Chocolate silkies

[Horsefly]

Anyone have or seen a chocolate silkie? There is someone on my local craigslist selling them. They said they have been working with the color for years and the chicks are a month old and they are selling them for $20 each. I want silkies but don't know if I want to start with an expensive rare color. Should I go for it or no? I don't know the quality they will be because there are no pictures. Will they breed true? I would like to make my initial investment up if I can by maybe selling chicks and eggs if I get some.

 

[GotGame]

they will more than likely be 'dun' silkies, and if so they will not breed true. Breeding dun to dun will give 50% dun, 25% black and 25% khaki or sport...I know of a couple people working on chocolate silkies, for $20 bucks apiece you are buying pet quality birds, possibly some breeder quality but I doubt it...you can always take dun roo over real typey black silkie hens and breed your own and improve type and quality by using top quality hens...if it is the true chocolate I dont know, only 2 or 3 breeds actually have the chocolate gene...

 

[pips&peeps]

I agree with GotGame.

The only breed that has the chocolate gene in the US that could have supplied the gene to the silkies would be the serama. It would take years to breed up the size; so if it is in fact a chocolate, it would be highly unlikely to be of good quality.

The person who is advertising them probably actually has dun birds.

Of course there are chocolate orpingtons in the US now. The only ones that we know for sure that has them is Greenfire and that guy in OK (Marc). Those birds just came into the US, so they could not have been used to make a chocolate silkie already.


Edited because I can't spell....

 

[GotGame]

as a side note, if you get some, you can take any that come out Khaki, and breed them to a Black and you will get 100% dun....dun breeds just like blue, it is an incomplete dominant, and a dilution gene...

 

[Horsefly]

Does anyone have a picture of a dun silkie to compare color with? I don't really want to get into a big breedig project right now so if it's not a color that would breed true and all I would have to work on is type I will probably pass. Of course that probably won't stop me from just calling and looking you know lol. I did a google image search on chocolate silkie and a couple came up. Are those real chocolates?

 

[GotGame]

here are a few birds that are dun in color...bred by using fawn silver duckwing with black....basically diluting black with the dun gene, the actual duns carry one copy of the dun gene, the khakis carry two copies of the fun gene....I will see if I can find some pics of some khakis....

 

[Horsefly]

Is this a chocolate?
http://www.eggbid.net/3-Chocolate-S...P-LOOK,name,106667,auction_id,auction_details

 

[pips&peeps]

They are dun.

Here is a previous thread about chocolate/dun and that person's silkies.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=424021&p=1