Silkie thread!

[silkielover1731]

okay so where can i get one of these books and about how much do they cost???

Entire books are written to answer the question you are posing above!! You start with one of 5 e-alleles (extended black, birchen, duckwing, brown, wheaten), then you can add or not silver or gold. Then you can apply a uniform colour changing gene like blue, white (dominant or recessive), lavender, dun, cream, champagne blond, etc. Then there are the colour distribution genes like columbian, mahogany, dilute, melanotic, etc. And finally, you have pattern genes (pattern, cuckoo/barred, mottled.) So as you can see, the combinations and possibilities are virtually limitless.

The other colours don't tend to work like blue. Blue is diluted black. A bird that appears blue carries one copy of the Bl gene (Bl/bl+). Splash is two copies of the Bl gene (Bl/Bl) - true blue. Black is injected back into a blue breeding program when the blue starts to fade. Blue is injected back into splash to keep the spots showing.

White can be dominant (white leghorns), recessive (in Silkies), or due to pigment interuption (cuckoo/barring). With recessive white (Silkies), white has to be bred to white to come up white usually - unless the other bird happens to be hiding recessive white and you get lucky. White can also be hiding unpredicable stuff that will show up when you introduce another colour.

Mixing colours other than blue is often unpredictable and depends entirely on what you are throwing into the mix.

 

[sager:)silkies]

hey guys i have a question i now know my one white silkie hen is throwing these odd ball chicks cause i just breed her to a diffrent rooster and got other chicks with 5 toes but 6 toenails would u guys sell these as culls or should i let them grow out

 

[Hawkeye95]

Entire books are written to answer the question you are posing above!! You start with one of 5 e-alleles (extended black, birchen, duckwing, brown, wheaten), then you can add or not silver or gold. Then you can apply a uniform colour changing gene like blue, white (dominant or recessive), lavender, dun, cream, champagne blond, etc. Then there are the colour distribution genes like columbian, mahogany, dilute, melanotic, etc. And finally, you have pattern genes (pattern, cuckoo/barred, mottled.) So as you can see, the combinations and possibilities are virtually limitless.

The other colours don't tend to work like blue. Blue is diluted black. A bird that appears blue carries one copy of the Bl gene (Bl/bl+). Splash is two copies of the Bl gene (Bl/Bl) - true blue. Black is injected back into a blue breeding program when the blue starts to fade. Blue is injected back into splash to keep the spots showing.

White can be dominant (white leghorns), recessive (in Silkies), or due to pigment interuption (cuckoo/barring). With recessive white (Silkies), white has to be bred to white to come up white usually - unless the other bird happens to be hiding recessive white and you get lucky. White can also be hiding unpredicable stuff that will show up when you introduce another colour.

Mixing colours other than blue is often unpredictable and depends entirely on what you are throwing into the mix.

You explained that VERY well, thanks!

 

[silkielover1731]

still a little confused also but im sure if i get a book and read it i should understand it

Entire books are written to answer the question you are posing above!! You start with one of 5 e-alleles (extended black, birchen, duckwing, brown, wheaten), then you can add or not silver or gold. Then you can apply a uniform colour changing gene like blue, white (dominant or recessive), lavender, dun, cream, champagne blond, etc. Then there are the colour distribution genes like columbian, mahogany, dilute, melanotic, etc. And finally, you have pattern genes (pattern, cuckoo/barred, mottled.) So as you can see, the combinations and possibilities are virtually limitless.

The other colours don't tend to work like blue. Blue is diluted black. A bird that appears blue carries one copy of the Bl gene (Bl/bl+). Splash is two copies of the Bl gene (Bl/Bl) - true blue. Black is injected back into a blue breeding program when the blue starts to fade. Blue is injected back into splash to keep the spots showing.

White can be dominant (white leghorns), recessive (in Silkies), or due to pigment interuption (cuckoo/barring). With recessive white (Silkies), white has to be bred to white to come up white usually - unless the other bird happens to be hiding recessive white and you get lucky. White can also be hiding unpredicable stuff that will show up when you introduce another colour.

Mixing colours other than blue is often unpredictable and depends entirely on what you are throwing into the mix.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

The best book I've found is by Sigrid van Dort, The Genetics of Chicken Colours. LOADS of information and LOADS of pictures but expensive. Available from http://www.chickencolours.com/. (She also wrote an excellent book on Silkies.)

There is also "An Introduction to Color Forms of Domestic Fowl' by Brian Reeder available from amazon.com. However, that one is quite dry, harder to understand, and no pictures. In fact, I really didn't get it until after I read Sigrid's book.

okay so where can i get one of these books and about how much do they cost???

Quote:

 

[Cynthia12]

One to three weeks is a pretty wild wing stage. They seem to change everyday. Post a photo at 4 or 5 weeks and you can probably get some good feedback on whether or not you have a problem.

Thank you peep..will do.

I am just loving these photos! I can hardly wait to know if this is a girl..lol..and how she will grow up to look..and, I do know now, that there is splash coming in those wings..blue splash!

 

[Cynthia12]

Oh man, you guys hatching are making me want to hatch more Silkies. And I said I was done until fall with my hatching, but these little darlings have won me over..and to think, I put this off for a few years. I don't want a lot of broody moms..but I have so many people that want them around here, can't find any that aren't from a feed store, and that's only once in a great while, so when I hatched some heritage..they sold like hot cakes. I am thinking, I want a partridge, a white, I think I have my splash, I want black, ones that's real black, a blue..are there any more colors I'm missing..buff...? lol...

 

[ChickensXOXO]

Can't stop taking pictures! Hope you guys don't mind!



This momma hen has 5 silkie babies, and the other 3 are from my other bantams.

 

[sager:)silkies]

Can't stop taking pictures! Hope you guys don't mind!



This momma hen has 5 silkie babies, and the other 3 are from my other bantams.

love the pics keep them comin

 

[spatulagirl]

Man this thread moves fast!

I have a silkie chick with no feathers on her butt. Under her vent there is a big bald spot. I can't see any fuzz or feathers coming in either. She is also missing toenails on one toe on each foot.

I read this could be an incubator problem. I had a horrible hatch and she was the only one that hatched and survived. I had wild temp swings and think I have the incubator in a more stable place right now. I have three thermometers in there now and the temp seems to be sticking to about 100 nice and steady now. I would love to hear your expert thoughts and opinions.