silkie colors and how to breed for them

[silkies4penny]

hello, I am new to the silkie world, and I was wondering if someone could tell me what colors breed with what to get all the different colors of silkies. if that makes sense? or where I could go to figure it out. I have buff silkies, but I really like porcilian and partraige colors, and I am wondering if I could start breeding with my buffs, or if I have to start over with a different color... any info or leads wuld be greatly appreciated!!

 

[cornish20]

it's my understanding that buff is one of the most complicated colors to begin with, try and breed around. It's quite commonly detered away from- mainly from the point of complexity.

You can't get something, from nothing- unless it's hidden recessive... Meaning if you're breeding buffs to buff.. You're not going to get blues. Now, your buffs could likely carry black or white-- that'd be your best option for getting any other color from them.

if you want to make your own color- you're going to expand your color knowledge by about thousand fold-- especially since you know almost nothing; hence you asking this question. You can make your own 'new' colors by injecting and improving upon your breed of choice- but through this process you're going to need to know alot, have plenty of time to get where you want to go- and be able to ruthlessly cull thousands of birds over the years.

The quickest, easist way for you to be able to have the colors you desire-- is purchase them from somebody who's already done that, and is producing them on a consistant basis- even though some colors won't breed on true. With this in mind, more than likely the cheapest, easiest, best option is start over fresh from scratch.

 

[SonRise Silkies]

Amen to that Cornish!

I'm sure some of our accepted colors may have come about by "accident" but I doubt that there are many and not purely by accident either. A lot of time and effort and lots of research and record keeping, not mention culling and seemingly wasted time and feed goes into developing a color and then seeing that it breeds true or at least that it can be reproduced a certain percentage of the time.

You know even when a color is all ready perfected you now have the challenge of keeping a super "type" Silkie going, the color is nothing if it is on an inferior bird, on the other hand, a show quality, picture perfect bird, is stunning no matter what color, but to get it ALL on one bird is the goal.

My hats off to the patient and brave pioneers in the various colors that have given us the super beautiful range of colors we now have in our Silkies, with the quality to go with it.
Cheryl