Partridge Silkies - Nothing else

[peepblessed]

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This is probably way too late to respond to, but I am a professional artist and understanding color is part of my work. Here is a color chart http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...3E6B788AA390FF2FF9DEABD71B344D862622D&first=0 You can chose the color in your silkie that you most want to highlight and then look at the exact opposite color on the chart. That would be the background that would best show off your bird. You might want to tone it down a bit by chosing a color near by. An example of opposite color use would be the orange thread used in most blue denim jeans.

I am in the graphics business and peepblessed is absolutely correct that picking an opposite complementary color background will give the most contrast. That's why white Silkies really "pop" off of a black background. It is because the opposite of white is black.
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k304/racuda00/Silkies/White Silkies/thirteen4-1.jpg

However, there is the matter of aesthetics. While the opposite color of a partridge Silke may be some shade of aqua, I think the effect is somewhat garish. Others may disagree.

(not my bird)http://silkiesforsale.com/images/Partridge RoosterSmall.jpg

I'm afraid I agree with your husband that a white background may be a better choice. With white, your bird can be the "rainbow", without having to compete with a too colorful background.

If the aqua was muted or dulled, I believe it would work. Other wise the background is competing with the foreground...

 

[peepblessed]

I hatched out a batch of my first silkie eggs a few days ago and was blessed with several partridge chicks. I just finished reading this entire thread as I was wanting to find out if I was up to the challenge of breeding partridge. I don't mind telling you it's been hard reading at times and I am so sorry for the pain so many of you have experience this summer, but you all have encouraged me to take up the challenge. This is my favorite partridge of the group. I'm am nearly positive it is a cockerel as "he" is already defending the "flock" when the big hand decends into the brooder as "he" stands his ground and pecks my fingers while the others run away peep-screaming! This photo was taken 24 hours after hatch.

 

[SilkieTime]

How cute is that?

 

[pennie1]

Absolutely adorable. You should mark it to see if indeed it is a little cockerel. Now you think you will always know which one it is, but as they get older you MAY say to yourself "which one is that", and you could kick yourself for not marking it in some way.

 

[pennie1]

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Gosh, I want one that color. This is what I got.

 

[pennie1]

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partridge

Pennie is that if the white is recessive or dominant? I would think if the white is recessive to something else and there is homozygous (sp) genes present then you could get some weird colors when added to a partridge.

That is probably very true. I keep forgetting about all of these recessive gene things. My whites must be dominant. I know that they come from whites going back several generations. I always wished that I woud get a some other cool looking colors, just to see, but no such luck. I should have kept them to breed back again to see, but lack of space -yada, yada, yada. I sold them as mutts just recently with about 8 other off color birds to some nice farmers that just wanted some of "them fuzzy chickens". I warned them that there were about 11 out of 12 boys, but they didn't care. They said that they liked the roosters better because of the fancier colors.

 

[pennie1]

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Do you have more pictures? I would love to see them. That almost looks porcelain. How pretty.

 

[Cetawin]

Had to share my little "dark partridge" baby growing up...I am fairly positive it is a cockeral

Real sweetie. Came from eggs purchased from Kentucky silkies, I will get better pics tomorrow. Not sure what color he really is the egg was marked partridge. But I love him, his name is Loki

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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There is absolutely no way to tell. White is an OFF switch htat prevents the display of colours and patterns present in the bird. So, basically the white is an unknown.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Pennie is that if the white is recessive or dominant? I would think if the white is recessive to something else and there is homozygous (sp) genes present then you could get some weird colors when added to a partridge.

That is probably very true. I keep forgetting about all of these recessive gene things. My whites must be dominant. I know that they come from whites going back several generations. I always wished that I woud get a some other cool looking colors, just to see, but no such luck. I should have kept them to breed back again to see, but lack of space -yada, yada, yada. I sold them as mutts just recently with about 8 other off color birds to some nice farmers that just wanted some of "them fuzzy chickens". I warned them that there were about 11 out of 12 boys, but they didn't care. They said that they liked the roosters better because of the fancier colors.

Dominant white is not common in silkies; pretty rare. In either case (dominant or recessive) it is an OFF switch that prevents the appearance of colours and patterns that are genetically present in the bird. Those colours and patterns that you cannot see in a white bird are inherited by the offspring, along with genes from the non-white parent. With the non-white parent, you can have a pretty good idea of which genes will be passed on as you can see that they are present. But you have no idea what teh white parent wil provide as you cannot see them.