Mixing silkie colors..pics of how I got certain colors

[Krys109uk]

I'm not good at recognising certain genes in silkies....to me she looks like a buff crossed with a black, so perhaps your whites are black under the recessive white.

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

WOO HOO you got the pic up!!

 

[goldenyolk]

ohhh wow!! I have chicks now that the rooster is buff and the hen is white, as chicks they do look like they are partridge mine are only 2-3 weeks old. cool I do like your silkie there,

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Whatknott, you pullet is a partridge, although it doesn't look like her penciling is as complete as it ought to be.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
I believe white silkies are usually recessive white. But yes, there is a dominant white....this is the white most usual in white leghorns.

If I had a white hen and black roo then I would get black, the colors don't "mix"?

If we're talking aout recessive white, I don't think there's a way to know for certain, unless you know what other colour genes the bird is carrying. Often one could guess that the offspring would be black with leakage. The only time genes "mix" is if there are two incompletely dominant alleles....like blue. Two blue genes gives a splash bird, two not blue genes gives black (in those zones affected by the gene), but when there is one of each gene the result is an intermediate colour, in this case blue.​

I'm not sure that an incompletely dominant gene gives the best example.

Chicken feathers contain only two pigments: black and red. All feather colours are made from these two pigments. White is the complete lack of pigment.

There are some genes that dilute one or both of the pigments: For example, the black gene puts black pigment into the feather, but the blue gene dilutes that pigment--somewhat like mixing water into paint. The blue gene does not dilute red pigment. However, there are several genes that do so (just as there are other genes that dilute black). There are a few genes that dilute both colours.

Just as there are genes that dilute the pigment, there are other genes that enhance or deepen or concentrate one or both pigments.

So, in a sense, these genes do mix the colours.

In other words, a white bird is always going to pass a white gene but it will be hidden?

With recessive white, yes, exactly.​

The offspring of a recessive white bird will always receive a copy of recessive white; however, the offspring of a bird carrying dominant white may or may not receive a copy, as the parent may only carry one copy. In this case approximately half its offspring will inherit it; the other half will not.

There is no way to tell the difference between a bird carrying one copy of recessive white and a bird carrying no copies. If a bird carries two copies of recessive white, there is no way to tell if it carries dominant white.

Let me ask this.... a white bird is hiding nothing, but other colors can be hiding white?
Is this correct?

Two recessive white genes will hide all the other colours (like turning the effcets of the other colour genes off). Any other colour can hide one recessive white gene.​

A recessive white bird is hiding EVERYTHING it carries relating to colour and pattern. A dominant white bird hides many of the colours and patterns it carries, but not necessarily everything.


Asking what the outcome of a mating between a white bird and a (pick whatever variety you want) is like saying "if I mate my variety bird, what will the offspring be like?"

When you have demonstrable results of a mating to a white bird (such as the partridge bird shown), you will gain some insight into the genes carried by that particular white, but the results do not translate to another white.​

 

[whatknott]

thanks for clarifying that she is a partridge - the man that i got the buff rooster from, said she was a partridge; but she's not as dark as some of the ones that I've seen on this thread. What color are partridge when they are chicks? do they look like the "chipmunk" color that americanas are like?

 

[nzpouter]

Is that calico actually a splash on partridge....false pile?

 

[Krys109uk]

If I had a white hen and black roo then I would get black, the colors don't "mix"?

An incompletely dominant colour gene is an example of when two colours appear to mix. The definition of an incompletely dominant gene being when the heterozygote expresses as the intermediate of the two alleles.

Dilution genes, in of themselves, are not an example of genes appearing to "mix". Recesive dilution genes do not appear to mix but seem to dissapear when heterozygous.

Recessive white, usually appearing completely recessive will not appear to "mix". i.e. white X black ‚grey​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I think we're using "mix" a bit differently. Are we blending two colours together to make a third colour somewhere in between, (think two colours of paint), or are we showing both colours (think of stirring together two colours of gravel or sand)?

You are describing one versus two copies of an incompletely dominant gene; I'm referring to separate genes that interact, regardless of whether there is one or two copies of either--just that there are sufficient copies for the gene to "work."

I think we are in complete agreement on recessive white.

----

Calico has been used as a name for a couple of very different genotypes. The one shown on this thread is a new one to me. Autosomal red seems to always be involved.

 

[melissa508]

I wish it was as easy as mixing paint ..i had thought that years ago..but learned through lots of experiments that its not.
The grays i got were patterned, and i got other colors from mixing black and white..its a good way to get both blue partridge & the red variety.

Thats black x white mix yielded me 100% grays..but every single one was a female....???

In that 1st cross pictured buff x white roo ..I also hatched some real smutty buffs & what i call sealpoint or maybe bluepoint...very similar to the markings of a siamese cat. picture a creamy base color with solid blue crest.
Ive also tried reversing it , using a buff roo x white hen...yuk!..a mess of 50/50 buff & black smut.

people seem to love the unusual colors even more when theyre on a nice quality silkie--I sure do!

Ive got some experiments now & when theyre complete i will do another post like this...This involves a partridge rooster & ?

I have some other experiments ive photographed..i will dig through my thousands of pics & see what else i have thats interesting.