Silkie thread!

[ThaiChick]

Sigrid van Dort suggests that leakage of the red pigment is quite common in white (dominant and recessive) Silkies. Sometimes the colour knock out feature of the white just isn't strong enough to knock out all the red. She describes it as a "buffish" colour. She says the feathers can appear randomly all over the body or be limited to the breast in hens and wing bow in roosters.

I'm curious about this because one of my 10 day old chicks appear this way except it a goldish hue all over, but the base if you will is white. Is this leakage also?

 

[penneypep]

HA HA thats funny ! Should I wait until they are full grown to mix them ? And how old is full grown ? Thanks

 

[penneypep]

Ok thank you !

 

[penneypep]

How adorable is that !~! At what age is full grown and should I wait until then to mix?? And how will they do new silkies with lil chicks about 2 wks old ? Thank you

 

[3LilBirds]

Mine at the most were 3 weeks a part in age, but at the time I mix mine one was 2 weeks and the others were 4 and 5 weeks. I kept a close eye on them of course and they did fine. Never had a problem. From what I've read is it's best if they are close in size. This way little ones don't get trampled.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
I'm only going from Sigrid's book but I would think 10 days old is too early to judge. Sigrid does say this about white chicks: the chicks can be yellow (gold s+ basis) or greyish (S basis). She goes on to say that since S (silver) is dominant over s+ (gold), a male S/s+ chick will be greyish yellow. Perhaps that is what you are seeing?

 

[scamperwillow]

They won't let me into that area and they won't let me post pictures - keep getting this you don't have permission message. What's up with that??

 

[scamperwillow]

You might try posting in this section. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/35/chickens-8-weeks-older Hope you find a good home!

Tried that link - it doesn't work - I got an error message.

 

[scamperwillow]

You might try posting in this section. https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/35/chickens-8-weeks-older Hope you find a good home!

They won't let me into the buy/sell/trade area and they won't let me post pictures - keep getting this you don't have permission message. What's up with that??

 

[SilverSilkie]

I'm only going from Sigrid's book but I would think 10 days old is too early to judge. Sigrid does say this about white chicks: the chicks can be yellow (gold s+ basis) or greyish (S basis). She goes on to say that since S (silver) is dominant over s+ (gold), a male S/s+ chick will be greyish yellow. Perhaps that is what you are seeing?

Normaly recessive white c/c (= colorless) not leak gold (s+)
Dominant white in single dosis I/i+ (Inhibitor) not stop red-pigment at all (= pile) it transform the black-pigment into "white" with possible little black dots (mainly in tails)
Dominant white in double dosis I/I not stop red-pigment completely (is why it's called a leaky gene). When you want a "complete" white bird on Dominant white you need first a solid black bird with no red-pigment leakage to can let the Dominant white transform that overall black bird in an overall white bird.
The yellow shine on a complete white bird (recessive or Dominant) can also be caused by food (carotene) and sunlight.