What colors are these Silkies?

[Sanna]

I'm wondering what colors my two Silkie pullets are? Are they just some sort of splashes or is there a proper name for these colors?


This is Marble



Here she is on the left.





This one is Ruby at about 2,5 months old



And there's Ruby on the bottom left.

 

[stephanie1992]

Marble looks like a very light washed out birchen color or a mix of birchen and something else

Ruby looks birchen

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

In silkies there is no birchen like there is in cochins etc...but yes i agree Ruby resembles the birchen pattern.

They are most likely mixed colors HOWEVER

Marble looks to be from a Partridge X gray (silver partridge) breeding - shes definitely got partridge - you see the definite penciling in her, and the pattern is pure partridge. but with the mix of brown/gold and silver makes me think someone mixed "regular" partridge with Gray/Silver partridge.

Ruby looks like a Gray now that shes older. in her younger picture she looks like a super silver leaked black - lol but the picture of her more mature she looks like one of the many shades of a Gray silkie.

Very pretty girls

 

[stephanie1992]

i did some looking around since i last posted

Ruby looks like the silver silkie on feathersight

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Silkies/BRKSilkies.html

marble looks like a mix of colors-maybe a silver silkie partridge mix

 

[Sanna]

The father to the two pullets is my rooster Curly


Curly's father looked like this


I have no idea what Curly's mother looked like. There were several different colors at the farm with that rooster. I think they had some blacks, a white and possibly even a partridge, so that could be where Marble gets her coloring from?

The mother to my two girls is one of the two black hens I had. My guess is Marble came out of this hen. In the winter time she has a shade of brown to her feathers. In the summer, she's pretty black. Does that make any sense? Could that be where the slight brown comes from?



Basically these chickens have not been bred for any particular reason. The farm where my first chickens came from have one rooster with different colors of hens mostly for the farm visitors to see. There has not been a breeding program of any sort so there could be all kinds of genes in there and that's ok with me. Right now my chickens are just my pets. I did recently end up with a blue pullet, maybe I'll start my show career with her!? I'm starting to get more interested in the breeding and showing part of the Silkie chicken world also. I've worked with horses for about 20 years now and I've worked on a couple of breeding farms which is why the genetics interest me.


Thank you everyone for answering my silly questions!!

There really are so many things to learn about chickens.

 

[trailchick]

You know, I haven't really gotten the silkie bug, but call me crazy,
I am thinkin grey is about my favorite color- love your blue grey birds!!!!
I know, I know, to call grey a fav..... I must be nuts
Very nice pics of your very nice birds!

 

[Sanna]

Very nice pics of your very nice birds!

Thank you!
I seem to have this obsession of photographing my birds. lol

 

[ramirezframing]

they look like sliver partridge. now the one looks brownish in the winter due to being sun-brunt in the summer. She looks black in the summer because they are new feathers. My blacks and blues turn brown in spots also.

 

[Sanna]

they look like sliver partridge. now the one looks brownish in the winter due to being sun-brunt in the summer. She looks black in the summer because they are new feathers. My blacks and blues turn brown in spots also.

That would make perfect sense