Breeding black and white silkies

[brickparts]

Hello!

Not sure if I'm posting this is the right place...

I was wondering what color of silkies I would get if I bred a solid black silkie with a solid white silkie?

Would they be a mixed color or would they be either black or white?

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Silkies can be kind of unpredictable. For some reasons they are more often mixes than many other breeds and not always pure for their genetics. Black is a pretty strong color and can hide a lot of other things under it. Then there are two white genes, Dominant White and Recessive White. They can hide about anything under them, including black. So there are a lot of “if’s” involved.

If the white one is white because of Recessive White, the white will disappear when you cross it with any other chicken not having Recessive White. If that other chicken is pure for Black, then the offspring will almost certainly be black. If barring is hiding under the white, then instead of black you get black and white barred.

If that black one is not pure for Black, you could get a rainbow of colors, depending also on what else is hiding under the Recessive White. If black is hiding under that Recessive White you should get black chicks.

If the white is caused by the Dominant White gene it gets a whole lot more confusing. There are so many possibilities I’m not going to try to cover them all. With either Recessive White or Dominant White don’t be surprised if some really strange colors and patterns show up.

With all that said, if the white is caused by Recessive White, you will probably get a lot of black chickens. If it is caused by Dominant White, you should get a lot of white chickens. They may all be either black or white. You just don’t know until you hatch them.

Sounds like a treasure hunt to me. Have fun hatching.