Lavender Chickens

[gilnik]

So does he have some available now? Are they day old chicks?

 

[ksacres]

He generally only does pre-order hatches- you put in your order, he sets the eggs, then sends you the chicks.

Edited to add: I think that's how he does it, that's what it says on his website. I don't know him personally and have only spoken with him through email.

 

[User48]

I ordered some lavender silkies from Ideal. They're due to arrive in March. I know the quality will only be "pet," but I'm hoping to breed them to some of my excellent quality whites and go from there. It'll take a while, but will hopefully be a fun experiment. Otherwise, it's very, very difficult to find anyone willing to sell lavender silkies...

Laura

 

[ksacres]

Quote:
The lavender gene only works on black and red. You will get results faster using nice black silkies. Just a suggestion.

 

[sara]

Quote:
DH doesn't know yet

Not that he would care, just didn't tell him. It took me a while to get a cockerel lined up and had to go away so I actually thought I had missed them. I didn't mean to steal them from you

 

[User48]

"The lavender gene only works on black and red. You will get results faster using nice black silkies. Just a suggestion"


Thanks for the tip! I thought (but obviously am confused) that someone on ASBC (the Silkie bantam club) discussed building up their lavender flock by using excellent quality whites. I'll go back and see if I can find the original thread. My very best bird is a black hen from Bobbi Porto, though, so black would also work. She's the only great black I have at the moment, but hopefully by the time these chicks are of breeding age some of her babies will be ready.

Laura

Well, I looked back at ASBC and couldn't find the thread I thought was there about breeding lavenders to white, but that's what Fawkes' Feather Farm appears to do - at least part of the time - to improve type. This is her home page, where she discusses it:
http://www.silkiechickens.com/lavender_silkies.htm

I'm doing a great job of procrastinating to avoid work today, but when after I actually accomplish something today I'll post a new thread to ASBC & ask about this...


(edited to include the Fawkes' Feather Farm info - From what I understand, Fawkes' & one another breeder are the pioneers in the world of lavender silkies.

)

 

[ksacres]

It is basically impossible to know what color your "white" silkie really is unless you breed to other colors. A black bird is black. I know this probably doesn't make any sense, but there are only 2 true colors in chickens, black and red, everything else is created by modifiers of black and red. If you start with a black (no off color) you will already know exactly what you have. Here's a link if you feel like more information http://marsa_sellers.tripod.com/geneticspages/page0.html

or, one that's slightly easier to understand http://www.pekinbantams.com/genetics_three_two.asp

I am sure it could be done with white silkies as well, but if your white silkie is really a partride, or a red, or even a gray, you are going to have off colors or strange patterns within the lavender. And you will still be dealing with a recessive white gene (most silkies are recessive white) that can pop up several generations later. You could really save yourself several years by starting with good quality blacks.


I need to work on being more concise. This is a huge post.

 

[User48]

Are you kidding about the huge post? If that's long, then mine must be novels!

I do understand about the way that white can funk things up because its history is not obvious & so any color might later emerge. Since Fawkes is really the best known lavender silkie breeder, though, I figure she must have a reason for including white into the equation. It looks like she also uses black, even an occcasional off-color black, if that black otherwise conforms & carries the lavender gene. The example she uses on her site is a "typey" black with an off-color on its wing. Obviously much of this will be trial & error & luckily I'm in no rush. I am, however, thrilled to have access to the lavender gene, because I know of lots of folks who tried to get pet quality lavenders - just for the gene - from Fawkes but were unable to because, to her credit, she is working hard to perfect her lavs and isn't interested in selling them yet.

Thanks for the great gene/color links.

Laura

Edited to fix horrid typos.

 

[ksacres]

I went to her site, and seeing the birds she's getting from the whites, I would say her whites are based on blacks, which works.

Those are very nice birds she has. Good luck

I'm venturing into several color projects myself this year, just not with silkies.

 

[User48]

I hope you'll keep us posted on how things go with your color project. Though not really specific to color (would it be pattern? or type?), I'll never forget my reaction to first seeing a frizzled white laced polish and a mille fleur cochin. Both seemed to improve so much on the breed (not that I don't love non-frizzled wlp and non-mille cochins too), and were all the result of someone having a vision & being creative. Anyway, I look forward to hearing about where your color experiment takes you. Good luck!