Help with IDing colors 🎨

[JessiV14]

Can you guys help me with these colors? It's the ones in the back: I have several of the grey colored ones that have the darker grey that I bought at a feed store. Then I have a couple that are white with the black/dark grey spots. (My uneducated guess is Splash (grey) and paint (white))

Then I have a couple that I hatched and am wondering if they're maybe partridge?

I appreciate all of your help!

 

[CascadiaRiver]

I believe your IDs are correct, although I'm unsure how show quality the colors are, im rusty in silkies

 

[Cloverr39]

I see one paint, multiple splashes, a blue, some blacks, and and it looks like two partridges.

 

[JessiV14]

I believe your IDs are correct, although I'm unsure how show quality the colors are, im rusty in silkies

Thanks! I definitely don't believe that any are show quality. (As I got the smaller ones as an egg for raw milk trade from a customer and they'd have comes from a mixed flock. The older ones are from TSC and Bomgaar's.)

I'm hoping to breed these ones so that I can get the money to invest in show quality stock.

 

[JessiV14]

I see one paint, multiple splashes, a blue, some blacks, and and it looks like two partridges.

Thank you! Is it accurate that some blacks are actually a dark blue? I'd have to look into it a little more- but I felt like I saw something talking about blacks vs dark blue and how they're often mistaken.

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Thank you! Is it accurate that some blacks are actually a dark blue? I'd have to look into it a little more- but I felt like I saw something talking about blacks vs dark blue and how they're often mistaken.

In my experience we saw way more "poor blacks" ie a black with just not great color to it, weak, than we saw really dark blues. Maybe it's just some breeders preference for a bird who looks distinctly blue so that's what ended up common over here, but typically it was poor black not dark blue

 

[Cloverr39]

Is it accurate that some blacks are actually a dark blue? I'd have to look into it a little more- but I felt like I saw something talking about blacks vs dark blue and how they're often mistaken.

Sometimes they can get confused and be hard to tell apart, but I don't think it's super common. Usually even dark blues will have lighter blue/grey underfluff, while blacks have very dark underfluff. You could also compare chick down, if you had photos of the bird as a chick. Usually even darker blues will look lighter than blacks as chicks. A sure way to tell, though time and space consuming, is test breeding and seeing if the bird acts like a blue or black.

 

[JessiV14]

Sometimes they can get confused and be hard to tell apart, but I don't think it's super common. Usually even dark blues will have lighter blue/grey underfluff, while blacks have very dark underfluff. You could also compare chick down, if you had photos of the bird as a chick. Usually even darker blues will look lighter than blacks as chicks. A sure way to tell, though time and space consuming, is test breeding and seeing if the bird acts like a blue or black.

Thank you! Would you have any advice on how to do that? I'm just starting with the silkies and At this point know nothing of genetics. Super excited to learn though!

 

[Cloverr39]

Thank you! Would you have any advice on how to do that? I'm just starting with the silkies and At this point know nothing of genetics. Super excited to learn though!

Sure. Black, blue and splash are often bred together. There are many breeding charts for it online. Here's one for example.

If you want to test if a bird is black or blue, you can breed it to splash or blue. If it produces any splash chicks, it's a dark blue. If only blue and black, then it's very likely a black. Black chickens can never have splash chicks, because splash only happens when a bird has 2 copies of the blue gene, one from each parent. Since blacks don't have any blue genes, they can't have splash chicks.

How are you planning to set up your breeding pen(s)? Usually, people breed black, blue, splash together. You could add paint in too, but then you'd have to plan a little, so paint wouldn't mix with splash, which, I imagine, would be a mess to tell apart later on. Partridge is usually bred only to partridge. Or you could also do a mixed color flock if you're not worried about sticking to the standard colors.

Personally, I breed black, blue and paint Silkies. But that's just my personal preference.

 

[JessiV14]

Sure. Black, blue and splash are often bred together. There are many breeding charts for it online. Here's one for example.
View attachment 4169871
If you want to test if a bird is black or blue, you can breed it to splash or blue. If it produces any splash chicks, it's a dark blue. If only blue and black, then it's very likely a black. Black chickens can never have splash chicks, because splash only happens when a bird has 2 copies of the blue gene, one from each parent. Since blacks don't have any blue genes, they can't have splash chicks.

How are you planning to set up your breeding pen(s)? Usually, people breed black, blue, splash together. You could add paint in too, but then you'd have to plan a little, so paint wouldn't mix with splash, which, I imagine, would be a mess to tell apart later on. Partridge is usually bred only to partridge. Or you could also do a mixed color flock if you're not worried about sticking to the standard colors.

Personally, I breed black, blue and paint Silkies. But that's just my personal preference.

Oh that is fascinating- thank you!!! At this point, I'm still undecided. Waiting to see what everyone turns out as (M/F). I love splash and paint. But I have a couple of blacks that I am pretty sure are female and they're awfully cute! So it's hard to say.

I may just keep and try and hatch a few batches of each until I decide on set colors. Ultimately, I hope to get better quality stock, but I'll have to sell some of the chicks from these to be able to afford them. lol So maybe that's why I'm hesitant to decide on these... knowing I want better quality birds.