Silkie colour

[Egg Snatcher]

A mutation. Either a typo, or an example of spelling the word according to how it sounds.

In this case, I think the explanation given by The Moonshiner is probably correct, rather than the chick having a new mutation, but new mutations certainly do happen on some rare occasions.

Yeah a mutation, thanks! I couldn't figure out how to spell it.

 

[Fru-Fru]

So interesting, can someone tell me, how the chicks in my pictures are going to look like?

They were white and grayish, but not solid. I had to give them away, so cannot observe the colors change... I called them splash, and the first one, a penguin color.

The come from a white and a black rooster, and a gray, white and a buff hen.

What is the science of mixing colors? How do I get a buff? Do I need a buff rooster and a buff hen? I did not get a buff chick, but I got 2 blacks, although I had a black rooster and no black hen.

And how do I get a lemon?

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Lemon silkies sound pretty!

 

[NatJ]

They were white and grayish, but not solid. I had to give them away, so cannot observe the colors change... I called them splash, and the first one, a penguin color.

"Splash" is the name for a specific color of chicken caused by having two copies of the blue gene. In future I suggest not calling a chicken splash unless you know they have that particular set of genes. (A chicken with a black parent cannot be splash.)

The come from a white and a black rooster, and a gray, white and a buff hen.

What is the science of mixing colors?

With that set of chicken colors, you pretty much need an entire course in chicken genetics to understand all the options

There is some information on chicken genetics here:
http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page0.html

And a chicken genetics calculator here:
https://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

What I like to do with the calculator is just change one gene (one of the dropdown boxes), and look at how the picture of the chicken changes. And then change another one...

Some of the genes make changes that are easy to understand, like B (barring) that makes white bars across the feathers of the chicken, or S (silver) that changes all gold color on the chicken to white. Some others are more complicated, because they interact with other genes to change how the colors are distributed on the chicken. The first half-dozen or so are the most complicated ones, with the ones further down the list being less confusing (at least to me).

In the calculator, the genes marked with + are called "wild type," meaning the ones that the wild Red Junglefowl ancestors of chickens have. They are also the default settings.

The calculator can be used to put in the genes of two chickens and see what offspring they might produce, but I usually have more fun just changing genes and watching the pictures change

How do I get a buff? Do I need a buff rooster and a buff hen? I did not get a buff chick, but I got 2 blacks, although I had a black rooster and no black hen.

Breeding two buffs should give you buff chicks most of the time. Buff is genetically complicated, so crossing a buff with another chicken will often give not-buff chicks.

When you cross a black chicken to any other chicken, it is very common to get black chicks. It doesn't always happen, but it is quite common.

 

[Fru-Fru]

Thank you so much for your detailed response, and the article recommendations! And l will not call my chicks splash anymore

What color is it though, white with a splash of color in the back? I wish I kept a couple to see how they look with feathers...

 

[NatJ]

l will not call my chicks splash anymore

What color is it though, white with a splash of color in the back? I wish I kept a couple to see how they look with feathers...

Just describing the color that way makes sense. I figured you didn't know that "splash" was one of the words with a specific meaning genetically.

For the chicks with a darker marking in the middle of the back, I tend to call it a stripe, and I've seen other people call it that too, but I think that is just a description of what it looks like rather than a word with any special meaning.

Chicks with striped backs can grow up to have many different appearances.

I have found that McMurray hatchery tends to have videos of chicks for many of their breeds, and nice pictures for the others. I didn't find any that looked quite like yours, but here are some examples of chicks that have stripes on their backs:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/single_comb_brown_leghorns.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/golden_laced_wyandottes.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/silver_laced_wyandottes.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/silver_gray_dorkings.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/dark_brahmas.html
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/red_shouldered_yokohama.html

As you can see, the adults can have a variety of appearances, even when the chicks look rather similar.

Silkie feathers don't show patterns in the feathers very well, so they tend to look more gray or brown instead of having crisp lacing or dots or stripes like some normal-feathered breeds do.

And despite all the different colors chicken breeds come in, there are still lots of combinations that show up in crosses that are not standardized in any breed!

 

[Espychickens]

Just thought I would update with a pic to see how she is growing.