Self Blue (Lavender) Silkie Thread

[Sportsterjeep]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_(chicken_plumage)

 

[Hennypen]

How long as it been a silkie color?

 

[brenTx]

Quote:
If you are talking silkies this is HOW but the gene has been around for years. This is by Donnie Eldred from Texas.

The lavender silkie came about as a side product out of another breeding program that I was working on. This is some of the history leading up to the lavender silkie. I believe it was 1978 that I saw a pair of Self Blue Old English bantams at the Ft. Worth Stock Show Poultry Show. They were in terrible condition, dirty, broken feathers, and in generally poor condition. But, they lingered on my mind until I just had to have them; I fell in love with the color. After the show was over, I tried to run them down, only to find out that the people who showed them had given them away. The Self Blue Old English were killed by a dog, a very short time after the show.

So, I decided to breed my own Self Blues. At the time, I had regular Blue Old English and I selected the lightest, most solid color Blue and the smokiest colored Splash and crossed them together. I continued on this for 5 years and at the end of 5 years, I was no closer to getting Self Blues than when I started.

I purchased the book “Bantam Chickens” by Fred Jefferies and found out that the Self Blue color was caused by a gene called Lavender, which I didn’t have. After much study of Mr. Jeffries book, and corresponding with him through the mail, he sent me a setting of eggs from a breeding program that he was working on at that time. Out of those eggs, I hatched 3 chicks all Self Blue color. The setting hen stepped on one of them and killed it before I found they had hatched. Of the two left, one had a beard, reflective of its Self Blue Belgian d’Anver ancestors. I only used the chick with no beard (a male) and crossed him with Black Old English. I also crossed him with Black Cochin Bantam and started on the road to Self Blue Cochins. When the recessive Lavender is mated to a Black, all offspring will be Black and all will carry Lavender.

When these Black carriers are mated together, a ratio of 1 to 4 will be Lavender. Then Lavender to Lavender will produce all Lavenders. I ran this Lavender through my Blacks for a couple of years to improve the type. I wasn’t totally happy with the type; tail too short, feathers too narrow. About this time, a friend, Lynn Thomas became interested in the program and began to help. To make the tails longer and the feathers wider, we made a cross with a Black Rosecomb and also a cross with a Black Japanese. We then crossed them together and got Self Blue chicks that we called JRs. We used the JRs to mate with the Old English and made some improvement on the tails. We also used the JRs and made matings with Black Rosecomb to produce Self Blue Rosecombs and with Black Japanese to produce Self Blue Japanese. We also crossed some of the breeder birds in the Cochin breeding program with a Black Silkie and started to make the Self blue Silkie. In the year 1988 we had Self Blue varieties in Old English, Rosecomb, Japanese, Cochin, Silkie, and Wyandottes. All these were of reasonable quality.

I met Fred Jefferies at a show and showed him pictures of the Self Blue Breeds that I had made. He indicated that the Silkie would be the best breed for the Self Blue Color because of the nature of the Silkie feather. Over the years, I have gradually got rid of the different breeds and at this date, Summer of 2007, I only have the Self Blue,(Lavender)Silkie.
I have found that there is much confusion in the minds of poultry people about Self Blue and Blue. Blue comes from a dominate gene called Blue. Whereas, Self Blue comes from a recessive gene called lavender. It is my opinion that Self Blues and regular Blues should not be bred together, nothing good comes from it. In other places, Australia, Great Britain, and
probably other places that I don’t know of, the color variety is called Lavender. I believe that Lavender is a better descriptive name and it may help eliminate some of the confusion between Blue and Self Blue. It will also help the Lavenders fit in better on a global basis.

In the last few years, some of the best Silkie breeders have become interested in the Lavenders. Deb Steinberg became interested about seven years ago, and is doing great raising them. Brenda Gambill (Bren) became interested about five years ago and is off to a great start. I believe that most of the ASBC members will recognize these names as honest, hard working club members that would be happy to help you get started with lavender silkies. We need as many people interested in breeding and showing these Lavenders as possible to help when it comes time to put them into the Standard.

 

[fowlrus]

WOW, Great explination! Thanks so much Bren.

 

[Hennypen]

Yep, exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!!

 

[jen5680]

MERRY CHRISTMAS all you silkie lovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

My babies got extra goodies today. Merry Christmas to all!

 

[jen5680]

I have 3 lav babies that I am going to be selling. Born on 10/27. I can't tell what sex they are
bc to me all the lav chicks look like boys untill they are much older?????
If anyone is interested pm or email me.

edited to add that I believe they are sold now. Thanks to those of you that sent me a pm and hopefully
I will have more later.

 

[jen5680]

These are some pics of a beautiful cockerel I bought from Bren at the ON show.
He has filled out even more since these pictures and starting to love the ladies!!
I can't wait to see what his babies look like!!

These are some beautiful youngsters that I bought from Darling Farms. She still has
them at her place untill the weather gets a little warmer on my end.

 

[bacres]

Beautiful!