Paint Project

[Fur N Feathers]

More Paint x Lavender = lavender chick and two Paint x Blue Partridge = ? Paint x Blue Partridge = Blue/Red partridge? Never had a silkie chick with this down color. I'm very curious how it will color out.

I think FancyChookLady calls this color red partridge.

 

[MumsyII]

I think FancyChookLady calls this color red partridge.

I'm really hoping this chick will have a lot of red over blue. It is unlike any other hatched yet. Male or female, it's one I'm keeping around for a while.

 

[MumsyII]

Chicks still hatching in a staggered fashion. The last couple dozen eggs under hens and in the incubator are from a Lavender, Partridge, and my best recessive white pullet. Most of the White's eggs have been blank. Dapper Dan just is not much interested in her. Today four chicks hatched. Two lavender and two paint. He has been giving me 50/50. Amazing.

They are proving difficult to take good images of with my digital camera and house or flash lighting. To my eyes, the lavenders are mostly self blue but there are dark smudges on their heads and necks that only really show up in the pictures with subdued light. The flash on the camera washes them out.



In these pictures, the two paints look creamy but they are white white with spots and smudges.



The two paints from this hatch are very different from each other. One has black legs and beak and one has light skin with black patches.


I have a hunch about the chicks with the light beak and feet. I think they are males.


The toes of this chick in this pic alarmed me so I went and looked at them again. They aren't crooked. Just a weird angle.


One of the lavender chicks has what looks like dun coloring on head and neck in this image.

But in different light it is lighter.


Lavender #2 is a smaller chick with a big vaulted skull. Really cute.


I think it may be another lavender/paint/splash.

So far out of five batches of eggs covered by Dapper Dan: Ten paints, ten partridge, five lavender, and five blue. I'm thinking some of them will be splash but I won't know for a while. Twenty eggs left in the incubator due next week. The last three paints are not as loud as some of the others and kind of smudge-y. I'm wondering what they will turn out like. Some of the loudest paints are by my bantam RIR. The partridge chicks are all over the place in colors. The lavender chicks have me very curious.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

I have a new paint baby. A cute little thing but minimal middle toe feathering (it has a couple of tiny little fuzz feathers at the top of that toe) which I am disappointed in, since I pride myself in my flock with normally pretty extreme in the foot feathering. It has one large loud spot then several smaller spots on the other side. This first shot is pretty blurry but shows the vault the best.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

Here is the "teenager" paint baby. Check out those feet! Feathers on all five toes.

 

[Zoofee]

What does the chipmunk coloring turn into? I have one of those right now. Here is my rooster:

 

[Zoofee]

Also, my paint chicks are often born white and then develop black spots. Out of all my hens, I have never had a solid white chick. My hens are buff, splash and paint.

 

[MumsyII]

Fur N Feathers, that chick with the one loud spot is beautiful. Yes. Sometimes I get a chick that has the lack of feathered middle toe too. Your teenager paint with extreme foot feathering is amazing! Nice!

Zoofee, your roo is gorgeous! Love him. I get an occasional chipmunk patterned chick out of my white recessive hens crossed with my paint male. It means your paint male carries an e+ partridge gene. When he is crossed onto a hen that also carries e+, a chipmunk/partridge marked chick results. e+ means recessive wild type. I would suspect your buff female. There are a lot of mixed genes in buff silkies. It's much more complicated to explain partridge genes but this is the simple version.

The chipmunk colored chicks sometimes develop into some of the prettiest colored birds. Some of my favorite silkies.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

Here are a few pictures I took today for updates.

I have three new little babies in the paint pen, but so far I don't see any spots. Well not exactly true, one has some darkness on it but I think it is just dirty.

Here is a pullet and rooster I took to a poultry show in LaGrange Texas. She got Best Variety and he got Reserve.

 

[MumsyIII]

I sure have missed this thread. Now that I have access to BYC again, lots of catching up to do.

My Paint boy Dapper Dan filled my barn with paints and color. But now, most of my silkies are related to him! He is looking kind of beat up from getting so much use, so I gave him a break from breeding and kept him in the bachelor pen for the winter.

I only kept three of his Paint offspring. Two pullets and one cockerel. I'm not sure I will continue with the Paint project. I love his colored offspring but not all of his Paint offspring are of great quality.

His son is with a trio now and I'm waiting on eggs.



His name is Dippy Doodle. One of his girls is a light splash. They are half siblings.



He is also with his sister. She is very small and has a big spot on the front of her crest.