Seperating Silkies by color , I need help.

[willowcol]

Ok my husband and I spent the day dividing up the shed he got me 2 weeks ago into seperate coops for my new babies. it is 16 foot long, so he did 5 different area's. 1 is almost 4' wide the rest are each 3' wide. and they are each 6 foot long. Here's my problem, I wanted to sperate the silkies by color, I need 2 of the areas, 1 for my frizzle and a few none frizzled siblings, and 1 for my 3 EE's. that leaves me 3 pens. I have 3 white, 2 blue, 2 black, 1 splash, 1 Part., silkies hatched, and a bunch of buffs in the bator with more whites. I was wondering if I can pen the blue, black, and splashes together or would this mess up the colors if I were to try to hatch eggs later. None are even close to laying yet they were just hatched in Nov. My husband is saying I have to pick 3 colors of the silkies and sell the rest, I am hoping I won't have to do this but I guess I might. I really love the part. silkie but only have 1 not sure what color to pen this one with til I figure out thier gender.

 

[LilPeeps]

Blue, black, and splash can be, and often are penned together. The best blues often come from black x blue or black x splash pairings and the best splashes often come from blue x blue or blue x splash pairings.

black x blue = 50% black, 50% blue
black x splash = 100% blue
blue x blue = 25% black, 50% blue, 25% splash
blue x splash = 50% blue, 50% splash
splash x splash = 100% splash

 

[WVFarmgirl]

Blue, black, and splash can be, and often are penned together. The best blues often come from black x blue or black x splash pairings and the best splashes often come from blue x blue or blue x splash pairings.

black x blue = 50% black, 50% blue
black x splash = 100% blue
blue x blue = 25% black, 50% blue, 25% splash
blue x splash = 50% blue, 50% splash
splash x splash = 100% splash

NEAT LILPEEPS!!!

I had no clue about color genetics in chickens!!! Okay so I know this is off subject sorta, but I've kinda got the similar problem with my dear sweet/evil silkies... I have 2 splash, 1 blue, and one white (kinda tan-tinged on the top of his head, but I'm still saying white)... They're still to small to sex *3 weeks*, but what would happen color wise if the white crossed with the splash or blue???​

 

[tileman@prodigBird Raiser]

If you don't want to sell any you could put all of your splash,blue,blacks together. If you breed partridge and white together then you could get grays.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Partridge + White does not necessarily equal grey. In fact I would say that it usually does not.

White is essentially a switch that turns OFF the appearance/display of whatever other colour and pattern genes are present in the bird. Without breeding a white to a non-white you won't have any clue which of these genes your white birds do and do not carry.

Partridge is caused by the presence of Pg (Pattern Gene) and S (Gold). Change the gold to silver (s) and you have grey. There are other helper genes that can improve the partridge pattern, but this is the basics.

As has already been said, you can pen your blue. black and splash together. Buffs and blues can also go together (although you will get some off colours). But since all your birds are babies, at this point it really doesn't much matter.

FWIW, you can sex the partridge more reliably sooner than other colours simply by plumage. Girls should have fairly good penciling on their wing feathers and also on their backs. Males will have little to no penciling on their backs and usually much less (if any) on their wing feathers. They will, however start to develop colour in their "male" areas: shoulders, hackles, wing bars and bows.