Silkies - They’re simply SPECTACULAR!

[LadiesAndJane]

@LynnaePB what is a better cross in your experience, paint over black or paint over paint?
According to the paint charts, the first gives 50/50 paint or black chicks, which is pretty much what I experienced with this go round.
The second gives 50% paint, 25% black and 25% white.
Do you find this to be true?

 

[Fluffy Lambs]

Question: is there a thread here where you can see a chick and adult pic side by side of silkies so we can better understand the coloring from chick to adult?
Would LUV to see this across the world with silkies!
I have 3 blue, 1 black and 4 not sure...partridge maybe? I'm really curious as to how their colors cha ge through their growth as well as when you can start to see the satin vs standard progression.
If there isn't a thread already would this make for a good ongoing thread?

I think this would be a great idea for a thread! I always make "week by week" threads for my silkies, so it does show them from chicks to adults, but not in one continuous thread.

 

[Fluffy Lambs]

I got some colored zip ties so this time I will be able to tell each chick apart!

I probably could without them but just in case I have those.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I've posted a lot of these in the thread before so sorry for the repeat pictures for those who have seen them already.

Anyway as promised some chick to adult pictures. A lot are just a picture of them under a week old then an adult/older adolescent picture but a few have a third stage in between. I'll probably break this up into 2-3 posts since it is so image heavy.

Splash
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Paints

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Recessive whites (some silver based some gold or silver/gold)

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Just amazing how the colors change as they grow!!!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Mix color/blue?

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Unknown/mixed background but looks to have silver partridge/grey genetics with autosomal red leakage, the second appears to also be carrying blue as well.

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Same background (sibling) as the last two boys but with dominant white as well making a red pyle like color.

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These next ones are from a sort of red pyle project I am trying and offspring to the last boy. All full siblings but only the first two inherited the dominant white to make a red pyle like look.

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(sorry for the scraggly tail picture....either molting or because he's in with some other boys I think)

These are amazing!

 

[TJAnonymous]

New Silkie hatchling....

This little one has black skin on her head but the rest of her skin is pink. Anyone seen that before?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Not really 100% sure of her parentage. My white Silkie hen was brooding the eggs when I took them from her and put them in the incubator. (She has since laid 5 more....bugger.) However, I have 2 buff silkie hens (one light mixed with a shot of grey, one dark). The daddy could be my black Silkie (black skin, dominant roo), my white Silkie, or one of two Lavendar Paint Silkies. But I think all of them have dark skin?

 

[AngBantamLuv]

Not really 100% sure of her parentage. My white Silkie hen was brooding the eggs when I took them from her and put them in the incubator. (She has since laid 5 more....bugger.) However, I have 2 buff silkie hens (one light mixed with a shot of grey, one dark). The daddy could be my black Silkie (black skin, dominant roo), my white Silkie, or one of two Lavendar Paint Silkies. But I think all of them have dark skin?

I wonder if the pigment will come in shortly

 

[LadiesAndJane]

New Silkie hatchling....

This little one has black skin on her head but the rest of her skin is pink. Anyone seen that before?

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Looks like you might have some dominant white genetics going on some where. Perhaps your white hen? This often gives pink skin and in many cases will darken as the chick gets older.

 

[LynnaePB]

I sold all the paint silkie chicks except for one. Of course now regretting it. I only have a few blacks left, because I was unable to sell them. There were many chicks with great markings, though none as cool looking as that little one in the first batch. All the silkies were from the same pairing, so will be interesting to see what Eko throws with other hens.
There is a limited market here for high quality silkies, if I want to get serious about this, I will have to rethink my whole set up and sell birds that are not contributing to the breeding program to make room for a grow out pen.
Of course almost all my birds are pets, so that would be difficult.
Decisions, decisons!

Your birds are so gorgeous!
Seeing how much the paints change, I wish I had kept some even more now! The one I have left has very little in the way of markings right now. I do have a buyer interested in this one, but have not decided if I will sell it.

Thank you! Yeah the little paints really can change so much, I imagine it must be so tough not to keep more. You couldn't make me give those two really neat marked ones you hatched up. I don't think I've ever hatched any paint babies with as unique looking spots as those. I hope Eko gives you some more if you are able to keep more in the future. I would be so interested to see how ones that started like that grew out!

@LynnaePB what is a better cross in your experience, paint over black or paint over paint?
According to the paint charts, the first gives 50/50 paint or black chicks, which is pretty much what I experienced with this go round.
The second gives 50% paint, 25% black and 25% white.
Do you find this to be true?

Hmmm I've heard biggest spotted paints to biggest spotted paints gives the biggest spots but I haven't had a great spotted boy to test this with.

The percentages for both paint over black and paint over paint you posted are both correct from my experience.

I think both pairings have their pros and cons. Pigment seems to be a little better in my paint over black crosses so far though. I get some decent spots from both types of pairing. I don't see many paint breeders liking to use the dominant whites that pop up from paint to paint breeding. I like the fact you can pair them with a black and get 100% paint though so I've added a few back into my breeding groups. I'd like to test that particular pairing more to see if the spots are still decent. Being able to guarantee paints from dominant white to black would be pretty neat if you could maintain the nice spots in the offspring.

These are amazing!

Thank you!!

New Silkie hatchling....

This little one has black skin on her head but the rest of her skin is pink. Anyone seen that before?

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I was wondering the same about possible dominant white like @LadiesAndJane suggested. Wheaten based buffs can have lighter skin sometimes but that chick reminds me more of something with dominant white involved. Such a cutie!