Good night everyone. I'm new on byc and also new in the Silkie world and on top of that....French speaking.
So there is a couple of abreviations I don't understand but working on that.
I live in Québec Canada and got my first pure white silkue last year. I bought hatching eggs this year and got 1 white pullet 1 black roo 2 black pullets (I think) and 2 partridge 1 roo 1 pullet. When they were chicks they had the stripes on the back. But now as they are growing looks different than partridge...well for one. I learned that she was silver...but do I say silver partridge or it is not partridge? I also have one..a boy I think...3 months and a half with red ...can you help me on this...do we call him red partridge...silver red partridge or just ...partridge?
Thanks for the great topic...
Isabelle![]()
Hello and Welcome to BYC

Ask us any abbreviations you don't understand - be they English/French translation or just Chicken translations. Chicken language is almost like learning a different language as well.
Partridge is one of those mixed up and misused colors. Everything with a striped chick is lumped into Partridge. The nice thing is you have a name to show them under - or tell people about them. The bad thing is getting the colors to what the SOP calls for is next to impossible with all that is thrown in and mixed in there. I still love the color! Another thing about Partridge - it can change when they grow up. There are genes which change the feathers that don't show up until the first (juvenile) molt, and they can change again when they get their final feathers. You can have a Partridge chick grow up to look like a Blue - or a Black - and you won't be able to tell it was ever Partridge, unless you cross it with a bird that carries Partridge and you can loose those other genes. Its why sometimes Partridge birds show up from a Blue/Black/Splash pen (called B/B/S for short).
The Boy with the red on the wings.. that could be something called Autosomnal Red - and it is not desired in any color except Partridge (Gold). I believe you could call him Silver Partridge with Red leakage, if you wanted to term it correctly. Unless he now looks like his sister - who looks like a Blue? A picture of him would help us give you what to call him, because we can't go on genetics - only what he looks like on the outside as an adult.
Isabelle is pretty, and she looks like a Blue to me. If she doesn't have the silver neck and front then I would call her a Blue. Even though she was a Partridge striped chick. She carries genes that repress the Partridge and make it into Blue.
Now that's just the tip of the iceberg about Partridges.. but I STILL love the chipmunk chicks!
I hatched out a bunch of Partridge x Bluff chicks this year (trying to get to Partridge). Of the 6, half were yellow chipmunks, the other had a gold chipmunk look. I kept the gold chipmunk ones and gave the yellow chipmunks to my mother. The yellow chipmunks look like Partridge (so she tells me) and the gold chipmunks look like ... Smutty Buff (Buff with dark tails and red on the boy's wings). However - from the Blue hen - I got.. Black, Blue and WHITE! I was NOT expecting that white! Genetics are always interesting.