Blue hen + dom white roo with red leakage

[Cloverr39]

Okay so once again I'm back with my silkie color generics questions. My rooster is dominant white with lots of red leakage. Hes still pretty young though, so maybe he'll change a little as he grows. I will mainly be breeding him with my black hens and my one cuckoo but I do have one blue hen. Blue silkies are a bit harder to come across in my area. Honestly her quality isn't as good as I would want it to be, but maybe I'll breed her to a really nice black rooster just to keep the blue going. I plan on getting good quality black silkie eggs next year and hopefully I'll hatch out at least 1 roo and 1 hen. But let's get to the point.

1) What would I get by crossing my dominant white (with leakage) rooster to a blue hen? (I don’t know is he has 1 or 2 copies of white so chicks will either all have it or half of them will).

2) Will all chicks be guaranteed to have leakage or is there even a chance they won't get red/gold leakage? (This question applies to all my hens and not just the blue one).

3) If I kept the blue hen and bred her to the black rooster I (hopefully) hatch next year could the shade of blue lighten? My blue hen is pretty dark and I'd like for the blue to be lighter. I've heard that blue+blue creates a darker blue after a couple generations.

4) About the cuckoo hen. If I bred the cuckoo to my dom white rooster what would I get? I'm guessing the chicks probably won't be cuckoo. Could they carry it? And what color would they be? The same as breeding black to white?

Those are all my questions for now. I have included photos of my rooster. I can also show photos of my pullets if needed.
He is 27 weeks/6 months old.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

1) What would I get by crossing my dominant white (with leakage) rooster to a blue hen? (I don’t know is he has 1 or 2 copies of white so chicks will either all have it or half of them will).

As you pointed out, either all of them will inherit dominant white or half of them will. The ones who inherit dominant white most likely will have red leakage show through, and may have either blue or black flecks depending on if they inherit a blue gene from their mother. The ones without dominant white will be either blue or black with varying amounts of red or gold color leakage.

2) Will all chicks be guaranteed to have leakage or is there even a chance they won't get red/gold leakage? (This question applies to all my hens and not just the blue one).

I don't think it's a guarantee necessarily, but I think it's pretty high odds that they will all have some amount of red or gold show through in their adult feathering. Hopefully someone pops in to correct me if I'm wrong on that thought.

3) If I kept the blue hen and bred her to the black rooster I (hopefully) hatch next year could the shade of blue lighten? My blue hen is pretty dark and I'd like for the blue to be lighter. I've heard that blue+blue creates a darker blue after a couple generations.

It's the opposite of what you said, breeding Blue to Blue has a sort of amplification effect on the diluter, so the resulting Blues each generation get lighter, not darker. Breeding Blue to Black is supposed to reverse that and make darker blues again. If you want to lighten your blues, you need to get a Blue or a Splash male to breed with your Blue hen.

4) About the cuckoo hen. If I bred the cuckoo to my dom white rooster what would I get? I'm guessing the chicks probably won't be cuckoo. Could they carry it? And what color would they be? The same as breeding black to white?

The barring gene that causes the cuckoo pattern is sexlinked, so your Cuckoo hen can only pass that to her sons. So all male offspring will have one copy of the barring gene and none of the female offspring will inherit the gene. Otherwise, yes, it would be the same as breeding him to a Black hen; either all white with red/gold leakage and black flecks, or half that and half black with leakage, depending on how many dominant white genes he has. All the male offspring will have barring on any non-white feathering they have.