Silkie color

[strawberry69]

I have a 50% splash and 50% white rooster bred with my white silkies and I got a nice mix of splash and white chicks except for one that is white with orange flecks. Should I cull this one? How did this happen? The rooster father was from a splash breeder. He only had one offspring, this roo that I am using now. This was my first hatch with him

 

[LynnaePB]

I have a 50% splash and 50% white rooster bred with my white silkies and I got a nice mix of splash and white chicks except for one that is white with orange flecks. Should I cull this one? How did this happen? The rooster father was from a splash breeder. He only had one offspring, this roo that I am using now. This was my first hatch with him

When breeding recessive white to anything other than recessive white you can get all sorts of things popping up in the offspring, this is because all sorts of colors can be hiding underneath that white. Most white silkies are recessive white unless they are from a paint line.

Recessive white needs two copies to work and basically turns off the feather pigment so the feathers come in white. There is still genetically another color there you just can't see it. When you take a bird that does not have two copies of the recessive white and breed it to these recessive whites whatever color is hiding underneath the white will come into play.

One of your white hens was probably carrying something involving red underneath for you to get that baby. If you repeat the breeding you'll likely get more eventually. Whether you should cull or not depends on what your breeding goals are.

Adorable baby by the way, I love the color!

 

[strawberry69]

Thanks. I have hatched all my white silkies for 4 years now and never got anything but white before this splash was introduced. Had a white silkie rooster before the splash grandfather and this 50% splash/white roo. Interesting that so much orange showed up now. I think it's a roo because how it stands and is larger than the other chicks so probably won't breed him if he is a rooster. BUT it sounds like I may get this color again at some point. Thanks for your insight.

 

[LynnaePB]

Thanks. I have hatched all my white silkies for 4 years now and never got anything but white before this splash was introduced. Had a white silkie rooster before the splash grandfather and this 50% splash/white roo. Interesting that so much orange showed up now. I think it's a roo because how it stands and is larger than the other chicks so probably won't breed him if he is a rooster. BUT it sounds like I may get this color again at some point. Thanks for your insight.

No problem!

What you experienced when you added the splash in makes perfect sense, whites are kind of like wild cards when not breeding to another white! Luckily when bred to another white their genetics are really straight forward and you should get only white chicks no matter what color might be hiding underneath that white.

If you do get more orange offspring and decide to breed them back to another white you should still get 50% white offspring from that breeding because they are carrying one copy of the recessive white gene (as would any non white offspring that hatches from your white hens).

 

[cluckadoodledoo13]

Aww he’s adorable, certainly unique!