Red Silkie Genetics

I'm not Sonoran but can say that a red comb can be difficult to breed out. You would need to breed to hens with the darkest combs/skin then select and keep only the offspring with the darker combs (that meet the standard). Breed them together and see if your offspring are acceptable. Eventually you should be able to hatch a nice cock with a dark comb to continue your line.

 

Sorry, I just saw this post. The males comb is redder due to his hormones, and/or he may not be pure for the dark skin genes. Yes, red combs can be difficult to remove.

Breeding to black may or may not help. It may add more black to their plumage. Better to find and breed to a dark combed buff cock. I specifically mention male because you can tell that he has sufficiently dark skin and comb. A females is naturally darker due to lack of testosterone.

Buffs and reds are created with either e^b or E^Wh. e^b birds are more likely to have black in the plumage and darker combs. E^Wh birds are more likey to have clearer plumage and lighter combs. Blacks can be either E, E^R or e^b based. If either of the first two, the offspring would be black with gold leakage.

Doug, do you have photos of your birds?

 

Just watching this.. I am curious to see the answers too. Maybe someone will know.

 

Black on the calculator assumes the black birds are E based. The reality is that any e-allele except wheaten can create a black bird with sufficient melanizers added. Crossing a black bird who is not E will pass some, but possibly not all melanizers. If we had a more complete list of the melanizing genes, it would help; unfortunately, they are not all researched and documented.