Silkie breeding, genetics & showing

[fluffyfeathers]

Thanks for your reply. So I'm guessing my rooster must be a golden?

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[Hawkeye95]

Hi. I'm pretty new to Silkies but I've been reading this thread and want to thank all of you for the great education. I purchased a gray trio 2 months ago and just hatched 5 chicks from them. One chick looks different than I expected. It has red or rust colored markings. I'll post pics of the parents. Please tell me what you think. I would appreciate any feedback. Btw I'm new to posting so bear with me while I figure out how to post pics.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/5370532/
Well help on this would be appreciated too. I'm doing this from my phone. Meanwhile the pics are on my profile page in the gray Silkies album

Partridge chick! Very typical markings for one. But that doesn't always mean they will grow out to be a typical looking partridge.

This bird is absolutely stunning. Would he be considered a more feminized rooster? If so, I need to start giving our boys some estrogen so they can turn out like this guy!

In regard to our blacks, it just occurred to me when we purchased the chicks in June, they were black with a light colored downy fluff on the chests and abdomens... almost a yellowish white. I don't know if that is a predictor of the bluish undercoat that has developed.

I did hatch a black last year-- it was the ONLY black egg to hatch for me out of the blacks I tried. It ended up dying hours later due to the umbelical opening being very large and it was rear heavy and had issues. Anyway, it was pretty much black all over. It didn't look like my blues that hatched. It did have a bit of lighter down on it's belly, but not too bad.

Thanks for your reply. So I'm guessing my rooster must be a golden?

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this is a grey, but he probably has gold too and I thought I saw gold leakage on another of your greys. Sonoran is the person to answer this! I'm pretty sure she can tell you why that happened.

Sonoran-- could he be silver partridge?


Has anyone bred blue X blue to get black?? I think I will give it try and see what happens. Sigh. Would even lighter blues produce a "good" black? Or would the best bet be the darker blues?

 

[fluffyfeathers]

I downloaded Tapatalk so now I can upload pics! So here are the pics I couldn't post before. Thank you to those of you who took the time to look at my page earlier Here are the gray parents and the resulting chicks. Thanks for your input. Now i know my rooster must have gold if he produced this partridge chick I'm going to have to go out and look at that hen. I never noticed gold on her before.

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[fluffyfeathers]

And here is the other hen. I just went out and looked at where the gold showed up in the pic. I don't think it is gold but if the sun hits it right it does have a gold tint.

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[fluffyfeathers]

This is the same hen from a different angle.

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[littlecritters]

Has anyone bred blue X blue to get black??  I think I will give it try and see what happens.  Sigh.  Would even lighter blues produce a "good" black?  Or would the best bet be the darker blues?  

This summer, I asked folks on The Coop to help me understand the genetics of black silkies, and how to get true black silkies in a breeding program. The general response was to "never" use a black that comes from blue stock or blue origins. I can post the link to that conversation if anyone is interested. There was some indepth genetic discussion, which I had some difficulty interpreting. Maybe someone here can decipher? At that time I did not query about blue underfluff, and yesterday I went back to The Coop with a follow up question.

 

[peepblessed]

This is the same hen from a different angle.

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They are both unusually colored. I think you definitely need someone like Sonoran to post comments.

 

[peepblessed]

This summer, I asked folks on The Coop to help me understand the genetics of black silkies, and how to get true black silkies in a breeding program. The general response was to "never" use a black that comes from blue stock or blue origins. I can post the link to that conversation if anyone is interested. There was some indepth genetic discussion, which I had some difficulty interpreting. Maybe someone here can decipher? At that time I did not query about blue underfluff, and yesterday I went back to The Coop with a follow up question.

Does that indicate that the blue gene percentages are out the window or that all the blacks are really blue or that the blacks are just poor quality blacks?

1) Blue x Blue: This will produce 25% black, 50% blue, 25% splash.
2) Black x Blue: Produces 50% black and 50% blue.
3) Black x Splash: You'll get 100% blue.
4) Blue x Splash: Produces 50% blue and 50% splash.
5) Splash x Splash: This will give you 100% Splash.
6) Black x black: 100% black

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: No. Split refers to having one copy of a recessive gene. Paint is definitely not that, else you would never get paints in a first generation cross of a paint to a non-paint that does not come from paint lines. Since you can take a paint and cross to a black that has never been from a paint breeding and get paint offspring, the gene is at least incompletely dominant.

I do not believe that a black from a paint breeding carries the genetic capability of passing paint genes to its offspring.

A black that came from a recessive white bird is indeed black split to recessive white. Likewise a bird with one mottled parent is split to mottle.

"Split to" is a widely used (not just chickens) genetic breeding term. It has the same meaning as heterozygous, except that it is applied only to birds with hidden recessive genes, whereas heterozygous does not distinguish for dominance.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Thanks for your reply. So I'm guessing my rooster must be a golden?

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All I see is pure silver (S/S). If there is any red on wings (I don't see it, but if), it would be autosomal red