Recessive and dominant white in silkies

[truegritacd0]

I've had paint silkies for several years now and they were just a fun pen but this past year I've decided to concentrate on improving the quality of my birds and focusing on colors. I know that when breeding paints you're supposed to get paints, blacks and whites but in the several years I've been breeding this particular group of birds. I always get comments about them having good white color and not having any yellow/gold leakage. I've never produced solid blacks or solid whites until this year. I have not added any new paints to my line since I got the original birds I started with, except this year I put one of my white showgirls hens with them to get paint showgirls. I've gotten solid white birds this year and hatched 3 chicks with partridge feathers, not black. I read on a post in byc, that paints are basically a partridge bird with dominant white gene. Any info is appreciated and should I keep the whites and breed them to see what I get?
I've added some pics of 2 of my paints and some from the birds that have partridge feathers.

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh boy. We were just talking about partridge silkies in my silkies thread, but never heard of nor had an issue with partridge getting into my paints.

What two birds were you breeding before you added the showgirl? If it was two paints, then yes, you should have been getting blacks and whites as well as paints. 100% paint is achieved by breeding a dominant white silkie to a black silkie.

If you start here on my thread, pay attention to what @NatJ posted in a couple spots about the partridge and dominant white. That might help.

 

[NatJ]

That is definitely a bit odd.

I know that when breeding paints you're supposed to get paints, blacks and whites

Yes. Paints typically have the genes to be a black chicken, plus one dominant white gene. When you breed them together, you get some white chicks (inherit dominant white from both parents), some paint chicks (inherit dominant white from just one parent) and some black chicks (do not inherit dominant white from either parent.

I read on a post in byc, that paints are basically a partridge bird with dominant white gene.

I would guess that someone was mixed up when they posted that.

Paints are generally based on black.
But white Silkies are often based on partridge, plus two genes for recessive white.

So I'm thinking someone made a post with those two mixed up.

I've never produced solid blacks or solid whites until this year.

That is a strong indication that you actually have something different going on genetically, not paint. I'm suspecting something like Columbian or Silver Partridge, but with more white and less black than either of those usually has. But I'm not entirely sure.

I have not added any new paints to my line since I got the original birds I started with, except this year I put one of my white showgirls hens with them to get paint showgirls.

Is the showgirl solid white? Or does she have some bits of black? I can't quite tell in the picture.

I've gotten solid white birds this year

That could happen if the showgirl has dominant white and the "paints" do not.
Or it could happen if the showgirl has recessive white, and your paint rooster also has one recessive white gene.

and hatched 3 chicks with partridge feathers, not black.

Those have me a bit puzzled. That should only be possible if they are genetically gold (vs. silver). A female can only be gold if she inherits it from her father. A male can only be gold if he inherits it from both parents. For either sex, it calls for the father having the gold gene. But the father is not showing gold. And he is probably not carrying it either, given his nice clean white color. (Silver is dominant over gold, so he could show silver and carry gold, but birds like that will usually show a yellowish or dirty-looking color, not a nice clean white/silver color.)

Is there any chance that any of the hens had contact with any other rooster? That is an easy explanation for off-color chicks if it happened to be true.