Red Silkie Genetics? Buff vs Red Genetics?

[I Like Turkeys]

AMAZING!!! Thank you for such a detailed explanation! This is very helpful!!

Other than colour, the other obstacle is breeding to the Silkie SOP. So if the starting buff male is a silkie adhering “perfectly” to the SOP (theoretically), I could still theoretically get reds that look more like him with your 50% offspring calculation)?

Probably not exactly like him. When you cross to the RIR, you lose a lot of genes. Crests will be smaller, foot feathering will be more sparse, polydactily will be all over the place if there, tails will be longer, combs different, and general body shape off.
These are the f1 crosses; when you breed two of them together to get your f2 crosses, you have the potential to gain back, keep the same amount, or further loose the genes of the silkie.
For this reason, backcrossing to silkies, even if you loose color for a generation, is important to improve the type of the birds. The color can always be gained back if your birds are heterozygous for the dilution gene, but given the many other genes affecting silkie type, that’s a bit more tricky to get back unless you relentlessly test breed or keep records of birds, in which case it'd also be difficult if possible.

 

[hannahsocal]

Probably not exactly like him. When you cross to the RIR, you lose a lot of genes. Crests will be smaller, foot feathering will be more sparse, polydactily will be all over the place if there, tails will be longer, combs different, and general body shape off.
These are the f1 crosses; when you breed two of them together to get your f2 crosses, you have the potential to gain back, keep the same amount, or further loose the genes of the silkie.
For this reason, backcrossing to silkies, even if you loose color for a generation, is important to improve the type of the birds. The color can always be gained back if your birds are heterozygous for the dilution gene, but given the many other genes affecting silkie type, that’s a bit more tricky to get back unless you relentlessly test breed or keep records of birds, in which case it'd also be difficult if possible.

I wish there was a chart I could just follow to make it happen haha! I guess it’s just trial and error on a large scale, I’ll update this post to see how it goes!

 

[Climbingalbatross]

I would stick to docile and bantam breeds to introduce other colors. My favorite mix will always be bantam cochins with silkies. I would love to breed Chicken Little (partridge smooth Satin) with a buff silkie hen to see if the partridge red will darken her genetics. So far breeding him with his partridge smooth Satin sister has resulted in a number of partridge silkies with dark red coloring. I am assuming his genetics would also result in the partridge pattern in chicks with a buff hen. I hope to bring back a darker comb color to the roos. So far not an issue with the females. My bantam cuckoo cochin hens will probably result in red combs when bred with my frizzled blue silkie roo. Such a shame that the red comb is so difficult to remove from the males.