ForTheLoveOfSilkies
Free Ranging
Well...? where's pics!!??Oh I know! I love the leakage! I got ONE hen last year with the leakage and she is just so pretty!
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Well...? where's pics!!??Oh I know! I love the leakage! I got ONE hen last year with the leakage and she is just so pretty!
Haha! This is when she was younger. It's much more pronounced now!Well...? where's pics!!??
Cute do you have recent pics as a hen? My leakage ones are only cockerels, so I can't help but keep them!Haha! This is when she was younger. It's much more pronounced now!View attachment 2518090
I'll try and get some soon. This is the only picture I have of her.Cute do you have recent pics as a hen? My leakage ones are only cockerels, so I can't help but keep them!
Hey I was just wondering... what colours are everyone's favourites? I'm probably getting 5 soon and am SO excited - they're likely to be adults as our incubator is full AND there's a queue!!
But anyway I was just thinking I might find it kind of hard to tell 5 white Silkies apart and so was wondering what other colours y'all like best!
Questions for you paint breeders out there (I'm talking to you @LynnaePB)
I am getting some paint hatching eggs and the breeder has "Paint rooster, Black split to Paint roosters" covering "Paint and Black split to Paint" Silkie hens. Per her description "these eggs will hatch Paint and Black split to Paint chicks."
I found this chart and do not see a black split to paint over black split to paint option. I am assuming all of the chicks of that cross would be black. Wouldn't some of the chicks also hatch out white? (Paint over paint). Would these white chicks be dominant white then?
Also per many other threads I have seen on the subject, there are no "splits" in the traditional sense with paints. It seems it is much more complicated than this chart explains.
View attachment 2516997
Thank you for your clear and thoughful answers as usual to my questions.It's hard to pick but out of the standard colors I think probably paint followed by grey.
Non standard I really like calico like 3 colored birds (I've seen both splash with red leakage and paint with red leakage that I really really liked).
Those are good questions and you are spot about the black and dominant white chicks! Black from paint over black from paint should result in all black chicks. With paint over paint you will get some chicks that are homozygous dominant white as well as paint and black chicks.
Things get confusing sometimes with paints though. I expect because the phenotype and genotype do not always match perfectly.
Sometimes something that is genetically paint (heterozygous dominant white over black) might look white. I expect that is why the chart has paint as a possibility with white split x white split. If they both were actually homozygous dominant white they should have 100% homozygous dominant white offspring. Black split x white being able to produce black is similar, probably the white is actually a paint when you get a black from this pairing.
I think paints being so poorly marked as to look white is not too uncommon which is probably why the chart is how it is?
Another much less common oddity with paints is sometimes two black from paints will produce a paint chick. I suspect perhaps in some cases a bird is genetically paint but for whatever reason the dominant white is inhibited and doesn't show. It's things like this that made some breeders believe paint was a recessive gene. In most cases it acts like you'd expect dominant white to act though and not like a recessive.
Thank you for your clear and thoughful answers as usual to my questions.
I have a feeling that even some paint breeders are confused about the genetics of these birds. Using the terminology "split" definitely makes it sound like paint is recessive. Need to come up with a better word for the paints that look black or white, but are not. I know phenotype and genotype would work, but still would not really explain it.
I am getting paint, lavender and BBS hatching eggs. I hope the breeder marks the eggs or I will not be able to tell the different black chicks apart: Black from the BBS, black split to lavender and black "split" to paint!