Khaki

[Sonoran Silkies]

Yesterday I hatched two silkie babies in short order--one khaki, followed by a blue. Side by side it is easy to see the subtle difference of hue. Anyways, I have a fair number of khakis and I thought I would share some. It is still a work in progress, but I am happy and excited with what I am seeing.

 

[blackclownfish16]

They are amazing!!!! Frizzle and Dun Oh my! What is that one splash looking one in pic #5? Also is pic #3 khaki partridge?

Anyways, I have a fair number of khakis and I thought I would share some

Yes please! I'll take a trio!

 

[Henk69]

clever to use blue jeans for contrast

 

[crazy chook]

They are just gorgeous. congratulations!!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Yes please! I'll take a trio!

Ummm, the photos are to share. If you are interested in mutts that have decent colour, we might be able to work something out

Yes, there is a splash in the photo--maybe a couple more hiding in the back, too.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Pure accident, lol. When I pulled the two babies out of the incubator yesterday and saw their colour contrast, I was excited. The khaki is such a soft and pretty colour--like the down of a pussy willow.

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Great job Sonoran!!! They're beautiful!!! I'm working on the same project, but you're way ahead of me! Hopefully I'll be able to "share" next spring...

Keep up the good work!!!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

What was your outcross to introduce the colour? I've had chocolate silkies for years, but the colour was/is too dark; never hatched a khaki, so not sure of the genetics. Came from my first cross variety mating (back when I didn't have any sort of clue about genetics at all, was still very new to chicken breeding) from a self-blue (lavender) splash X white. And half my hatchlings were--I could not figure out the colour--not blue (although I am sure (now) that they also carried blue as daddy was self-blue and splash. Definitely not black--some were lighter than others, but the lightest was still a very dark brown. Fluff is sort of a cafe-au-lait to dark brown colouring.

At some point one of my crosses displayed obvious dun/khaki colouring. As a chick dh called him my pink chicken, because his hue was a taupy pink. His sons had better colour, but even worse type despite having pure silkie mamas. Anyways, I finally decided to acquire a pair of chocolate (dun) polish to introduce better colour. I bred that pair to anything that had any remote chocolate or dun colour,as well as to blacks. I've had them for 2 1/2 years, and as their offspring have matured I've paired the better type and coloured birds together. Still a long way to go as most are lacking type and/or show some off colours. I think that silver and not-blue help create better plumage colouring.

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Quote:
Well, my first outcross was by accident, really - one that I wouldn't have chosen, had I been actually working towards it at the time - but it sorta worked out to my advantage.

It was my blue partridge silkie rooster and my bantam WC dun and WC khaki cuckoo polish hens. I got one blue, one black cuckoo and one that I'm not sure what color she is, but she's a cuckoo. I've shown her pic on here a couple times - in certain light, she looks like a pale blue cuckoo, and in another, she looks like a bluish tan cuckoo (some people have asked if she was a lavender cuckoo, but I doubt that). But she has gold in her hackles from her dad, I assume... The black cuckoo died early on, and the blue looks ok, but she's not dun/khaki (well, she is kinda "muddy", so I'm not sure) - but she's got a nice beard, I'm assuming because my dun Polish hen has a full beard (whereas, the khaki cuckoo is not bearded, and the father's beard is not full). The weird cuckoo does not have a beard tho, I guess because her khaki cuckoo mother doesn't. Neither of them have crests as big as yours tho.

I *know* what you're probably thinking - cuckoo passes from mother to son and not mother to daughter - right??? I don't know how this happened, but the only rooster my Polish hens had been with for MONTHS was my blue partridge silkie rooster, and he shows no barring whatsoever... Yet, this weird cuckoo is DEFINITELY a hen - I've physically watched her lay an egg several times in the last year. I am going to try her out with my black cuckoo silkie rooster just to see what happens (I don't have a solid black silkie rooster at the moment).

My next project will be my bearded WC khaki Polish rooster with my black and black cuckoo silkie hens. The rooster is probably JUST coming of age, so I probably will wait til the fall since my space is limited - that way I KNOW I'll get dun and dun cuckoo chicks!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Well, my first outcross was by accident, really - one that I wouldn't have chosen, had I been actually working towards it at the time - but it sorta worked out to my advantage.

It was my blue partridge silkie rooster and my bantam WC dun and WC khaki cuckoo polish hens. I got one blue, one black cuckoo and one that I'm not sure what color she is, but she's a cuckoo. I've shown her pic on here a couple times - in certain light, she looks like a pale blue cuckoo, and in another, she looks like a bluish tan cuckoo (some people have asked if she was a lavender cuckoo, but I doubt that). But she has gold in her hackles from her dad, I assume... The black cuckoo died early on, and the blue looks ok, but she's not dun/khaki (well, she is kinda "muddy", so I'm not sure) - but she's got a nice beard, I'm assuming because my dun Polish hen has a full beard (whereas, the khaki cuckoo is not bearded, and the father's beard is not full). The weird cuckoo does not have a beard tho, I guess because her khaki cuckoo mother doesn't. Neither of them have crests as big as yours tho.

I *know* what you're probably thinking - cuckoo passes from mother to son and not mother to daughter - right??? I don't know how this happened, but the only rooster my Polish hens had been with for MONTHS was my blue partridge silkie rooster, and he shows no barring whatsoever... Yet, this weird cuckoo is DEFINITELY a hen - I've physically watched her lay an egg several times in the last year. I am going to try her out with my black cuckoo silkie rooster just to see what happens (I don't have a solid black silkie rooster at the moment).

My next project will be my bearded WC khaki Polish rooster with my black and black cuckoo silkie hens. The rooster is probably JUST coming of age, so I probably will wait til the fall since my space is limited - that way I KNOW I'll get dun and dun cuckoo chicks!

Well, I have had cuckoo girls hatch without having a known cuckoo daddy, so I understand what you mean. But my cuckoos are for the most part accidental--not really serious about them at this point, so I am not as particular at pairing as I would be if I were truly serious. This past year I've paid more attention to my mottleds and chocolates/khakis than to cuckoo.