Silkie Chick colours

[Natsirs]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping you all could help me with the colour of a couple of my recently hatched chicks. They are from my black silkie cockerel who has a lot of silver leakage and my paint hen (pictures below). I hatched 5 chicks - 3 are paints - but 2 look a bit more grey. They’re about 3 days old. Greyish one is on the right in all attached pictures.
Thank you xxx

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Welcome to BYC! Your Silkies are beautiful!

I'm still trying to figure out all of the Silkie colors myself, my grey chicks are splash Silkies but they came from a splash hen. I found this link very helpful on breeding paint Silkies.

https://vjppoultry.com/tag/paint-si...59gg5dlHwjbL_cPZrlMt_BPllehSXf7R7j9Qcpjut7GV0

 

[Natsirs]

Welcome to BYC! Your Silkies are beautiful!

I'm still trying to figure out all of the Silkie colors myself, my grey chicks are splash Silkies but they came from a splash hen. I found this link very helpful on breeding paint Silkies.

https://vjppoultry.com/tag/paint-si...59gg5dlHwjbL_cPZrlMt_BPllehSXf7R7j9Qcpjut7GV0

That’s why I’m so confused as I though greyish silkies were from the blue side of things rather than black! My guess is that both parents have blue genes?? Also one Of the grey ones has pink and black feet which I though was something attributed to paints!

 

[Natsirs]

After a bit of searching they grey one could actually just be a white silkie! Will have to wait and see what colour the adult feathers are.

 

[chickens really]

I had a dark grey Silkie chick and it turned white once the feathers came in.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

There’s the possibility that your parent birds hold one copy of the recessive white gene and these two chicks picked up both copies from the parents.

Recessive white chicks usually hatch with down that relates to the ‘base colour’. A recessive white that hatches with a gold tinge is gold based, a recessive white that hatched with a grey tinge is silver based.

These chicks when older will most likely be all white unless they are just paints that have hatched without their black markings as that can also happen.

Lovely chicks!

 

[Natsirs]

There’s the possibility that your parent birds hold one copy of the recessive white gene and these two chicks picked up both copies from the parents.

Recessive white chicks usually hatch with down that relates to the ‘base colour’. A recessive white that hatches with a gold tinge is gold based, a recessive white that hatched with a grey tinge is silver based.

These chicks when older will most likely be all white unless they are just paints that have hatched without their black markings as that can also happen.

Lovely chicks!

Thank you that's super helpful. I'm thinking they definitely could just be white chicks then - especially as their father has a lot of silver leakage!