 2001 standard of perfection for APA it is on page 286 and a pic on page 294. If you read the definition, its nothing close to what some people are calling some of their birds. If you want to just make up a name (like I'm sure George & Suze originally did with Isabel), it can't already have a defined color pattern in the standard. It would be like one of us showing some polka dotted chicken as a silver laced. Any educated judge should be disqualifying that bird. It may look kind of like that, but it doesn't fit the standard and probably doesn't breed true like it should. That same person could have showed the bird in AOV as polka dotted and at least got a BV instead of a DQ then.

I think Eric rubbed off on me.....

As for these pastels, they are pretty pets. I haven't bred them to another 'pastel' to see if they breed true or not. I do know that when bred to buff, I was getting some pretty wierd colors popping up. Buffs so light that they looked like cremepuffs, white chicks with dark dots on their backs.....

I did a little searching.... To get true porcelain, the lavendar gene has to be present. I found this chart:

♥ PORCELAIN x PORCELAIN = PORCELAIN
♥ PORCELAIN x MILLE FLEUR = MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER
♥ MILLE FLEUR x MILLE FLEUR = MILLE FLEUR
♥ PORCELAIN x MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER = ½ MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER + ½ PORCELAIN
♥ MILLE FLEUR x MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER = ½ MILLE FLEUR + ½ MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER
♥ MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER x MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER = ½ MILLE FLEUR split to LAVENDER + ¼ MILLE FLEUR + ¼ PORCELAIN


With these 'pastels', I believe there is something more going on. Might be lavendar somewhere in the background. Why the faint striping on the chicks...doesn't that indicate partridge/grey? I know Jen did a cross to a straight lavendar cock too. If these birds are truly lavendar based, why were lavendars not thrown in the chicks? I don't get the red on the wings either. Normally autosomal red shows up mainly on males. Its why I'm offering these girls up..... I don't want to tackle this project. The recognized colors are enough work for me.

Your porcelain are beautiful!!

Quote:
Here's a question for you... Wouldn't some people consider the "white chicks with dark dots on their backs", a "paint" silkie? Sorry totally off topic, but when I read what you wrote, that's what popped into my head. Despite their odd coloring, your girls are still very pretty... I love the odd ball colors

The white chicks with black spots on their back at hatch that I have gotten have feathered in blue or blue partridge.

Just home from work and grabbed the camera... I have some of these chicks still in one of the sale pens. If I can't get rid of them sooner, I'm taking them to a local swap on May 7th. I don't plan on watching them feather out to maturity.

I warned you that I am getting quite a rainbow just from a cross on a buff cock.

Here are some of the 'cremepuffs'.... the extremely light buff. They look almost white, but its a very pale buff. Skin tone on these is also a greyish.





There are some of these that are a very dilute muted bluish color.



I've got buff with stripes.....




White with stripes.....






Buff with black polka dots....



White with black polka dots...



Some feather out to look like they might have just a hint of pencilling on the wingtips like a grey/partridge. Other are more of a smoky color.