What color silkies are these?

[shrimpsilkies]

My friend and I hatched some silkies from Better With Thyme farm. Two of the BBS labeled eggs hatched and two of their mixed breeding flock.
They advertise that their hatching eggs could be BBS, Porcelain, and that they might be Partridge but that they have no pure Partridge birds anymore.

Is this black or blue? This one’s pretty dark but has some lighter belly down and is growing lighter pin feathers on the wings.

The speckly one looks like a partridge to me. Is there any way to tell if it’s blue partridge at this age?

These two confuse me. Though the one on the left was splash as it came from a BBS egg but they both seem to have some red on them. The one on the right could be porcelain?
These are our first colored silkies, I’m not used to anything but little white chicks!

 

[casportpony]

They are adorable! I know nothing about Silkies but have asked some of the Silkie experts to comment.

 

[LynnaePB]

My friend and I hatched some silkies from Better With Thyme farm. Two of the BBS labeled eggs hatched and two of their mixed breeding flock.
They advertise that their hatching eggs could be BBS, Porcelain, and that they might be Partridge but that they have no pure Partridge birds anymore.
View attachment 2129266
Is this black or blue? This one’s pretty dark but has some lighter belly down and is growing lighter pin feathers on the wings.View attachment 2129264
The speckly one looks like a partridge to me. Is there any way to tell if it’s blue partridge at this age?
View attachment 2129265These two confuse me. Though the one on the left was splash as it came from a BBS egg but they both seem to have some red on them. The one on the right could be porcelain?
These are our first colored silkies, I’m not used to anything but little white chicks!

I would guess the dark chick is black (all the blacks I've hatched have at least slightly lighter bellies). Of course some blues can be very dark. I've heard of blues that look exactly like blacks and the only way to find out they were actually blue was test breeding. I haven't hatched a lot of blues (just when I test breed to make sure my paints are black based) but none of the blues I've hatched have been nearly so dark as your chick and it looks as black or blacker than a lot of the blacks I hatch from my paints.

I'm afraid I'm less experienced with partridge. I haven't had any partridge chicks that look as diluted as most shown in the pictures though. I'd lean towards those having lavender involved in the dilution pointing towards them being the porcelains.

 

[Hinotori]

It's really hard to guess on mixed color flocks. None of the colors tend to be true to kind.

Top chick is probably black. When I had BBS the blues were grey as chicks.

The second picture looks like they might come out partridge. The right one looks like partridge.

Porcelain in silkies is buff carrying 2 copies of lavender. Chicks are lighter. I have a few partridge carrying 2 copies of lavender that make them look almost the same and they also hatch out pretty light.

So I have no idea what the bottom two will look like.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Thanks so much! The dark chick is definitely black. Unfortunately he’s also got a really long curved upper beak, I hadn’t noticed it originally. I’ll wait to see how it grows but my friend and I agree he probably shouldn’t be bred.

The little partridge is pretty light.

Here they all are sleeping. I’m confused how 2 eggs from their BBS hatched but three of them don’t seem to be pure BBS! Thanks again for the help... will update in a couple weeks when feathers are coming in.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

The black chick is weirding me out! (phone flash washed him out a little bit)

If his parrot beak wasn’t bad enough, I think he’s starting to look a little frizzled! The farm my friend bought them from has never said anything about having frizzled silkies or sizzles.

Maybe he’s just a little odd but those wing feathers have such a twist to them! None of the other normal silkies had or have anything like that as chicks.

 

[LynnaePB]

The black chick is weirding me out! (phone flash washed him out a little bit)View attachment 2154618View attachment 2154619
If his parrot beak wasn’t bad enough, I think he’s starting to look a little frizzled! The farm my friend bought them from has never said anything about having frizzled silkies or sizzles. View attachment 2154616View attachment 2154617Maybe he’s just a little odd but those wing feathers have such a twist to them! None of the other normal silkies had or have anything like that as chicks. View attachment 2154626View attachment 2154627

It'll be interesting to see how the little black one grows. I see what you mean about the wings, I'm pretty sure I've had a couple older grow outs that have wings that look a bit like that that are otherwise normal. Maybe it has to do with how silkied the wing feathers are (it seems like it can vary a bit).

I've only seriously started trying to get into breeding last year (bought hatching eggs from various breeders to start my flock) and this year I'm hatching and growing out babies from them. I'm guessing someone who has been breeding a little longer would have more useful input. I do notice beak growth in my grow outs vary. On the little ones with the fastest growth I'll trim the beaks until the babies go outside and naturally wear their beaks down better. Your little black does look like it might naturally have more of a curved beak but maybe a little trim might help?

Adorable babies by the way, it's so fun watching them grow and change!

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Chick 1 is now mainly white but has bluish bits and orange bits! The pattern is similar to the partridge chick. Maybe this is splash partridge?

Chick 2 I can’t tell if this is lavender (porcelain) or some sort of blue.

The partridge chick. Blue, lavender, or normal partridge?

Black chick has such a hook beak!

 

[LynnaePB]

View attachment 2177068View attachment 2177071View attachment 2177074Chick 1 is now mainly white but has bluish bits and orange bits! The pattern is similar to the partridge chick. Maybe this is splash partridge?
View attachment 2177069View attachment 2177073View attachment 2177067
Chick 2 I can’t tell if this is lavender (porcelain) or some sort of blue.
View attachment 2177072View attachment 2177075
The partridge chick. Blue, lavender, or normal partridge?
View attachment 2177088
Black chick has such a hook beak!

So cute, it's so interesting seeing how the colors are coming in as they are growing!

The first little cuties coloring reminds me of pictures of blue cream/porcelain silkies I've seen. Not sure about the second, possibly a darker variation of blue cream/porcelain?

The last little partridge looks too dark for lavender to me but it is light enough I wouldn't rule out blue partridge.

I've heard of some breeders breeding blue into their blue creams. The first could be splash based and the second light blue based if blue was mixed in. If the breeder is experienced/knowledgeable about the genes that make up blue cream they most likely wouldn't have bred in blue as it doesn't breed true and although it can look similar to blue cream it isn't genetically.

I'm sure someone experienced with the blue cream variety would be of more help but I love guessing (just take my guesses with a grain of salt).