Silkie color genetics

[Janelmitchell]

Is anyone selling bearded silkies?

 

[Dkbahoo]

I’m sure this was discussed but it’s such a long forum. Do you have to breed black with black to get black silkies and so on and so forth? Are certain colors dominant?

 

[Thomas Lamprogiorgos]

Is it easy to sex silkies by color by using black male over females with barring?

 

[Sneebsey]

@Thomas Lamprogiorgos, that would create a black sex-link, and would work in the same way as with any other breed.

@Dkbahoo, the important thing when colour-breeding, at least as far as I'm concerned, is to keep the e-locus pure. As long as all the birds in the pen are pure for extended black, the offspring will be pure, whether they are black or not. Blue/Splash, Dun/Khaki and Paint, as well as Black (obviously) are all based on Extended Black, so can be bred in the same pen with all offspring being pure for their colour variety. The same is true of Chocolate and Lavender, though I personally would not breed recessive genes such as those into a mixed group. Black pullets will be produced from a cuckoo hen in with a black cockerel, though the male offspring will be impure for barring, hence why I have not included them in my suggestions for a mixed group.

 

[Dkbahoo]

Wow thank you so much for all the information. I have some white, splash and partridge silkies that are about 6-7 months and the males are white and then I have 6 week old chicks that I got from somewhere else that are black, partridge, tan and white that I don’t know what gender they are so I was just curious what I could end up creating if I hatched some eggs. They seem like pretty good genetics but I don’t know too much about the breed yet. Thanks again! QUOTE="Sneebsey, post: 20637228, member: 470456"]@Thomas Lamprogiorgos, that would create a black sex-link, and would work in the same way as with any other breed.

@Dkbahoo, the important thing when colour-breeding, at least as far as I'm concerned, is to keep the e-locus pure. As long as all the birds in the pen are pure for extended black, the offspring will be pure, whether they are black or not. Blue/Splash, Dun/Khaki and Paint, as well as Black (obviously) are all based on Extended Black, so can be bred in the same pen with all offspring being pure for their colour variety. The same is true of Chocolate and Lavender, though I personally would not breed recessive genes such as those into a mixed group. Black pullets will be produced from a cuckoo hen in with a black cockerel, though the male offspring will be impure for barring, hence why I have not included them in my suggestions for a mixed group.[/QUOTE]

 

[Sneebsey]

I would suggest that you breed your blacks with your splash; this pen will produce black, blue and splash, if there is a cockerel of each colour. All will be pure for their colour variety.

White silkies are recessive white and should not be bred into an extended black group. Although they are solid-coloured, they are oftentimes based on partridge or wild type rather than extended black; recessive white is powerful enough to dilute pheomelanin (gold) and eumelanin (black) to that pure snow white. A bird must have two copies of recessive white to express as white, so a white crossed to a black will usually produce leaky blacks; with their groundcolour (silver or gold) coming through.

I'd be inclined to keep partridge on their own too.

I'd like to see pictures of the 'tan' chicks; there's a few options as to what they could be genetically.

 

[Dkbahoo]

@Sneebsey so helpful! Thank you! I guess I’ll have to wait til my 6 weekers grow up since I only have white roosters! Here’s one of the tan ones. I also realized/remembered I have a cream colored hen as well.

 

[Sneebsey]

That's a Gold cockerel; again, Golds ought to be bred together only. The cream is another mystery; pictures are worth a thousand words.

It does sound as though you have a nice wide range of colours; I would suggest reading into the e-series genetics behind each of your varieties, and pen accordingly. I'm particularly keen on this method as it allows for a mixed-pen producing pure offspring; every hatch will be a surprise with various colour chicks, but every chick will be pure for its colour variety.

 

[Sara White]

Where can I find info on what colors are possible with certain colors? Like if I pair a black rooster with a splash hen what color or colors could I get? And if I paired a white hen with a black rooster what color would I get?

 

[Dkbahoo]

Where can I find info on what colors are possible with certain colors? Like if I pair a black rooster with a splash hen what color or colors could I get? And if I paired a white hen with a black rooster what color would I get?

From what I’ve gathered from posters on this site, a black rooster is the only way to create a reliable mix. If you cross a black rooster, with a splash, you could get a splash, blue or a black chick. Silkies have to have two copies of recessive white gene to show as white. So a white rooster bred to a black hen could show leakage in the black coloring with their ground coloring come through silver or gold...