Silkies Of A Different Color

[jas humbert]

Can anyone with a little more experience make an educated guess where this silkie is going to end up colorwise? He was born off white with kind of taupe beige shading- slightly darker back. Nothing reddish or even buff. He gradually became more noticeably dilute- light brown eyes, a touch greenish gray beak, dark gray legs. No pink splotches or uneven skin tone. A few weeks ago he started getting red splotches all over; head, back chest, wings. I though red paint or splash or something. Red feathers go all the way to the skin in most spots. Now at 8 weeks old he's developing a few cuckoo feathers on wings and just yesterday I noticed a couple of cuckoo feathers just starting on the base of his tail and in the hackles. The cuckoo feathers are grayish brownish - not red but nowhere near black. I'm guessing cuckoo develops gradually? I'm assuming he's a he based on posture and attitude but 8 weeks is too soon to be positive I guess. He's got nice posture and a nice amount of fluff developing but a weird color for sure. I hatched him from eggs from a breeder who has a little of everything including black cuckoos and a deep red rooster and a porcelain rooster. Any idea what he'll end up looking like?





you can see the cuckoo wing tips in the above picture- second row first picture and if you look close you can see the cuckoo developing at the base of the tail in the second row-second picture.

 

[Zgm12]

I'm new to Silkies and wondering about the different combinations of vaulted/non-vaulted, crest, beard, muffed etc. I got quite a variety with my hatch and was curious if the different combinations meant that they were disqualified for SQ, or maybe even mixed? Any comments are welcomed! Thank you!
Slimy Bob

Booger

Pretty Girl

Nugget

P-Dawg

Whether or not a chick is vaulted doesn't matter in terms of show quality. Most of the time, you're not even able to tell once the silkies have matured, and there is no connection between that and the crest size. In nearly all shows, silkies are divided into two groups, bearded and non-bearded. One is not more show quality than the other, but the majority of people who do show have bearded ones. To learn more about the silkie standard of perfection look at this page from the American Silkie Bantam Club:
http://www.americansilkiebantamclub.org/standard.htm
There's also a BYC thread called "Silkie breeding, genetics, and showing" that would probably be able to help with any other questions. Good luck with your adorable silkies!

 

[Naliez]

Whether or not a chick is vaulted doesn't matter in terms of show quality. Most of the time, you're not even able to tell once the silkies have matured, and there is no connection between that and the crest size. In nearly all shows, silkies are divided into two groups, bearded and non-bearded. One is not more show quality than the other, but the majority of people who do show have bearded ones. To learn more about the silkie standard of perfection look at this page from the American Silkie Bantam Club:
http://www.americansilkiebantamclub.org/standard.htm
There's also a BYC thread called "Silkie breeding, genetics, and showing" that would probably be able to help with any other questions. Good luck with your adorable silkies!

That helps a lot, thank you.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

Can anyone with a little more experience make an educated guess where this silkie is going to end up colorwise? He was born off white with kind of taupe beige shading- slightly darker back. Nothing reddish or even buff. He gradually became more noticeably dilute- light brown eyes, a touch greenish gray beak, dark gray legs. No pink splotches or uneven skin tone. A few weeks ago he started getting red splotches all over; head, back chest, wings. I though red paint or splash or something. Red feathers go all the way to the skin in most spots. Now at 8 weeks old he's developing a few cuckoo feathers on wings and just yesterday I noticed a couple of cuckoo feathers just starting on the base of his tail and in the hackles. The cuckoo feathers are grayish brownish - not red but nowhere near black. I'm guessing cuckoo develops gradually? I'm assuming he's a he based on posture and attitude but 8 weeks is too soon to be positive I guess. He's got nice posture and a nice amount of fluff developing but a weird color for sure. I hatched him from eggs from a breeder who has a little of everything including black cuckoos and a deep red rooster and a porcelain rooster. Any idea what he'll end up looking like? you can see the cuckoo wing tips in the above picture- second row first picture and if you look close you can see the cuckoo developing at the base of the tail in the second row-second picture.

I like the way you take your pictures and have the ages and all. This will be very beneficial to folks in this thread and others. Okay, I had a very similar chick that I called a red paint. I think it looks more like a red splash as you have said though I have not ever heard of that. My little guy had one black or dark blue spot on his tail and was from paint breeding. The red coming out almost always means male.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I have this odd colored chick that came from my golden laced smooth sizzle hen. He hatched out mostly all white and gradually started to get color. Has anyone hatched out a chick like this before?? this is his mom

That bird is GORGEOUS! It looks like someone stuck a splash head on a blue body, amazing! Love, love, love I've never gotten anything like that, but I just had to comment!

 

[jas humbert]

Thanks Fur and Feathers. Here's a close up of his wing. Your Roo is very pretty! How old is he in the photo? Does he have heavier red on wings than the rest of the body? Thanks for the close up on the red pattern it really helps me visualize it better. My guy's red is not quite than rich and dark as yours but maybe it will keep darkening. Mine seems to have less defined splotches of color spread all over the upper body; head, back, wings, etc. He has a hatchmate with similar buff/ red blush over white undercoat -more even and less splotchy than the the one we've been discussing - but that guy has also has blueish shading over white undercoat on the head. Light like a porcelain but no lavender shading.and no cuckoo on wings.

I've never had cuckoo silkies and I was wondering about the cuckoo on my guy's wings and just starting on hackles and base of tail. Does anyone know if cuckoo can come on this gradually and he'll eventually be all cuckoo or have you had a bird that was just cuckoo in some locations and not all over?

 

[Fur N Feathers]

Jas do you know what the parents of your chick might be? Could the barring on the wing tips and tail be from possible partridge breeding?

Thanks, my boy is about 4 1/2 to 5 months in that picture. I too have one with the gray head and some gray undercoat. You can tell the gray next to the pure white of the paint baby. This one has the wider patches of the red. The daddy of this one is Lavender, but unsure of the mom.

 

[jas humbert]

Fur and Feathers:
What a nice batch of younguns you have!. Unfortunately, the woman I got eggs from lets most of hers run together so I'm only guessing what parents might be. She had a porcelain rooster and a dark red rooster (regular silkies) and a gray showgirl rooster. Hens of all colors including black cuckoo, gray, blue, splash, white, black, porcelain and one lavender and one partridge. So anything is possible I guess.

I hatched a wide variety of colors including three grays with no red who have black and white partridge-like marking on wings. They are kind of penciled and not the same pattern as the cuckoo wings on this guy. I got one splash, one paint that looks a lot like yours, one deep blue partridge who is showing a lot of red already, two blues, two blacks, one white, and three undetermined shades like the ones I posted above. Oh, and one champagne colored one with only two blue or gray paint spots. All are regular silkies except for 2 showgirls, a black and a splotchy gray with the black and white penciling on wings. Oh, well I wanted variety. I may not ever breed for anything except my own backyard so its not important and they are sweet as pie, much better than the hatchery silkies I had before in both health and temperament. They all hatched healthy and vigorous and will eat out of my hand and follow me around and tolerate being picked up much more willingly than my "big girls"( (wyandottes, australops, speckeld sussex, and welsummers). I can keep a rooster or two but will probably have to rehome some at some point. I'm waiting to see who is what and how they will shape up.

 

[City Chicks 13]

This is my rooster Gidget. He was sold to me as a splash but he is obviously not. What do you think his color is?

 

[Adorkable]

This is my rooster Gidget. He was sold to me as a splash but he is obviously not. What do you think his color is?

Possibly light blue? I have a light blue similar in color, but mine seems to be getting darker hackle feathers.

This is a younger pic


This was a few days ago