Silkie sexing 🥲

[BlueTheBrahma]

I kind of thought I’d never need to post another sexing thread again. But wait - silkies. After getting a new cock I hatched four. All are different colours, an odd surprise since I crossed a white to paint hens! I’m gonna post each one on a message. All 12ish weeks
Thanks

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Tangerine, lemon/red Pyle.
Always stuck out as a hen to me, despite being the biggest. One of two single combs that hatched, strange because the cock seems pure bred, he’s good quality anyway. The comb has no serrations and is just one small semi circle. Crest massive, wide and round and falls forward of face. Some longer red feathers at the back of crest but I don’t think they are streamers.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Sparrow, Blue (partridge?)
Even blue shade with silver in neck and breast, and gold and silver throughout the wing, mostly on the flight feathers but a little on the shoulder.
The other single comb, bigger comb with serrations.
Crest very neat and round, no sign of streamers at all
Very confident it’s a pullet but the wing colouring is reminding me of a male partridge/duckwing pattern, but I’m not familiar with these colours in silkies.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Rusty, darker red Pyle
Cockerel, wide walnut comb beginning to turn convex at the top. Crest smaller, does not come forward. Two ‘sickle’ like tail feathers (still silkie, but larger tail feathers). Big feet, extra extra toes.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Unnamed, paint.
Least certain on this one. Walnut comb blacker, flatter and smaller than Rusty’s. Comb similar in formation to Rusty. Smaller than the other three. Likes nothing more than biting me.

 

[wrathsfarm]

@2ndTink
@Debbie292d

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya!

Thanks for the tag @wrathsfarm. I always love trying to sex silkies.

First, you bred a white silkie roo to a paint silkie hen and got these gorgeous chickens?

One or both are carrying something else, but the only ones I know that may know or have a guess what that is, is maybe @NatJ or @pipdzipdnreadytogo

That said, I'm going with the first two are pullets, the last two are cockerels, but a couple more weeks and you should know for positive.

 

[NatJ]

First, you bred a white silkie roo to a paint silkie hen and got these gorgeous chickens?

One or both are carrying something else, but the only ones I know that may know or have a guess what that is, is maybe @NatJ or @pipdzipdnreadytogo

If the "white" Silkie was recessive white, and otherwise had the genes for partridge or some other color with lots of red, then it's not too puzzling.

The paint mother had genes to be black all over, with one dominant white gene making most of the black into white. She might also have silver leakage, which would not show on a paint (white leakage in white areas), but could affect what shows up in her chicks. She gave the genes for black to all her chicks, maybe with leakage, and the dominant white gene to about half of them (actually 3, but that is still "about half" of 4 chicks.)

The gold and red are probably just leakage showing through the "black" on the chicks. This would be relatively common in crosses of a black chicken with a partridge chicken, especially if the black chicken did have leakage too. I think the light color in the wings of the darkest chick might be silver leakage, but it could just as easily be diluted red (several genetic possibilities.)

The dark chick is the one that did not inherit dominant white. I think it looks blue, so I would guess the white rooster is genetically blue or splash in addition to whatever other genes he has.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, NatJ beat me to it again! Agree with what was said.

Given that there was a non-white hatched in this group, neither of the parents can be homozygous for dominant white. Meaning the White parent is either recessive white or a very poorly marked Paint. So I'd say the answer to this puzzle is that you have a recessive white that's carrying partridge.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Hiya!

Thanks for the tag @wrathsfarm. I always love trying to sex silkies.

First, you bred a white silkie roo to a paint silkie hen and got these gorgeous chickens?

One or both are carrying something else, but the only ones I know that may know or have a guess what that is, is maybe @NatJ or @pipdzipdnreadytogo

That said, I'm going with the first two are pullets, the last two are cockerels, but a couple more weeks and you should know for positive.

Yes, I assume the case is that the cock is recessive white, so his white was not shown in the offspring but only the pattern he had underneath it. The hen must be partridge split to extended black. They later had a fifth chick: a porcelain, so also both carry lavender.