SILKIE GENETICS

[won023]

Hi everyone can any Silkie experts give me some advice on Gold Silkies and their genetics? How would I go about keeping their skin dark and darkening the gold colour on their body overall? Any advice appreciated

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi there.

That's a beautiful BUFF Silkie.

At least that is what that color is called here in the US. I am not familiar with the UK standard... I believe it allows for both bantam and large fowl Silkies over there while ours only calls for bantam. So it's POSSIBLE you guys call it Gold.

The color should not be darker than that unless you're working on a project. But not according to the standard of perfection.

She appears to be non bearded... and still has fantastically small wattles. Wattles can get larger on non bearded birds because the bearding gene inhibits wattle size. And her ears are gorgeous!

Keep the skin deep mulberry by not breeding lighter skinned birds to her. And if lighter skinned offspring pop up, you simply don't keep them in your breeding stock.

Here is the best free copy of the SOP according to the American Poultry Association that I was able to find...
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Standard.html

I haven't looked into see what the American Bantam Association states in there SOP since I moved on from breeding Silkies last year. They were too broody for me. But I have since joined some Ameraucana clubs and find them to be an indispensable tool. While BYC is one of my favorite resources... people just seem to be a bit more serious and knowledgeable about their specific breed and challenges faced more than socializing. So maybe you can consider joining a group that interest you. It's a great way to network and work towards the highest quality birds.

 

[won023]

Hi there.

That's a beautiful BUFF Silkie.

At least that is what that color is called here in the US. I am not familiar with the UK standard... I believe it allows for both bantam and large fowl Silkies over there while ours only calls for bantam. So it's POSSIBLE you guys call it Gold.

The color should not be darker than that unless you're working on a project. But not according to the standard of perfection.

She appears to be non bearded... and still has fantastically small wattles. Wattles can get larger on non bearded birds because the bearding gene inhibits wattle size. And her ears are gorgeous!

Keep the skin deep mulberry by not breeding lighter skinned birds to her. And if lighter skinned offspring pop up, you simply don't keep them in your breeding stock.

Here is the best free copy of the SOP according to the American Poultry Association that I was able to find...
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Standard.html

I haven't looked into see what the American Bantam Association states in there SOP since I moved on from breeding Silkies last year. They were too broody for me. But I have since joined some Ameraucana clubs and find them to be an indispensable tool. While BYC is one of my favorite resources... people just seem to be a bit more serious and knowledgeable about their specific breed and challenges faced more than socializing. So maybe you can consider joining a group that interest you. It's a great way to network and work towards the highest quality birds.

Thanks so much for your help I really appreciate it I got some of their eggs in the incubator and shall select the best from that batch to breed further and so on thanks again

 

[nicalandia]

The best way is to outcross your Buff Silkies with Red Silkies.. Self Buffs birds carry gold diluters, Reds lack any diluters so crossing both will yield a darker color than buffs