Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[VannahRAe]

Any guess on what this silkie chick will look like grown?

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Does anyone know how to breed it out of roos? My white roo has it pretty bad. I wanted to use him for paint breeding buuuut he has bad red leakage. I know for a fact that he came from paint breeding so he has the proper genes just that leakage.

Oh please pics! I love red leakage!

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Really? Mine never seen to clean up right, and I have never taken a silkie over a year old to the fair because of it!

Doesn't a bath and blow dry clean them up?- what do you use in the bath to wash?
I use sand and dirt completely dry for dustbath, also sprinkle of DE. They choose to dustbath in random spots all over the yard too.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Any guess on what this silkie chick will look like grown?

Looks like a silver partridge (silver gradient into black on the head), not sure in the lighting, may end up being blue partridge (blue with gold overlay). Cute chick!

 

[gothicpicasso]

Photo shoot this morning of the three chicks I have left right now. All hatched last week. Yellow one is pure silkie, black one is half Silkie and half Polish and gray one is half silkie and half ameraucana. View attachment 2544795View attachment 2544796View attachment 2544797View attachment 2544798View attachment 2544799View attachment 2544800View attachment 2544801View attachment 2544802

So cute! Love the little Ameraucana mix.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Really? Mine never seen to clean up right, and I have never taken a silkie over a year old to the fair because of it!

Here's pic of cockerel (Biscuit) this morning, see his head isn't dirty anymore.. He's always right under my feet! So friendly... I hope when he turns hormonal he will still be a good boy

 

[Ada06]

Oh please pics! I love red leakage!

Here is the dude, my sister calls him Big Daddy (from princess and the frog) lol

 

[PioneerChicks]

Here's pic of cockerel (Biscuit) this morning, see his head isn't dirty anymore.. He's always right under my feet! So friendly... I hope when he turns hormonal he will still be a good boy
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Beautiful! I make sure they have some dry dirt!

 

[LynnaePB]

Does anyone know how to breed it out of roos? My white roo has it pretty bad. I wanted to use him for paint breeding buuuut he has bad red leakage. I know for a fact that he came from paint breeding so he has the proper genes just that leakage.

That is a good question, I wish I knew the answer better!

I've seen one paint breeder recommend breeding to silver based paints or a silver based black. They mentioned something about partridge genetics being a problem that would need to be bred out to get rid of the red.

I kind of think even then it might be tricky. I believe splash calico isn't partridge based and yet they can have red leakage bred in. Also greys are silver based and yet red leakage is a fault that I've heard is very difficult to get rid of that is not too uncommon in greys.

Given this I kind of think the red leakage is independent of patterning genes such as partridge and ground color (silver or gold). I'm sure there are those who know more about it on this site though.

I wouldn't want to start a paint program with a bird leaking red if I could help it as it is very likely to stick around. If you do want to try to breed it out I'd probably just try to keep the offspring that show the least leakage (or no leakage if you get some). It's a lot more likely to show up in the males though I am guessing it can be passed on by the females even if they don't display it (much like hackle leakage/offcolor that is rampant in many male paints).

Your rooster looks like a beautiful bird. If he were mine I'd think about using him in a project color pen like red pyle or for some sort of calico pen as the red leakage will not be a detriment in those projects. Red pyle requires dominant white just like paints do so he might be a good fit there if paired with a red partridge. Red pyle and calico aren't recognized colors and are still project colors unlike paint though. Out of the two red pyle seems probably easier to work with as the genetics are more straight forward (dominant white over red partridge). I guess I should mention it isn't exactly a true red pyle in silkies as you are supposed to use a black breasted red rather than red partridge over dominant white. Since we don't have black breasted reds in silkies red partridge is the closest we have and results in a color similar to red pyle but the birds have red chests unlike true red pyles.

I'm actually dealing with a lot of leakage lately in my paint program so I can relate. This last breeding season I was disappointed to find the male I used passed on red leakage to many of his offspring despite not appearing to have it himself at the time I used him over my girls. Teaches me to use a paint male that is less than a year old. I've had a few now that only started showing leakage after 1 year and another that didn't really show much until he reached 2!

I'm sure glad I'm also interested in breeding some red pyle and calico so the best of this years grow outs will still be useful for breeding!

Good luck deciding how you want to go about using your boy for breeding, he sure is a cute fluffball! He seems like a good example of how hard it can be to sex silkies sometimes too, I couldn't even tell he was a boy!

 

[LynnaePB]

Any guess on what this silkie chick will look like grown?

I also think this little cutie will end up looking like some type of partridge. I'm leaning slightly more towards a regular gold based partridge given the amount of gold/brown tint the down has and it looks like maybe the wing feather tips too? Tricky to say though as gold and silver based partridge chicks can sometimes look pretty similar.