Silkies Of A Different Color

[LynnaePB]

I know this is an old thread, just thought I would ask here and see if anyone responds! I have 3 paint silkie hens, and a young silkie rooster that is either black or blue with red leakage. What color would I get if I bred them and is it a bad idea? (I know there are many who believe in only breeding to the SOP, however without the adventurous, none of these beautiful color variants posted above would exist!) Thanks!
View attachment 2501416View attachment 2501417View attachment 2501420View attachment 2501419Please excuse how dirty they are as it has rained here all week and they have been playing in the mud! The last pictured paint is still rather young and hasn’t developed fully yet (her spots are just now showing and her crest isn’t fully developed).

Aww you've got some lovely silkies there!

I haven't been breeding paints for long (around 2 years now) but since I do breed them hopefully I can give a bit of insight.

You should get around 50% paint and 50% black offspring if your cockerel is black. If he's blue (and I'd guess maybe he is given how light his undercolor is) you could expect 25% blue paint (same as a paint but with lighter blue spots rather than black spots) 25% paint, 25% blue, and 25% black offspring.

The leakage is likely to pass on to male offspring, the female offspring may carry it but will be less likely to show it. In paints the leakage usually looks kind of like a dirty offwhite color. Sometimes they can leak red as well but I haven't seen that as often. The black and blue male offspring's leakage will probably be somewhat similar to their dads.

The male offsprings color will also depend on the ground color of the hens a bit (in paints and blacks/blues it is not as impactful as some colors but it still has an effect). The female offspring should inherit only their dad's ground color which to me looks to be gold. Gold based paints can have a bit of a tendency towards having a less crisp white. Bringing in a black or paint that is silver based can help with that.

It really depends on your goals whether it would be a good idea to breed or not. If you want to start a paint breeding group that is working towards the SOP a gold based possibly blue male with leakage is going to create some issues that could take some work to fix. If you won't be breeding towards the SOP in regards to color I'm sure you'll end up with some cute offspring. Just make sure if it does turn out he is blue to let potential buyers of chicks know the offspring could be blue as blue added to a paint program can cause a lot of issues for breeders.

 

[LynnaePB]

Anyone know what

Partridge x grey
Partridge x buff and
Grey x buff

Might make?

With the partridge x grey and the grey x buff pairings it'll depend on who is male vs female since you are working with two different ground colors. This is because ground color is sex linked.

Grey has a silver ground color. Both partridge and buff have a gold ground color. The father of the chicks will determine the ground color of the female offspring. Unlike females, male chicks inherit one ground color gene from their mom as well as one from their dad. They can be gold/gold silver/silver or silver/gold. Females only having one ground color gene can only be silver or gold.

With the partridge x buff pairing it doesn't matter which color is the father and which is the mother since they are both gold based. You'll likely get a color kind of in-between the two colors (so a smutty buff) from this pairing. I'm not familiar enough with buff genetics to have a great idea of what you may get though.

 

[smott]

Aww you've got some lovely silkies there!

I haven't been breeding paints for long (around 2 years now) but since I do breed them hopefully I can give a bit of insight.

You should get around 50% paint and 50% black offspring if your cockerel is black. If he's blue (and I'd guess maybe he is given how light his undercolor is) you could expect 25% blue paint (same as a paint but with lighter blue spots rather than black spots) 25% paint, 25% blue, and 25% black offspring.

The leakage is likely to pass on to male offspring, the female offspring may carry it but will be less likely to show it. In paints the leakage usually looks kind of like a dirty offwhite color. Sometimes they can leak red as well but I haven't seen that as often. The black and blue male offspring's leakage will probably be somewhat similar to their dads.

The male offsprings color will also depend on the ground color of the hens a bit (in paints and blacks/blues it is not as impactful as some colors but it still has an effect). The female offspring should inherit only their dad's ground color which to me looks to be gold. Gold based paints can have a bit of a tendency towards having a less crisp white. Bringing in a black or paint that is silver based can help with that.

It really depends on your goals whether it would be a good idea to breed or not. If you want to start a paint breeding group that is working towards the SOP a gold based possibly blue male with leakage is going to create some issues that could take some work to fix. If you won't be breeding towards the SOP in regards to color I'm sure you'll end up with some cute offspring. Just make sure if it does turn out he is blue to let potential buyers of chicks know the offspring could be blue as blue added to a paint program can cause a lot of issues for breeders.

Thanks for the info! That is what I needed to know. Two of my paints do have some off-white around their necks especially. One is more of a crisp white. They all came from the same breeder, so I'm guessing she must have some gold base in her breeding pens based on what you are saying. All of my birds are pets, and although I have had to get rid of a few roos, I am quite attached to this one, so he will probably stay lol. I have no aspirations for a serious breeding program, but I was considering hatching some babies from them later this year. I will certainly only sell them as pets and make sure to be forthcoming with any buyers!

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

Does anyone know what happens when you breed
White to Buff
White to Splash?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Does anyone know what happens when you breed
White to Buff
White to Splash?

I think you'll get whites. I think silkies are dominant white

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

I think you'll get whites. I think silkies are dominant white

No, mine is recessive.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Would a clip work maybe? Like a Barrett?

You could try the clip to see if it would work, as long as it's not tight or pulling on feathers, and post pic of it! ❤

 

[LynnaePB]

Does anyone know what happens when you breed
White to Buff
White to Splash?

Unfortunately with recessive white that is a really tricky one to answer. All the offspring will get a copy of recessive white from the white parent but won't be white unless the buff or splash is also carrying one recessive white gene.

Since whatever the recessive white is underneath is a mystery all you can know about those pairings is that the splash will give one blue gene to its offspring and from what I understand (though I might be wrong) buff often gives some leakage to its offspring when bred to many other colors.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

Unfortunately with recessive white that is a really tricky one to answer. All the offspring will get a copy of recessive white from the white parent but won't be white unless the buff or splash is also carrying one recessive white gene.

Since whatever the recessive white is underneath is a mystery all you can know about those pairings is that the splash will give one blue gene to its offspring and from what I understand (though I might be wrong) buff often gives some leakage to its offspring when bred to many other colors.

Thank you as always!

 

[Krisitne]

I know this is an old thread, just thought I would ask here and see if anyone responds! I have 3 paint silkie hens, and a young silkie rooster that is either black or blue with red leakage. What color would I get if I bred them and is it a bad idea? (I know there are many who believe in only breeding to the SOP, however without the adventurous, none of these beautiful color variants posted above would exist!) Thanks!
View attachment 2501416View attachment 2501417View attachment 2501420View attachment 2501419Please excuse how dirty they are as it has rained here all week and they have been playing in the mud! The last pictured paint is still rather young and hasn’t developed fully yet (her spots are just now showing and her crest isn’t fully developed).

I have this colour combination and have crossed them. It depends what other colour genetics they have hidden as well but I’ve hatched out black, paint, partridge, blue and a lot of black with gold leakage. Oh, also silver partridge and white. I just mix them and have wound up with beautiful colour combos.