Breeding a blue silkie hen & white silkie roo....

[beepbeepinajeep]

What color chicks would we get? Is there a good resource for genetics of coloration? TIA!

 

[Krys109uk]

Here is Henk's Chicken calculator. It is great for most things but I doubt anyone can accurately predict a cross to an unknown recessive white bird.

http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator

 

[Windchyme]

Quote:
Well that depends. White in silkies covers a color/s they would otherwise be- like a car cover goes over and covers a car- the cover might be white but underneath the car is still the same color- the fact that it is covered by white changes nothing underneath. They could be all kinds of colors under the white. When breeding the white to a color it will react with the colored bird as if it was whatever the base color is on it as well as making whites if the other bird carries the recessive white gene. So say for instance it has a blue base...it would be like breeding a blue to another blue plus possibly getting pure white. If the base color is buff it would cross with the blue just as if it was a buff with the possiblity of white. Since whites are generally thrown in with each other to breed no matter what the base color is because you aren't intending to get anything but the white cover, you could have a white with very mixed up color genes for a whole bunch of colors. You won't really know unless you do the cross then you can make some guesses on what color genes the white is carrying from looking at the colored babies. Does that make sense???