blue x white silkies?

[chickNjake]

I went to the cocke county poultry show yesterday and got a very nice blue roo and 2 so-so hens 1 black and 1 white

i know bluexblack is 50% black and 50% blue but what will i get from bluexwhite?? i know they'll probably be mixed but oh well

 

[BamaChicken]

You need to post some pictures.

 

[chickNjake]

Quote:
all i have is a video camera and a cell phone that take bad pics so....

 

[Blisschick]

White masks other colors, so you won't know exactly what colors the white hen is masking until you hatch some chicks out.

 

[chickNjake]

I had heard that, does black do the same thing? the black hen has a little bit of red on the end of one feather, it's barely there but it does look natural

 

[Blisschick]

Black doesn't work the same way as white. All color patterns are based on the E (black) locus and variations of it, along with other genes that make barring, lacing, etc. The black gene can be really confusing to understand. I guess in a sense you can say that black masks other colors, but it's not really masking them, it's just that the basic black gene is dominant over other colors, so a bird can appear black, but have, for example, the birchen gene (e^r) hidden (E/e^r). If there are two birchen genes, you will get a birchen colored bird. To make it more confusing, it also depends on whether the bird is dominate for silver or gold, which works with the black gene to determine whether you are are seeing reds or silver on the black.

The white that masks other colors is recessive white. It takes two copies of the gene to keep any color from leaking through. If a bird is dominate white, then you will get splashes of black and red showing through.