Silkie Lovers, Show Off Your Fuzzy Chickens Here?!

[MysteryChicken]

Hi does any Silkie experts have any advice with regard to Gold Silkie breeding? I have a trio of uk standard golds and would love to hear everyone’s opinions with moving forward thanks!

So you want them this dark?

I'd say adding red to the line might help. Not from the U.K. but thought I'd try helping anyways.

 

[won023]

So you want them this dark?View attachment 1912778 I'd say adding red to the line might help. Not from the U.K. but thought I'd try helping anyways.

Thanks and yes the one in the photo above would be great if I could eventually achieve it as deep in gold colour as that one. Now the trouble would be finding red

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Hi thanks for the reply! I was just wondering how I could darken their gold colour pigmentation throughout their body evenly without bringing too much black back into them I was planning on showing in the future and just curious if it’s through selective breeding and just breeding together the best looking young? Any advice appreciated Many thanks

The gold on the photo you posted looks to be of a nice quality and colour. That colour gold is accepted for showing. Although, both light and dark gold can be shown.

Are you wanting them darker just for personal preference?

As I say, golds are not something I've really worked on nor do I know much about their genetics. There's a possibility I'm wrong but I think to achieve the gold colouration, you need to breed two golds. Mixing with other colours might achieve unshowable offspring with some leakage. Genetics isn't a strong point of mine but maybe @nicalandia could shed a light on how the light gold could be darkened to a dark gold.

If it was me, I'd start by breeding what you already have. See what chicks those throw and you may have some darker golds in the mix. I'd then selectively breed from the darker ones.

Alternatively, buy a darker gold Cockerel or pullet and work from there to create your own line.

When I compare my dark gold and light gold, the darker gold has more of a black/grey under fluff, whereas the light gold has a white under fluff.

There is also gold partridge but that is pretty much just a lightened up partridge, not gold.

Here's my dark gold:

Here's my light gold:

Here's my gold partridge:

 

[won023]

The gold on the photo you posted looks to be of a nice quality and colour. That colour gold is accepted for showing. Although, both light and dark gold can be shown.

Are you wanting them darker just for personal preference?

As I say, golds are not something I've really worked on nor do I know much about their genetics. There's a possibility I'm wrong but I think to achieve the gold colouration, you need to breed two golds. Mixing with other colours might achieve unshowable offspring with some leakage. Genetics isn't a strong point of mine but maybe @nicalandia could shed a light on how the light gold could be darkened to a dark gold.

If it was me, I'd start by breeding what you already have. See what chicks those throw and you may have some darker golds in the mix. I'd then selectively breed from the darker ones.

Alternatively, buy a darker gold Cockerel or pullet and work from there to create your own line.

When I compare my dark gold and light gold, the darker gold has more of a black/grey under fluff, whereas the light gold has a white under fluff.

There is also gold partridge but that is pretty much just a lightened up partridge, not gold.

Here's my dark gold:
View attachment 1912780
View attachment 1912781
View attachment 1912784
View attachment 1912788
View attachment 1912789

Here's my light gold:
View attachment 1912787
View attachment 1912796
View attachment 1912797

Here's my gold partridge:
View attachment 1912782
View attachment 1912783
View attachment 1912785
View attachment 1912786

Wow stunning golds you have there! And I’ll stick with selective breeding for now then I’ve incubated a couple of their eggs so hopefully we have some promising babies soon this is the boy thanks again for your advice

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Wow stunning golds you have there! And I’ll stick with selective breeding for now then I’ve incubated a couple of their eggs so hopefully we have some promising babies soon this is the boy thanks again for your advice

They all appear to be good quality birds there! The male has the correct colour wattles and comb too. Red combs and wattles tend to be a more common fault in gold Silkies but it's good your boy has the mulberry.

Are your Silkies bantam or large Fowl?

 

[MysteryChicken]

Wow stunning golds you have there! And I’ll stick with selective breeding for now then I’ve incubated a couple of their eggs so hopefully we have some promising babies soon this is the boy thanks again for your advice

This is our SQ Partridge silkie Cockerel.

 

[won023]

They all appear to be good quality birds there! The male has the correct colour wattles and comb too. Red combs and wattles tend to be a more common fault in gold Silkies but it's good your boy has the mulberry.

Are your Silkies bantam or large Fowl?

Thankyou that sounds very promising They are Large fowl Golds

 

[won023]

This is our SQ Partridge silkie Cockerel.View attachment 1912820 View attachment 1912821 View attachment 1912823

Lovely boy you got there

 

[MysteryChicken]

Lovely boy you got there

Thank you.

 

[Wolfefarmyard]

This is our SQ Partridge silkie Cockerel.View attachment 1912820 View attachment 1912821 View attachment 1912823

Wow, he’s awfully handsome!

Have you actually shown him before?