need help with silkie chicks and their proper color

[crittercaretech]

I am somewhat new to Silkies but have had chickens for years. I had a remodel of our coop in progress and had not planned to breed when I put several different colored hens in with my white showgirl silkie rooster. My friend had her house burglarized during this time and her pet chickens were stolen. Her family was heartbroken so I offered to incubate some of my silkie eggs from the mixed colors. The resulting chicks came in colors I have not hatched silkie chicks in before and color genetics in chickens is still something I struggle to understand in some areas. would love some help to get the colors correct. The white showgirl rooster ( from white on white breeding that hatched with a goldish hue ) was in a pen with two black hens ( both from black on black breeding) a blue splash hen and a blue cuckoo hen. I have 3 chicks with chipmunk strips one very light tan with very light stripes, one medium colored tan and a brownish colored striped chick. there is also a very light silver blue chick same color all over with black or dark fluff around the eyes. Is this chick just a blue that is very light colored or something else and will it likely stay this light if it is a blue as it matures. I will post front and back photos of the striped trio of chicks and the blue?? chick. Are the stripped just different varieties of partridge or ???
Chick 1

Chick 2

Chick 3

Chick 4 is this a blue that will stay the light silverish color or will it darken with age or is it another color?

thank you for taking the time to look over this post. any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

I'll be honest. Not sure. One scenario though is your boy could just have one gene of dominant white (unless he's recessive but I think most white silkies are dom white) and that him and your ladies ALSO carried some not-black genes and these little ones are partridge or grey or another color somewhere. Out of curiosity, what colors have you gotten in the past? Was it out of this group? And do you own any other chickens besides these guys who are penned up together? Im not sure if they'll be showable if that's what they want but they should be cuter than a cloud so I suppose mission accomplished? once they're older it should be easier to know color for sure

 

[crittercaretech]

I'll be honest. Not sure. One scenario though is your boy could just have one gene of dominant white (unless he's recessive but I think most white silkies are dom white) and that him and your ladies ALSO carried some not-black genes and these little ones are partridge or grey or another color somewhere. Out of curiosity, what colors have you gotten in the past? Was it out of this group? And do you own any other chickens besides these guys who are penned up together? Im not sure if they'll be showable if that's what they want but they should be cuter than a cloud so I suppose mission accomplished? once they're older it should be easier to know color for sure

This is the first batch of chicks from this young rooster. The gentleman I got him from as an egg was a believer in white to white breeding so other then that I have no clue what could be hiding in his white coloring. the blue cuckoo hen is from a black colored cuckoo roo and my blue splash hen. She is young so this is the first time I had tried to incubate any of her eggs. the two clack hens were from black on black breeding and I had never bred them to anything other than a black roo before this and 100 percent black chicks from them. My black roo died a while back and am waiting for his son to grow up and replace him. my friend just wants some pets for her family and color or showing doesn't matter to them at all. I was just surprised to get such a colorful hatch from these birds and it peaked my curiosity. I have never raised partridge colored birds so wasn't sure if this was how they presented or if the different shades represented different types of partridge. They are cute as can be. I may have to hide one for myself when she picks them up tomorrow, lol. In addition to some colorful chicks this young rooster did better then expected producing 6 naked neck Silkies out of a hatch of 8 Silkies.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Chick number one and two I believe are white (many white chicks are greyish at hatch).
Chick number three is partridge and chick number four is blue or splash.
Little cuties! There colors will be more evident when there wing feathers come in.

 

[crittercaretech]

Chick number one and two I believe are white (many white chicks are greyish at hatch).
Chick number three is partridge and chick number four is blue or splash.
Little cuties! There colors will be more evident when there wing feathers come in.

Thank you for your thoughts. White is such a confusing color for me to grasp. Learning is fun and BYC members are full of knowledge and they are willing to share it. Gorgeous Georgia is the chick in my profile photo. Gorgeous Georgia grew up and became Gorgeous George, who happens to be the father of the little cuties in Question.

 

[Northwest_Wannabe]

Thank you for your thoughts. White is such a confusing color for me to grasp. Learning is fun and BYC members are full of knowledge and they are willing to share it. Gorgeous Georgia is the chick in my profile photo. Gorgeous Georgia grew up and became Gorgeous George, who happens to be the father of the little cuties in Question.

White can be kinda confusing, in short though in chickens theres two main kinds of white, dominant white and recessive white (two different genes). Dominant White is dominant, if you have a dominant white bird you can expect around at least 50% of the total chicks to be white. Recessive White is recessive, you need two of the genes in order to make the bird white, unless the bird you're breeding the rec. white to ALSO carries white or is recessive white, all of their offspring will be coloured and carry white (assuming they didn't breed a rec white to a dom white) I hope this makes any sense ^^"

also! Paint, is when you have one gene of Dominant White and a black based bird : D

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thank you for your thoughts. White is such a confusing color for me to grasp. Learning is fun and BYC members are full of knowledge and they are willing to share it. Gorgeous Georgia is the chick in my profile photo. Gorgeous Georgia grew up and became Gorgeous George, who happens to be the father of the little cuties in Question.

My white cockerel is named Jane, kept the name despite the gender switch!

 

[crittercaretech]

White can be kinda confusing, in short though in chickens theres two main kinds of white, dominant white and recessive white (two different genes). Dominant White is dominant, if you have a dominant white bird you can expect around at least 50% of the total chicks to be white. Recessive White is recessive, you need two of the genes in order to make the bird white, unless the bird you're breeding the rec. white to ALSO carries white or is recessive white, all of their offspring will be coloured and carry white (assuming they didn't breed a rec white to a dom white) I hope this makes any sense ^^"

also! Paint, is when you have one gene of Dominant White and a black based bird : D

I think you may have turned the light on in my brain . I will let it soak in a little and if you don't mind I may have a few questions this evening which will show if I got it or not. I still have some thinking issues following a head injury a few years ago. letting new info bounce around in my brain for a while before I test myself works best.