Buff Silkie Thread!

[SamanthaDixie]

Thanks so much

also, i'll be adopting a buff silkie as soon as wedensday.

 

[BobbieJo81]

Ssssooooo...I bought this "buff" girl Saturday..She is a lot lighter and more 'even' colored than my red hen.. Her back feathers have been tore up by the roos from her previous home so they look a different color in the pic..But I was just told that she may not be a buff, that she may be a light partridge?? I bought 18 chicks last spring (16 turned out to be roos...) but the majority of those were partridge and blue partridges and both were WAY different colors than this girl..Any help on her color would be great.. I have been looking for a buff hen for ever and I am gonna be upset if this girl isnt..I know that she isnt show quality..she is just a starter bird..The 2 grey babies are my good girls.. The smallest grey does have some buff coloring on the tips of her feathers, but I dont know a whole lot about buff genetics so dont know if she could even carry the buff gene or not??

the buff??



My red...again, the roos have been relentless..



My 2 greys--you can see a lil of her reddish color on her tips

 

[destiny_56085]

She's buff.... She has some darker undertones and probably some smut on the wing primaries. As for the hens being tore up, you probably need either more girls for them to cover or to pull the males off to separate pens and give them visitation rights if you want fertile eggs.

 

[destiny_56085]

There are also 2 genetic bases for the buff color...partridge and wheaten. The partridge base is responsible for the dark skin and often times smut (darker feathers) on the bird. The wheaten gives you those nice clear golden buffs, but also reverts you back to red skin. In silkies, the standard calls for black skin and some smut is permissible. The key is to getting the perfect combination of these 2 genes to get dark skin on a bird almost free of smut. You also need to watch out for getting a white undertone on the base of the feathers. You want a nice clear golden buff all the way from base of feathers to the tips. It takes raising ALOT of them to get that combo, but I guess that is why a lot of people aren't showing them in the same numbers as the black and whites.
Here are some good examples of ones I've raised.

 

[destiny_56085]

Now in comparison, here are some partridge owned by friends of mine. Much different color pattern! Now there are also a lot of flocks with just everything merged together and thus you get a hodgepodge of mixed up colors. You get the 'mutts' that can't really be called either color... aka Very smutty buffs, light partridge, etc. They just don't fit the standard for either description.

 

[destiny_56085]

Even on your 'red', she may be a very dark buff. These aren't my pics again, but these are good examples of reds.

 

[BobbieJo81]

Now in comparison, here are some partridge owned by friends of mine. Much different color pattern! Now there are also a lot of flocks with just everything merged together and thus you get a hodgepodge of mixed up colors. You get the 'mutts' that can't really be called either color... aka Very smutty buffs, light partridge, etc. They just don't fit the standard for either description.

This is what a lot of by roos looked like..The person that said that she may be a variation of a partridge was bc of her crest being that grey looking color..I am glad to know that she is atleast a buff..that eases my mind somewhat..The 'red' I have just always called her that based on internet pics I found to compare her to as she was growing up..

 

[BobbieJo81]

She's buff.... She has some darker undertones and probably some smut on the wing primaries. As for the hens being tore up, you probably need either more girls for them to cover or to pull the males off to separate pens and give them visitation rights if you want fertile eggs.

The buff hen I just got, but the woman that I got her fro had one other hen and 6 roos in the same cage together Here she has a reprieve..I started out this spring with 16 roos and 4 hens(1 Silkie hen) but kept the roos separate--I had BAD luck in my batch last year for hens...lol.. I only kept 2--a blue partridge and a black--I also have the 2 greys that are still inside..Can anyone tell me who I should pair with who? The pics I posted earlier are all my girls..then I have the 2 roos..I do have several more Silkie eggs in the bator due in a couple days and more being shipped in on Monday.. those I will worry about later, but as for the 2 grey and 2 buff/red...which would be best with the black roo and which would be best withthe blue partridge? There is a big color difference in the grey(I know that this is your guys speciality) but one is a very dark grey--almost blue and the other is very light grey with almost red/buff tips on her wings--I dont know if that could be smut like you said or just her baby feathers not grown out yet

 

[destiny_56085]

You can put whatever birds together you like as long as you like pretty fluffy pets... If you want pure color birds, you should stick with keeping your colors separated: buff with buff, black with black, white with white, etc. Blue, splash, and black can be put together. Certain colors use the base colors like black to improve type and viability on those...lavender, paint, chocolate, etc. Partridge and greys both carry pattern genes. Achieving greys without the autosomal red leakage over the shoulders can be pretty difficult.

 

[Fur N Feathers]

Ssssooooo...I bought this "buff" girl Saturday..She is a lot lighter and more 'even' colored than my red hen.. Her back feathers have been tore up by the roos from her previous home so they look a different color in the pic..But I was just told that she may not be a buff, that she may be a light partridge?? I bought 18 chicks last spring (16 turned out to be roos...) but the majority of those were partridge and blue partridges and both were WAY different colors than this girl..Any help on her color would be great.. I have been looking for a buff hen for ever and I am gonna be upset if this girl isnt..I know that she isnt show quality..she is just a starter bird..The 2 grey babies are my good girls.. The smallest grey does have some buff coloring on the tips of her feathers, but I dont know a whole lot about buff genetics so dont know if she could even carry the buff gene or not??

the buff??


see a lil of her reddish color on her tips

I don't think she is buff at all. She looks like a first generation porcelain or a light blue partridge to me. There is a light blue partridge in silkies of a different color thread that is a perfect example of that color, I believe she is one of Sonoran's. Maybe she will read this and let you know. She is a genetics and color expert. Sonoran if you see this could you post that blue partridge pullet for her? A smutty buff will have a few blue or black feathers in the wings and tail or just the tail.

Your oldest little gray looks like a silver partridge. They are shown as the same color.

We do have a lot of things in common! I have had boxers all my life and the three Arabians I have right now are rescues! Ha! Ha!