Silkie color genetics

[eestep8]

I know nothing about genetics. So, I was wondering if there was an "Idiots" guide to silkie color genetics? Like how do you get blue, splash, mottled, or cuckoo colors? A good website that explains it all in plain english would be great. lol
I would like to breed silkies in the near future.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Silkie genetics work like all other poultry color genetics. The exception is that not every color is accepted as standard. If you want to breed Silkies, I recommend studying the breed closer and when you decide on a variety, focus on it specifically. There are only 7 recognized colors of Silkies; buff, blue, black, splash, partrige, gray, and of course white.

If you like competition, raise the white variety.

If you want to be different, raise the blue/black/splash varieties as these are the only colors that can be 'interbred.'

If you are a masochist, raise buffs as there is a lot of culling involved.

If you are a die hard for punishment, raise partridge as this is one of the hardest colors to get right.

You'll find other colors like Lavender, Cuckoo, "porcelain", Birchen, Columbian, and a whole host of other colors that people dont know what they are, so they just assign names to like 'pink tipped buff.' Some of these like Lavender are nearly perfect and very close to being accepted as standard, but the others arent.

By studying a broad spectrum of genetics, you'll get confused fairly quickly. Start off by studying one or two varieties and build up from there.

 

[StrawberryHouseMouse]

>.> little secret in my future plans. I had decided to take my favorite breed and try to get my favorite color variety. Which is silver laced. -Gasp-

maybe you will see me around some time in the distant future with some silkies colored like this.

 

[Byrdj]

That's why I'm sticking to white Silkies for now! I have a neighbor who has great looking show quality gray Silkies she bought from a breeder. I thought about buying some hatching eggs from her at some point but don't know how to tell the difference between gray and blue Silkies. I know that Andalusian blue doesn't breed true and gray does, but what you you describe the color differences to be? Are quality grays hard to breed to standard, and what are the most common problem areas with them?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Greys are a patterned bird; blues are essentially solid coloured.

Grey is partridge with silver rather than gold. The hardest part about grey is avoiding autosomal red.

The hardest part about blue is getting lighter (versus too dark) shades.

I will disagree with Chris' assessment that buffs and partridges are hard. I think that getting good blues is as hard. Of course, part of the success or failures of breeding quality birds is the quality of the breeder birds.

I am getting very consistent results on my partridge--I have a brooder full of nice looking youngsters. It is generally harder to tell the quality of males as their colour is very late coming in. However, they are a variety where the appearance is significantly diferent in male and female--I can tell gender with partridge MUCH earlier than other varieties.

My main problem with buffs have been quality males. When I've had a good cock with a good comb, both shape and colour, the babies have all been really nice. My biggest problem has been acquiring and keeping a quality buff cock.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

My grey pullet:

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Greay Silkies are very easy to tell from blue silkies. Blue Silkies should have dark navy blue hackles and a lighter body, and Gray Silkies should have light silver hackles with a darker body.


Grays (picture from internet)

Blue (picture from internet)

 

[Krys109uk]

Grey:
e^b e^b, SS, PgPg

So basically silver pencilled? They do look interesting.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Easy part--here is a young blue partridge pullet that I am very happy with. She's enough older that I took her to a show last weekend

Okay, now for the hard part. Almost all silkies have the e^b allele. That makes partridge an easy colour to generate. Makes solid colours hard and makes birchen near impossible (as best I can tell--start a project using birchen cochins or polish (are they available?) bred to black silkies with silver hackles).

Partridge is not a gene, b ut a combination of genes. The best partridges should carry mahogany, but it isn't required to have the partridge pattern. You need Pg (preferably in two doses) on an e^b base, and for partridge you need gold (ss or s-).

For males, an e+, E^R or E^Wh base will have a similar appearance.

For females the e+ will also have a correct phenotype, but E^R or E^Wh will be incorrect.

Silkie feathering makes assessment of the penciling quality difficult, and the addition of Ml, Co and/or Db can be accommodated on females with silkie feathering; the difference is more noticeable on males. Without silkie feathering any of these gene variations would be noticeable on both genders.

 

[Dkbahoo]

I’m sure this was discussed but it’s such a long forum. Do you have to breed black with black to get black silkies and so on and so forth? Are certain colors dominant?