I HAVE 1 BLACK SILKIE HEN & 1 BLACK SILKIE ROO,1 CHICK IS SPLASH ?????

[BackSwampGirl]

Can someone tell me what caused that.I thought they would all be Black.But this one is not.It is very cute and I will keep it and love it,but I don`t know how this happened,HELP !!!! Sandra

 

[mylilchix]

I found this the other day, hope it helps!

Blue fowl are actually a bluish slate color. Genetically they are black fowl in which the black pigment granules are modified in shape and distribution of the surface of the feather, creating a dilution of black and causing the characteristic bluish slate color. This is the hybrid expression of two hereditary color factors, black and a form of white (usually with some splashing), neither of which is dominant over the other, but which are blending in character. Blue-to-blue will produce off-spring one-half blue, the other half evenly divided in black and splashed whites; and blue to black, and blue to splashed will produce the parent types equally, while black to splashed will produce all blues.

It came from this link: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res12-feathers.html

Sonja

 

[shelleyd2008]

Yes, but black to black should produce black. Evidently one of your birds is a very dark blue. It would be hard to tell on a silkie, since you most likely wouldn't be able to see any lacing.

 

[jimnjay]

All of the chicks I hatched from my Black over Splash looked black but they were genetically blue. If I bred a male and female from these offspring I could get splash. You may have birds that look black but are genetically blue. Look at the feathers close to the skin. If they are light at the base, they have the blue gene. A true black Silkie will be black all the way to the skin.