Silkie Coloring Question

Without knowing the genetic background of the whites, the most you can say is that the offspring will be carrying at least one copy of the blue gene. Everything else would be an unknown.

 

No telling! White tends to "cover" other colors from past generations. The chicken calculator says blue....but ......

 

Quote:Could that be because the calculator is assuming dominate white and not recessive?

 

Quote:Could that be because the calculator is assuming dominate white and not recessive?

I believe that the calculator assumes extended black under the white. If you play around with it, changing everything except the recessive white, you still have a white bird, but your crosses to splash will vary. If your white hens were produced from non-white crosses, you may have an idea of what you'll get, but you'll probably just have to try it and report back.

 

Can someone post the picture to the chicken calculator?

 

Quote:Could that be because the calculator is assuming dominate white and not recessive?

No, Silkies should be recessive white. If the splash bird is extended black then the chicks will be blue and will leak some color depending on the genes found in the white birds. Black birds and white birds are just a genetic guess concening the genes they carry. Black birds can and many do carry the pattern gene and some carry the columbian gene. The E locus of a bird usually determines how much color the offspring will show- if a bird is purebred for extended black (has two E alleles (genes)) they normally do not show any non black color but if a bird has one E (extended black) allele and a wild type allele and carry the columbian gene they have a good chance of showing some non black color.

If you cross a black female bird with a buff male bird the females will normally show large amounts of buff color on the anterior end of the bird. Many buff birds are buff because they carry both the dark brown gene and the columbian gene- along with other genes. These two genes work together to clear the black from the anterior end of a female or male. I have produced almost white birds by using the columbain and dark brown genes in combination. This combination works very well on silver wheaten or gold wheaten birds (buff).

Your white birds could be buff under the white- you just do not know. They could be partridge or laced?

Tim