F1 silkie/EE crosses. Which should I keep for further breeding?

[Kennas_Kritters]

Hey y'all! I am currently working on breeding a bird that looks exactly like a silkie that will also lay colored eggs (green/blue and eventually dark brown). I just hatched out 9 chicks from my black (with a tiny bit of yellow leakage) Easter egger over my bearded silkie hen. I will be using all or some of them for further breeding. I need to know what I should be looking for in these babies as they grow so I can pick the best ones to breed! I will be breeding them back to a silkie when they are of age. Should I be looking for darkest skin, leg feathering, 5 toes, beards? I want my cross to look like a silkie and lay colored eggs like a EE or welsummer. I need y'alls help figuring out what I need to look for in my new babies!! Thanks!

 

[Amer]

Well, all of those are important traits to have, but the least important is beards, since not all Silkies have beards. (Unless beards is your goal, of course.) But ideally, all the traits should be present in the offspring you select for breeding.

 

[Kennas_Kritters]

Well, all of those are important traits to have, but the least important is beards, since not all Silkies have beards. (Unless beards is your goal, of course.) But ideally, all the traits should be present in the offspring you select for breeding.

So basically they should look just like a silkie except for feather type since they are F1? What about feather color? Since they are crosses I assume the color also won't be a silkie color. What color silkie should they be bred to? Anything specific?

 

[Amer]

So basically they should look just like a silkie except for feather type since they are F1? What about feather color? Since they are crosses I assume the color also won't be a silkie color. What color silkie should they be bred to? Anything specific?

Yes, they should look like a Silkie except for the feather type. Breed whatever color you think looks best. What color do you want them to be?

 

[Kennas_Kritters]

Yes, they should look like a Silkie except for the feather type. Breed whatever color you think looks best. What color do you want them to be?

I'm not to picky on plumage color. Just picky on egg color. Lol. Not sure what color the chick in the pictures will end up as but I'll be happy with pretty much whatever.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hey y'all! I am currently working on breeding a bird that looks exactly like a silkie that will also lay colored eggs (green/blue and eventually dark brown). I just hatched out 9 chicks from my black (with a tiny bit of yellow leakage) Easter egger over my bearded silkie hen. I will be using all or some of them for further breeding. I need to know what I should be looking for in these babies as they grow so I can pick the best ones to breed! I will be breeding them back to a silkie when they are of age. Should I be looking for darkest skin, leg feathering, 5 toes, beards? I want my cross to look like a silkie and lay colored eggs like a EE or welsummer. I need y'alls help figuring out what I need to look for in my new babies!! Thanks!

Since the father is an EE, you can’t be sure he carries the blue egg gene. If your goal is a blue or green egg laying silkied bird, you would have to keep all of the female offspring and wait until they start laying to see if that gene was passed to them. Keeping the ones that lay colored eggs for your program. The egg color will likely be a shade of green due to the influence of the silkie egg color which is normally light tan or tinted.

 

[Clodill4rel]

I’m prob going to take my mixed white silky / lavender olive egger ROO babies and breed them back to silky with my brand new as of today silky paints I just hatched today check them out !

 

[Clodill4rel]

Here are pics of my white silky lavender ROO babies I have two….