Buff to splash or blue

[ma2babygurl13]

What would you get if you crossed a buff silkie with a splash? What about buff to blue? What would the babies be?

 

[LilPeeps]

If you bred buff x blue, you would get some birds that are smutty buffs, some black with buff bleeding through, and some relatively normal buffs with black in the wings and tails. 50% of them will carry the blue gene, blue would replace the black on those birds.

If you breed buff x splash, 100% of the chicks will be carrying the blue gene, so you will get smutty buffs, blues with buff bleeding through, and buffs with blue in the wings and tails.

 

[ShysCreations]

I am trying the buff/splash combination now. I just fell in love with a pullet I saw couple years ago at a county fair. She had a creamy buff base with dark flecks of gray & caramel--beautiful bird. Wish I'd taken a pic of her. here's our silkies. A splash roo with buff & splash hens

The wind blew bad so much their crests & tails are slanted!

 

[ma2babygurl13]

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So probably not a good thing to do...

 

[ma2babygurl13]

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she sounds very pretty, I would have loved to see a pic!
Pretty birds ya got there/... would love to see what ya get!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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So probably not a good thing to do...

It depends. Blue/splash in a buff bird will change any black to blue/splash. In my experience it does not add smut, although it does not remove it, either. It will lighten the colour of that which is present. Blue/splash will not affect the evenness of the buff colouring, which I believe has to do with the lack of autosomal red, although by breeding to a bird without it you are working towards removing it (but an evenly coloured buff would do the same).

Probably the largest thing to note is that only some of your offspring will be buff. Some will be blue and some will be a mix of the two colours. Buff was intentionally first bred to blue not to improve buff, but rather to improve blue. (That I am aware of--many others could have previously bred the two colours together, but I have heard no one commenting on doing so in the 10 years I've been keeping up with goings on in the silkie world.) Wasn't my project, although the buff hen came from me. The blue son was truly awesome and had some large wins. However the father was also a very nice bird.

 

[ma2babygurl13]

So if I wanted to "experiment" with this it wouldn't be absolutely horrible to do, really wouldn't produce awful offspring, just some that would have slightly off coloring and would be pet quality. My buff hen is pretty clear from what I can tell (I'm new to silkies and their quality)

her color is a little off in the pictures, she is more of a one color than the photos show... Not even sure if I do it, depends what my babies all grow into being, I have 4 splash and 2 blue babies that are undetermined sex. My buff hen would be a bearded correct? She is only about 4-5 months old in the picture, what would you rate her quality wise?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The main thing is if you sell birds or eggs to be totally honest about their background. People buy chickens for many reasons, and what they expect has a tendency to match their reason. Someone purchasing a pretty pet probably doesn't care much about the genetic background of the bird or how well they match the standard or a specific standardized variety. Likewise for someone who wants silkies for their broodiness or eggs for consumption (although they should know or be told that silkies will lay fewer eggs over the course of a year than some other breeds such as leghorns or sex-links). But if someone is purchasing with the intent to show or even to maybe show, and certainly with someone who has the intent to breed, needs to be informed of their backgrounds.

 

[ma2babygurl13]

of course! I would keep a pen of bbs and then if I have extras pair her up with the extra...I do have a buff roo, but don't really like the looks of him so far, so I dunno we shall see... I was just trying to figure out for the future what would happen if I decided to do the cross. What do you think of my hen (be honest!) and here is a pic of the roo he is about 4 months in this pic. I personally don't like him much, but I don't know and maybe I'm just not seeing the potential.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

For the Hen, her colour appears to be nice and clear, and fairly even; her wings are held just right. Her crest is on the smaller size, but not sparse which I have sometimes seen on smaller crested birds. She really doesn't have as much foot feathering as she should (unless they are broken off, which certainly occurs when birds free-range). Her back is long and her tail is horizontal rather than held high.

I would give the cockerel more time. I had two who looked less promising than he does who have turned out much nicer than I expected. He looks to have good foot feathering--the feathers just need time to grow, and his tail is held high as it out to be. It appears nice and soft.