Silkie thread!

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
They look like they're in perfect health!

Question: Isn't there a Grey Silkie? I would really like a Grey silkie hen and a Red silkie roo.
Anybody know where I can find some? My pet chicken has red silkies, but not grey silkies! Would splash silkies work?

The one sleeping in the picture is grey, but I don't know if the color will change.

Oh - I must have a Grey Silkie and a Red silkie!!!!

 

[Southerngirl]

Well, it's official I now have 3 broody silkies. Tank (yes, that is her name) went first last week and her sisters have joined her. I went to the feed store and bought some fake eggs for her. I already had some silkie eggs in the bator so it worked out great. Here is a pic of the trio. Tank got her name because she looks like one of those remote control tanks when she "rolls' out of the nest, moving s l o w l y across the ground with her wings out.

Tank is on the left.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Thank you for the compliment

I learned one tiny piece at a time. In many ways, genetics is like math: each bit you learn is a building block for learning more.

I had very, very basic information from actual coursework. In high school biology, Mendel's pea experiments and genetics covered maybe 2-3 or 4 pages. My ACT score placed me out of college biology (with 4 hrs credit), and in my college geology course I favoured physical geology over historical (fossils and ancient life) whenever the degree requirements allowed. Certainly I had acquired a basic concept of inheritance from ones parents, and a vague knowledge of the idea of recessive and dominant traits, but htat was about it.

Then I got chickens--discovering silkies in the process--and finally about a year later I acquired a pair of white silkies. A few months later I acquired a third, a self-blue splash. And I asked all the newby questions like what do you get if you pair a white with a splash, etc. (At that point I pretty much ignored the self-blue part of Stormy's genetic makeup).

Learned about the blue gene, tried reading more and got lost. Read other people's posts on various websites and gradually learned bit by bit; asked questions when I didn't understand. Found the Poultry Genetics for the Non-Professional website and read and learned and read and learned and read and learned. Expanded my horizons and found Belgian Barbu Bantams and Poultry Genetics for Exhibition Breeders. All this time I was talking with breeders on various different forums, breeding my own birds and learning more and more, adding the knowledge and experience together and questioning when anything seemed contradictory.

Learn the concepts and the terminology; they apply regardles of species. Then learn specifics for the species, then the species' genes one by one. Henk's Chicken Calculator is a GREAT place to play around and learn how the genes interact with each other, and his basics page is a very good, up to date starting point.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I just answered the post a couple above yours with what you ask

A very good additional resource is the genetics section of Classroom-At-The-Coop; lots of facinating information in their archives, too. The book Genetics of Chicken Colours is another awesome resource.

Coffee

? When do I come where?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Every white is different (or can be) genetically. It is an OFF switch, so you do not know what genes are present in an individual white bird other than from breeding records (non-white parents or offspring when bred to a non-white).

So you have white birds whose father was an actual lavender (not a split)? In that case you know that the lavender sire carries a copy of recessive white, and that his chicks all carry a copy of lavender. These chicks also carry two copies of recessive white. You will not get lavender birds if you breed two of them together--they will be whites. Genetically they may carry two copies of lavender, but the recessive white gene prevents pigment from being created, thus they cannot display lavender. If you breed one of these whites to a lavender, each offspring has a 50% chance of inheriting the lavender gene from the white split to lav, and will definitely inherit lav from the lavender parent. Thus about half the offspring will inherit lavender from both parents and be lavender. (This is ignoring the possibility that the lavender may carry a hidden or known copy of recessive white.) Realize, though, that the white can and will provide other genes that may not mesh well with lavender, giving you patterns or red pigment or ..., resulting in a bird who is lavender diluted, but is not solid lavender.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

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Thanks! I found a local breeder on Craigslist. I've had great luck with them so far! Keeping my fingers crossed that they stay healthy

They look like they're in perfect health!

Question: Isn't there a Grey Silkie? I would really like a Grey silkie hen and a Red silkie roo.
Anybody know where I can find some? My pet chicken has red silkies, but not grey silkies! Would splash silkies work?​

No. Splash can be either silver or gold gened.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
They look like they're in perfect health!

Question: Isn't there a Grey Silkie? I would really like a Grey silkie hen and a Red silkie roo.
Anybody know where I can find some? My pet chicken has red silkies, but not grey silkies! Would splash silkies work?

The one sleeping in the picture is grey, but I don't know if the color will change.

Actually it is a blue

Grey is a pattern, not a solid colour. Think of a black & white version of partridge. And like partridge, they hatch with chipmunk stripes.

 

[emvickrey]

Quote:
The one sleeping in the picture is grey, but I don't know if the color will change.

Actually it is a blue

Grey is a pattern, not a solid colour. Think of a black & white version of partridge. And like partridge, they hatch with chipmunk stripes.

I have one that is black and from it's head to hit's shoulders it has what looks like white tips. It has a very prominant white tipped strip on the top to back of it's head. Very pretty but I can't get a good pic of it that shows what i'm explaining. The white shows up as if it's a glare. I suppose that is a partrige color?

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Quote:
The one sleeping in the picture is grey, but I don't know if the color will change.

Actually it is a blue

Grey is a pattern, not a solid colour. Think of a black & white version of partridge. And like partridge, they hatch with chipmunk stripes.

So ... what colors should I use? Buff and Blue???

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Actually it is a blue

Grey is a pattern, not a solid colour. Think of a black & white version of partridge. And like partridge, they hatch with chipmunk stripes.

I have one that is black and from it's head to hit's shoulders it has what looks like white tips. It has a very prominant white tipped strip on the top to back of it's head. Very pretty but I can't get a good pic of it that shows what i'm explaining. The white shows up as if it's a glare. I suppose that is a partrige color?

Age?