Lavender/Paint Silkie Genetics

[Kimballs Coops]

Hello! I’m new to this and am planning on breeding silkies next year. I’m trying to plan all my separate pens.

I wanted to have white silkies and lavenders. So I was going to get a white split lavender rooster with white only girls.

Then I saw paints and realize I really want those too! Some forums I saw said that you just mix white with black. So it seems like I can mix my white rooster with a black silkie, but I’m worried about the lavender gene split and there’s not much info on it. I don’t want to mess up my pen so I’m trying to figure this all out early on. Thanks in advance!

 

[Amer]

Only dominant white with black will give you paints. If your rooster is recessive white, which is more common, that won't work. You might want to ask the breeder what type of white he is.

 

[Mill Chick]

I think @Debbie292d might have an idea because I have heard she breeds silkies!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hello! I’m new to this and am planning on breeding silkies next year. I’m trying to plan all my separate pens.

I wanted to have white silkies and lavenders. So I was going to get a white split lavender rooster with white only girls.

Then I saw paints and realize I really want those too! Some forums I saw said that you just mix white with black. So it seems like I can mix my white rooster with a black silkie, but I’m worried about the lavender gene split and there’s not much info on it. I don’t want to mess up my pen so I’m trying to figure this all out early on. Thanks in advance!

I can't help with the lavender because I chose not to breed them. They take a lot of upkeep for the color, like back breeding. @Slothinc breeds lavender silkies though and could help you with those.


For paints, no, a white silkie bred to a black silkie will not make paints, unless your white silkie is dominant white. You could test it to see if yours is, but you will get blacks and whites most likely; if you get all paints, bingo!

Your best bet to try to get a dominant white is to get yourself a male and female paint and breed those. Then you'll get 50% paint, 25% black, and 25% white. Of those whites, they should be dominant. I do not know the percentage though, like is it all of them? I don't know so when I get to that point, I'm saving all the white ones. Then take your white silkie and breed it to a black silkie, and that should be 100% paints.

 

[Kimballs Coops]

I can't help with the lavender because I chose not to breed them. They take a lot of upkeep for the color, like back breeding. @Slothinc breeds lavender silkies though and could help you with those.


For paints, no, a white silkie bred to a black silkie will not make paints, unless your white silkie is dominant white. You could test it to see if yours is, but you will get blacks and whites most likely; if you get all paints, bingo!

Your best bet to try to get a dominant white is to get yourself a male and female paint and breed those. Then you'll get 50% paint, 25% black, and 25% white. Of those whites, they should be dominant. I do not know the percentage though, like is it all of them? I don't know so when I get to that point, I'm saving all the white ones. Then take your white silkie and breed it to a black silkie, and that should be 100% paints.

Very interesting! So for my rooster I should be looking for a paint breeder then and get a white. Lavender will have to just be on hold I guess. Seems like I can’t do it the way I want to.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

What would happen with dominant white x chocolate?
Specifically like dun or khaki x dominant white? Would that make paint? Or just black?

 

[Amer]

What would happen with dominant white x chocolate?
Specifically like dun or khaki x dominant white? Would that make paint? Or just black?

Dun x Dominant White would give you paints and theoretically dun paints.
Since the dun allele is on the same locus as dominant white you can't have khaki paints. Khaki x Dominant White would theoretically give dun paints.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Dun x Dominant White would give you paints and theoretically dun paints.
Since the dun allele is on the same locus as dominant white you can't have khaki paints. Khaki x Dominant White would theoretically give dun paints.

That's where my line of thought was going but I wasn't sure it was correct. Thank you for confirming.

 

[Slothinc]

@Debbie292d Thanks for the tag, I don’t know why I didn’t see it until now!

For the original poster, everyone has already steered you in the right direction. I am playing around with lavenders and paints right now, and much to my surprise (and joy!) I hatched a lavender paint or two in my most recent batch of chicks. They aren’t pure silkies but are about 3/4 silkie. I am so excited to see how the lavender paints grow out. If you do want to breed lavenders, whites, and paints, if you do dominant whites instead of recessive. Recessive white is much more common in silkies so you actually have to get the dominant whites from a paint breeder. Even then, you have to be careful because I have a paint girl that throws recessive white chicks, so she carries one recessive white gene and one dominant white gene.

If you get dominant whites you can breed them together and you will get 100% dominant white chicks from them. Or you can breed dominant white to a black chicken and get 100% paint. So that is really cool. Dominant white bred to paint would give you half white, half paint chicks. So maybe that is something you would enjoy - getting a dominant white rooster and putting him with paint hens.

Lavender if bred properly is a black bird with a recessive diluter gene (they need two copies of lavender.) So you could use black split to lavender with your paints, just be aware that lavender paints can pop up if both parents carry the lav gene. I’ll attach a pic of my lavender paint baby - you can see the lavender feathers coming out in the wing.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

@Debbie292d Thanks for the tag, I don’t know why I didn’t see it until now!

For the original poster, everyone has already steered you in the right direction. I am playing around with lavenders and paints right now, and much to my surprise (and joy!) I hatched a lavender paint or two in my most recent batch of chicks. They aren’t pure silkies but are about 3/4 silkie. I am so excited to see how the lavender paints grow out. If you do want to breed lavenders, whites, and paints, if you do dominant whites instead of recessive. Recessive white is much more common in silkies so you actually have to get the dominant whites from a paint breeder. Even then, you have to be careful because I have a paint girl that throws recessive white chicks, so she carries one recessive white gene and one dominant white gene.

If you get dominant whites you can breed them together and you will get 100% dominant white chicks from them. Or you can breed dominant white to a black chicken and get 100% paint. So that is really cool. Dominant white bred to paint would give you half white, half paint chicks. So maybe that is something you would enjoy - getting a dominant white rooster and putting him with paint hens.

Lavender if bred properly is a black bird with a recessive diluter gene (they need two copies of lavender.) So you could use black split to lavender with your paints, just be aware that lavender paints can pop up if both parents carry the lav gene. I’ll attach a pic of my lavender paint baby - you can see the lavender feathers coming out in the wing.

What would happen if you put a dominant white male over an Isabel? Would it leave the red alone and leave lavender spots on white?