Ada06
Songster
I have considered that because I do have another roo, he is black with silver leakage on the neck. This boy I have gone back and forth on the entire year. But lately he has been trying to crow, and has been very confident for a silkie. I can look into getting him some hens, however he was one of 4 of my original silkies. We lost one to a predator (of course the silverThat 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!
) so now they are so close its crazy. He can't be more than 5 feet away from them without franticly running around crying. I don't know how to fix that lol.
How old are they? Possible you have a second boy. I am thinking it may be your splash silkie (not the satin). Do you have a close up of the comb?
