Are these silkies silver and gold based or something else?

[Slothinc]

I have two silkie chicks that just hatched that are an unusual color. Kind of yellow on the head but the body looks kind of dirty gray. I have tried to figure out if they could be silver and gold based (meaning they would be boys since girls can only have one base color.) But I can’t find any info in the other threads about what a silver and gold based chick looks like. Does anyone know? Or could they be an entirely different color?

The rooster was a black NN and the hen was either a paint or a black or possibly brown silkie. Any insight would be much appreciated! Also I’m going to post a pic of another that is much darker than the first two, with a lighter head. I’m stumped on the color of this one as well.

Tagging a few peeps to see if any of you guys know and please feel free to tag anyone who may have an idea! @Debbie292d @2ndTink @pipdzipdnreadytogo @NatJ @TwoCrows @oldhenlikesdogs @GirlsHuntToo @nicalandia

Thanks!!

 

[Debbie292d]

I see these colors often. I get mauve and chocolates or splashes of both.

The ones that look solid gold of mine won't stay that way and wind up being splashes.

I don't think your black hen is their momma.

Gorgeous chicks!!

 

[Slothinc]

I see these colors often. I get mauve and chocolates or splashes of both.

The ones that look solid gold of mine won't stay that way and wind up being splashes.

I don't think your black hen is their momma.

Gorgeous chicks!!

Wow! I guess maybe my hen that I thought was a very sun bleached black was possibly a chocolate If so, would this mean that the rooster wasn’t black but actually blue? Because to me he looked very black, he had the green sheen to his feathers also. Thanks Debbie!!

 

[Slothinc]

Pics of the hen who was most likely the mom (silkie who is brownish with no crest) and the rooster (NN frizzle).

 

[Debbie292d]

Pics of the hen who was most likely the mom (silkie who is brownish with no crest) and the rooster (NN frizzle).

Yep, I am sure mom is the chocolate hen.

This has been a typical hatch of mine. There's chocolates, mauves, and the gold ones are splashes. There is a blue one in the back. Rooster is mauve, hens are chocolate and splash.

 

[Slothinc]

My head is spinning haha. I guess maybe the rooster carries chocolate. (Wouldn’t he have to if he created mauve chicks?) And would he also have to be blue instead of black?

Both the hen and roo have been rehomed already. I was thinning my flock but really wanted more NN so I threw in a bunch of eggs before I rehomed that boy. The hen was hatched by my flock a few years ago, but I never saw her until she was a couple of years old, and since my flock never had chocolate I just always assumed that she was a sun bleached black. Very interesting. Well I guess I’ll keep these babies and see what they turn out to be!

 

[2ndTink]

If the hen is chocolate her skin would be brown as well, you could check that. Chocolate is recessive and hens only need one copy of the gene to express it.

I had a few kinda similar, pale smokey colored and one had a yellowy head, one turned into a neat medium blue color, another is a splash that's kinda dirty looking.

Super adorable chicks @Slothinc ! I'm excited to see progress photos!

 

[NatJ]

I have two silkie chicks that just hatched that are an unusual color. Kind of yellow on the head but the body looks kind of dirty gray. I have tried to figure out if they could be silver and gold based (meaning they would be boys since girls can only have one base color.) But I can’t find any info in the other threads about what a silver and gold based chick looks like. Does anyone know? Or could they be an entirely different color?

The rooster was a black NN and the hen was either a paint or a black or possibly brown silkie. Any insight would be much appreciated! Also I’m going to post a pic of another that is much darker than the first two, with a lighter head. I’m stumped on the color of this one as well.

Tagging a few peeps to see if any of you guys know and please feel free to tag anyone who may have an idea! @Debbie292d @2ndTink @pipdzipdnreadytogo @NatJ @TwoCrows @oldhenlikesdogs @GirlsHuntToo @nicalandia

Thanks!!

I don't really know for most of it.

I have tried to figure out if they could be silver and gold based (meaning they would be boys since girls can only have one base color.) But I can’t find any info in the other threads about what a silver and gold based chick looks like. Does anyone know? Or could they be an entirely different color?

The most common chicks to have both silver and gold would be males of the various Red Sexlink types (ISA Brown, Gold Comet, Red Star, etc.) Those males just look yellow when they hatch, pretty muchthe color you would expect for a chicken that will grow up white.

Silver is considered dominant over gold, because it is mostly what shows. That effect is stronger when the chicks are young. The yellowish color, and red leakage, often show up when those males are partly grown, rather than being obvious from the beginning.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Just adding a little to what's already been said since I'm a bit late to the party.

Males that are gold / silver split generally look indistinguishable from pure silver individuals, male or female, at hatch, so this would not be a method to determine their sex regardless.

As for the patterning in the chick down, the sort of smudgy-gray coloring with pale forehead patch like that often means that they are split at the e-locus for ER or eb (or both!) rather than being pure E/E as expected for unicolor birds. Silkies of most colors are pretty commonly carrying eb at the very least from my understanding, not sure about the existence of ER in them. It should not make a difference in their adult plumage as long as they still have the proper melanizers to push that solid color all over, which it sounds like their parents most likely did and so they should as well.

 

[Slothinc]

Thank you all so much for the info! Sounds like I won’t know what I’m looking at exactly until they get bigger I am relieved to know that by keeping these chicks, I’m not keeping all males by default due to the coloring.

One more question if anyone knows - if the father of these chicks has the green sheen to his black feathers, does that mean that he is black rather than blue? Or can blue birds also have the shiny green feathers? In the past I had always thought that blues were more of a dull dusky color without that shine and that blacks had the shiny sort of irredecent feathers.

One of the babies is a NN with pink skin who has very light spots (blue or mauve maybe?). I already promised that baby to someone coming to pick up some chicks on Saturday. But I am just wondering if the dad is black and the mom is a paint, how did this chick get lighter spots? Ps took these pics just barely and this chick looks like a frizzle too!