Self Blue (Lavender) Silkie Thread

[catwalk]

GypsyChick, I have your pullet's twin! She's from black split over partridge isabel breeding. I want to call her lav/lav, but like yours, she's a bit too dark. Her full brother is black.

 

[GypsyChic]

Thanks Catwalk, gorgeous! Here are a couple more pics of pullet in question. We are overcast/cloudy today, but at least the pics arent as dark as the previous one. Maybe you can see she's not really blue

I've included a pic of my blue girls for comparing. Am still very stumped...

Wing and feet

Side Views

Blue Gals

ETA Correct my stupid spelling

 

[IndigoEgg]

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Sometimes you just have to stand back and say, "What a lovely girl!" I'd put her with a Lavender or a Buff and see what happens... Whichever one you have or that she likes the best. With a Lavender Parent, she is sure to produce Lavender... right? and more pretty babies like herself.... which I've heard are great with Buff.... and you may even get another beautiful surprise...
My first Silkie was a Blue/Partridge boy that was stuck in with some Araucana bantams I ordered... and I had a white one my Mother in Law gave me..... They produced a gorgeous DEEP Red boy and Calico, White, Gray and Blue...

 

[catwalk]

Both our birds have a similar color of beige as my pullet's mother's darkest shade. Just as there are variations of buff coloring, maybe there are different shades of isabel?

 

[featherbaby]

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Oh, she is a BEAUTIFUL GIRL!!!!!! wish I had one like her!

 

[IndigoEgg]

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I want one!! So beautiful and I don't have one that color yet

 

[ultasol]

I am going to sell both of my isabels. I'm preferring the lavender- more predictable.

Now, those nice red silkies,... if only the black could be further minimized.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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IMO, the dark plumage & undercolour on her is blue, not black. No, she is not a blue bird, but her eumelanin (black pigment) is blue (a dilution of black).

 

[Darling Farms]

So, we have been hatching EVERY week and having terrible hatch rates with our lavenders (and our splits as well... but losing more due to problems with fertility).

We have been keeping excellent records to calculate our fertility percentages...

Does anyone else and what are yours? Lavenders? Black Splits?

The ONLY thing we haven't done is to mark EACH hen to see if some have a higher egg mortality rate than others...

We had hoped that crossing back to black would help the egg mortality... maybe just not in the first generation?.?.?

We have supplemented with vitamins. We have proper humidity levels. Is this typical of something else like inbreeding?

~Darling Farms

 

[Elite Silkies]

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I have hatched 1 lavender in the last year. Get them to day 18 and they just quit. I have started a new vitamin which has made them lay like crazy, and I trimmed their butts to help fertility. The first batch I set w/out trimming I had 11 fertile out of 21. This next batch is with the trimming, so I am hoping to see more fertility in them. Now, it's just getting them to hatch. Hoping the vitamins help with hatchability.