Cuckoo silkie question

[Blisschick]

Does anyone know why some chicks hatch as "white" or "frosted" cuckoo and others as "dark" cuckoo? I've had chicks hatch of both colors, both from the same hen and roo. The white chicks have a really beautiful color that resembles chinchilla, where the dark ones are typical black. (I just went to take a photo and discovered my camera batteries were dead.

)

Here's a link to a few websites showing what I'm talking about:
http://powderpuffsilkies.tripod.com/id11.html
http://www.windchyme.com/Images/Chickens/Non Standard Silkies/index.htm

 

[nzpouter]

light roosters... dark, possibly rooster/ hen.. depends what colour are the parents... 2 dark cuckoo?

 

[melissa508]

Ive never hatched a pure white cuckoo..i did 1x hatch a white background with black barring wayyy back when my line first started showing silky feathering...this is george, the 1st cuckoo silkie that looked sorta like a silkie..as you can see he still looks alot like his ancestors (cochins)

I know its hard to tell, but he is a bright white based bird.

I dont know where the term 'frosted cuckoo" came from..but its not a label i used. That frosted look is a fault..caused by the dilutor gene & any of those other faults like that have the same cause..dilution of the black. The website below mine..those cuckoos origionated from my farm.

I didnt know much about certain genes back when i created those cuckoos, My best quality breeders happened to be splash...so i put some not so good genes in & other people have done the same. As for the sold whites..no clue at all.

The darker ones usually come from breeding cuckoo x cuckoo, but also breeding cuckoo to good solid black lines with no blue also helps darken them.
And of course breed a female cuckoo to a male solid & all your female chix will be solid also.

 

[Blisschick]

I bred my cuckoo girl to a black roo, so I didn't think that I'd end up with both colors. I have no idea who has the diluter gene. Both are quality birds. I got my cuckoo from Jennifer (don't know if she's still around), and I got the roo from PC (didn't think to ask where he came from). I really like the look of the white one, even if it is a fault. The chick color is just beautiful! I know it won't be pure white (I doubt you could ever get that color with cuckoo), probably more like yours, Melissa. I'll probably keep them both at this point because the black has better feathered feet, but the white one has a vaulted skull. I'll have to see who develops the best qualities and go from there. I figured that I'd breed the best one back to the mother. I have a blue girl in the pen too, so I have a ton of black babies that have hatched, but I'm not sure whose they are. Of 13 chicks, 9 are black, and I know they all can't be female! LOL