Producing Calico Silkies

[fayoumisfeathers]

I saw an old thread about calico silkies. The birds seemed to be splash silkies with red feathers mixed in. The pictures i saw portrayed very beautiful birds, and i wonder how they're produced. Do you breed splash and partridge together? Do you cross silkies and another breed together? I'd love to know any information anybody has on the subject.

Thank you for reading and/or responding!

 

[FLChickens]

That WOULD be interesting ...

(Posting because I want to see replies too!)

 

[bramblefir]

The "Calico" part is caused by the mottling gene. The best breeding method to get it into Silkies will take a lot of generations to produce a nice quality Silkie with the heavy mottling.

Option 1:
Start with a Black Tailed Buff Silkie male X Mottled Silkie female.

Cross the offspring together. Hatch LOTS from this cross, 200 would be a good minimum.

From those chicks cull everything that isn't Mille Fleur. This will leave you with less than 25% of the # you hatched.

Retain the heaviest mottled chickens and ones with the best Silkie for the next generation.

Continue on selecting for type and heavy white markings.

 

[Kev]

The hobby is pretty bad with names. Too many same terms applied to different things, also the same thing given different names. "Calico silkie" is one of those examples.

It has been used for a Grey with red on it. I have seen birchen patterned ones called Calico.... The one above is a new one to me, using mottle.

As for the OP, I actually saw that same example called calico just last week.. it WAS a Splash with red leakage. The same thing as a black with 'unacceptable' red on neck and back except in Splashed version. I will say it did look 'cool'. If this is the version you are looking for then your idea was on the right track, crossing a blue or splash with a partridge is a good way to get 'leaky blues'. Or you can look for a black or blue line known to be very leaky, with lots of red areas. If you get lucky and find a blue leaking red, you can breed them together to get the splashed leaking reds for that version of "Calico". If you find blacks leaking reds, just breed it with a blue or splash to bring in the blue gene and then breed back to the leaky blacks/breed two blue leakys together.

 

[bramblefir]

The hobby is pretty bad with names. Too many same terms applied to different things, also the same thing given different names. "Calico silkie" is one of those examples.

It has been used for a Grey with red on it. I have seen birchen patterned ones called Calico.... The one above is a new one to me, using mottle.

As for the OP, I actually saw that same example called calico just last week.. it WAS a Splash with red leakage. The same thing as a black with 'unacceptable' red on neck and back except in Splashed version. I will say it did look 'cool'. If this is the version you are looking for then your idea was on the right track, crossing a blue or splash with a partridge is a good way to get 'leaky blues'. Or you can look for a black or blue line known to be very leaky, with lots of red areas. If you get lucky and find a blue leaking red, you can breed them together to get the splashed leaking reds for that version of "Calico". If you find blacks leaking reds, just breed it with a blue or splash to bring in the blue gene and then breed back to the leaky blacks/breed two blue leakys together.

In Cochins the "Calico" color is a Mille Fleur with hysterical mottling. They're usually on a red/buff base. Here's someone's pic of their Calico Cochin:

I'd actually never heard of Calico being used on anything but Cochins. Thanks for teaching me something new!

 

[CSolis]

Reviving this thread... I've got what I call a Calico Splash Silkie Rooster. He and his current wife (Dark Blue or Black Silkie hen) are producing splashes and blues. What I'm interested in is the color of hens to put with him.. and if the calico pattern is exclusively male or can females have it too? I have a few blue/red chicks but they are looking quite male to me at 11 weeks. Fortunately there are more batched hatched weeks later that might show promise.

The one blue with red leakage just had to be a son who now has a flock of his own.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Reviving this thread... I've got what I call a Calico Splash Silkie Rooster. He and his current wife (Dark Blue or Black Silkie hen) are producing splashes and blues. What I'm interested in is the color of hens to put with him.. and if the calico pattern is exclusively male or can females have it too? I have a few blue/red chicks but they are looking quite male to me at 11 weeks. Fortunately there are more batched hatched weeks later that might show promise. View attachment 3499425The one blue with red leakage just had to be a son who now has a flock of his own.View attachment 3499427

Both genders can be Splash Calico.

I have a poor quality Splash partridge/calico colored boy, but he's from a show quality breeder though.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Planning on breeding him to his daughter's sometime which are Blue Partridge, to hopefully produce some better calicos.

 

[CSolis]

I have been working on breeding Splash to a BBO F1, that is a daughter of a silver partridge.. That's how I got my first one. So my theory goes, Splash to Partridge would probably be the route to go.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

Following to see other's. With @MysteryChicken 's help I am aiming for Partridge splash too (correct me if I am wrong!). Currently only have a couple cockerels (Splash and Blue, silver Partridge), and am waiting to find the right girls for them