I need some information on the different colors of Silkies

[BoiseBubba]

Quote:
"Birchen" does not exist yet, and if it does its on a VERY small scale.

Assigning a name to a bird doesn't make it what it looks like. That bird may not ever throw anything that looks like even remotely like it.

ACTUALLY! It does!! And it is VERY similar to Grey!!!

And I didn't "assign" any name to the birds! I simply said they MIGHT be one of those colors!

Not trying to be rude

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

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My point is that if someone breeds a white bird to a black bird and produces offspring that *resembles* something else, and assigns a name to it because it resembles something else, doesn't really make it something else. Its still a mixed color bird. It doesn't actually become considered something else until it breeds true for multiple generations.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sevin 5% is correct.

A true birchen silkie would be awesome, but I've never seen even a photo of one. Yes, it is possible they are greys--a photo would allow us to say yea or nay to that.

I will disagree with Chris on the "may not ever throw anything that looks like even remotely like it." It probably WILL throw at least some chicks with similar plumage--it partially depends on the bird it is mated to and the homozygosity versus heterozygosity of its genes.

Yesterday I was reading a several years old thread on a different website with discussion mostly from the poultry geneticist heavyweights. One had done some genetic research on silkies, using birds from several breeders. He was surprised to discover that of them, only the "pure junk from back yard breeding" line was genetically pure--the rest, despite coming from prominant breeders, were very far from pure.

The big question is whether you want it to throw chicks with similar plumage or not. There is no perfect bird--you take what you have and breed to another bird who hopefully will correct the faults of the first bird (and of course you want the first bird to correct the 2nd's faults as well).