How to breed the yellow out of Silver?

[mandelyn]

Is yellowing something that you can breed away from? We have Marans in B/B/S Silver, when the silver first starts coming in it's bright and clean on most, then it molts out to a yellowed hue.

Just keep putting the most silver over the most silver and chip away at it each generation?

Add birds with better silver from another line?

Hatch hen by hen and tagging them, removing those who throw darker saddles on sons?

Thinking about raising a batch next year that don't get sunshine, to see how much of it is sun damage.

This is my 2nd choice cockerel for next year at the moment...

First choice (tentatively, pending further grow out)

Brothers we haven't culled yet, the blue one holds promise.

The dad to all of them after 1 year old.

His dad was a Splash, the only male we received so I didn't have the choices then as I do now.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Silver/Gold is yes/no, either/or in almost all cases. I've not yet read a paper describing an isolated modifier gene with any significant yellowing effect. Granted, I haven't read all the papers available on the subject @nicalandia would be the one for that.

I'm pretty sure that most of what you're seeing is sun damage. Wait until they moult; my bet is that you'll be able to tell immediately which feathers are new simply by their hue.

You do have some very nice-looking birds, and I don't even like Marans. (Give me a short-backed, deep-chested, long-tailed bird any day of the week, says the woman with "cochin"in her username.)

 

[mandelyn]

You might like this guy then, he yellowed out too but also had a lot of sun time.

 

[nicalandia]

Silver/Gold is yes/no, either/or in almost all cases. I've not yet read a paper describing an isolated modifier gene with any significant yellowing effect. Granted, I haven't read all the papers available on the subject @nicalandia would be the one for that.

The term you are looking for is Autosomal Red, which is a very generic term for red enhancers(Mahogany is the most well known) that are autosomal in nature(not sex linked) they work independently from Silver or Gold, once they(multiple of them) are introduced in a line is nearly impossible to get rid of them, and it has been found that the most perfect Silver/White colored birds have autosomal red inhibitors(recessive cream, Dilute),

Birds that start out pure silver(say the first year) don´t have any red enhancers but with age and sun damage will turn their silver into golden color because they lack any of the inhibitors,

Birds that remain mostly pure silver their entire life are suspects carrying gold inhibitors.

Birds(specially males) that start out silver but as they mature(from male chick to young cockerel) turn yellow are believed to have autosomal red in them.

Birds(specially males) that start out silver but as they mature(from male chick to young cockerel) turn rich yellow/Red shoulders are believed to be S/s+ with or without autosomal red in them.

Also a few breeds like the Salmon Faverolles are Silver based(S/S for males and S/- for females) but with multiple Red enhancers will give a look that resembles S/s+ males.


Take a moment to read: Visual "White" in Chicken Varieties by Brian Reeder
http://brianreederbreeder.blogspot.com/2014/03/visual-white-in-chicken-varieties.html