Breeding Silkies

[CYGChickies]

My silkies are still fairly young, and I have blues, splashes, whites, buffs and one partridge. My blues and splashes are hatchery silkies. I want to know, do you have to breed two silkies of one color to consider their chicks that color? For instance, if a white silkie has a buff and splash parent, is it still white? I'm curious because I love the color of my blues and splashes and the quality of my buffs and whites. Could I let them breed and try to get good quality splashes or do I need to buy a good quality splash to breed with them? The Partridge will be bred only with my buff roo until I get a partridge roo to keep with her since partridge is rare/hard to keep true.

I have 15 silkies and don't particularly want to get rid of my hatchery birds but I don't want to have to start separating them all into breeding programs to be able to sell/give away/have good-looking chicks from them. I feel so stupid asking this and I get the feeling I'll be yelled at for even asking but I want to know if the colors need to be separated.

CYG

 

[sonew123]

you are not going to get get yelled at silly!

If you want a good group of silkies go with private breeders-hatcheries are not going to give you breeder or show quality silkies Keep all the silkies you have now together-depending on how many roos you want) start buying good quality silkies from private breeders. Use your existing silkies for eating eggs-or free giveaway chicks etc....The colors need to be separated --blues with blues- whites with whites and so on, unless you are trying to create a new color or use them for a project

 

[Debbi]

X2. Keep in mind that you can, and probably should, keep the Blues and the Splashes together. If you breed Splash to Splash too long, the color will fade. The infusion of the Blue will keep your Splash colors nice.