feather genetics

[Sonoran Silkies]

Going by the photos you posted,
in the top photo are two girls and one boy: blue girl, partridge girl, red boy.

in the next photo are partridge showgirls. The two in front are girls, the one at the back may be also--I would need to see the plumage to be sure. If it looks that same as the two in front, then also a girl.

You can breed the red to partridge and have decent chicks.

Breed the splash to the blue. I'd have to see a photo of your black boy with red & buff--he may be partridge?

I didn't see the list of your standard hens.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

my standard hens are barred plymouth rock, silver laced wyandotte, buff orpington, and nh red.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If you want them paired,

pair the barred rock with the black or splash rooster. You;ll likely end up with crele from the first pairing or black and blue barred from the 2nd. Black skin/dark comb highly unlikely from the barred pair.

You might try the white or partridge on some of the others, but no real idea of the outcome.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

Quote:
this all sounds very interesting to me. what is crele?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Crele: There's a whole discussion at
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=124375&p=1 Here are some photos from that discussion.

Be aware that getting dark skin on a barred bird is very difficult--usually requires many tries or pure luck.

 

[nzpouter]

that is correct, most will be white legs with spots.

Rooster with darker face is even harder to breed.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

What generation is your cuckoo? Comb & skin colour is not too bad

Here's my crele:

WAY too red. In the photo his plumage doesn't show quite as much red and gold as is actually present, but sadly his comb and skin colour are pretty accurate

His daughter, though has fairly dark skin and comb.

 

[nzpouter]

Thank you, can't really tell you how many generations as they're bred out of 2 lines of crosses.

First ones are between silkies and barred rock, then those are crossed again with silkies x pekin bantams to get the foot feathering back and also the cobby shape.... if I have to put a # I guess I'll say fifth, those are only the 3rd gen with silkie feathering, the previous breeding aim was more for shape.

Heavy culling was done on the cockerels, the previous season we have black coloured legs but still with red faces, the hens are selected for darker skins, mottling on the legs are still acceptable at this stage.
Your hens look great, how long have you bred them for?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I actually don't; Seems like every year I get a few barred birds pop up. And every year they get a bit better, but I have too many other varieties I'm actually working on to give them the effort they would need. If I hatch any cuckoo girls this year I may take the plunge of really working with them. I do suspect that my original barring came from a barred rock.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

Quote:
thanks for the link. I will go read it. the photos from the discussion are really nice. the images from this quote do not show for me. I will def try to breed for crele. if I breed barred to splash, where does gold come from?