Silkie thread!

[Mollie4dogs]

Does anyone have some sort of reference guide for colors of chickens? I'm planning on having some silkies to breed and have little knowledge on how you determine what color they are.

Also, do the crosses of silkies with other types of chickens still produce the black skin?

Thanks--

Mollie

 

[Jharper]

Does anyone have some sort of reference guide for colors of chickens? I'm planning on having some silkies to breed and have little knowledge on how you determine what color they are.

Also, do the crosses of silkies with other types of chickens still produce the black skin?

Thanks--

Mollie

When I crossed mine to my Easter Egger rooster I got the bluish colored skin. Did the same thing when I had my sultans.

 

[PaintedFeathers]

Does anyone have some sort of reference guide for colors of chickens? I'm planning on having some silkies to breed and have little knowledge on how you determine what color they are.

Also, do the crosses of silkies with other types of chickens still produce the black skin?

Thanks--

Mollie

Not always Mollie, I get a 50/50 percentage typically of silkie skin to the other chicken's skin when I do crosses like that. Also, paint silkies are weird because they tend to throw pink skinned chicks every now and then, I just had a showgirl paint chick hatch with pink skin. I sold her to my friend to start her showgirl project =)

 

[Fancychooklady]

Does anyone have some sort of reference guide for colors of chickens? I'm planning on having some silkies to breed and have little knowledge on how you determine what color they are.

Also, do the crosses of silkies with other types of chickens still produce the black skin?

Thanks--

Mollie

Depends on the cross. The yellow in Wyandotte seems to be dominant.

 

[emvickrey]

We are having very cold temps for the next few days and I"m worried about my silkies. They did fine when it gets around 15 degrees but it's going to get to 2 degrees the next couple of days. Wind chill will make it below zero. I have their pens covered up to keep out any drafts and I have my juveniles with a heat lamp. I can't get heat lamps to my other pens. My pair of paints I worry the most of because there is only 2 of them. Not alot to huddle together to keep warm with. My sizzle pen has a dog house inside of it that they get inside of with alot of wood shavings to nestle down in. We have completely covered the paints pen with a couple of tarps and I put a piece of wood on the north facing side to help try to divert the wind. My orps have always done well but we haven't had these low temps since I've had them. They have a condo house and they sleep on the top floor. The door for them to go into their run is at the bottom. I"m pretty sure they will be fine. My geese are more open. I just got them and didn't have a good pen but the one they are in keeps them in but their house part is more open to the elements. I have a thick layer of wood shavings for them to hunker down in. There is some protection from the winds but the north side is pretty much open.

Will the silkies or at least my paints be okay being completely covered. They won't be getting any drafts but they have no heat. The north side of their pen where the cold winds will be coming from is behind a big pecan tree so it is also blocked by that along with being covered by a tarp and a piece of wood over that. If that makes any sense. We put wood boards over the tarp to hold it down from any winds moving it around and used bricks to hold it down all around the bottom. Oh, and this pen is an "A" frame.

We're not getting all the snow that alot of other people are getting but it rained today and now it's all gonna freeze. So everything is gonna be big ice cubes.

Any advice is welcome.

 

[emvickrey]

Depends on the cross. The yellow in Wyandotte seems to be dominant.

One year I crossed an EE hen with a silkie roo and all the chicks had the dark skin. Their feather type and number of toes varied but they all had dark skin not all had dark beaks though and also the combs varied. The offspring mostly laid colored eggs. Somebody else took over the project and last I talked to her she was getting alot of colored eggs from silkie looking birds. IDK if that helps any but I thought I would pipe in with my experience.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Ok, thanks. So Momma Silkie is named "Pepper" I was told she was a blue Silkie. Pepper is top of the pic here. She isn't much for pictures though :/ Its really hard to get good ones of her. I do have closer up pics of her when she was younger in another thread. I will link it here in this post.

So Daddy Silkie is "Pouf", I was also told that he was a blue Silkie when he was young. But as he grew he showed a buff or tannish color on his neck. So I guess........well I don't know. Lol, anyway here he is. Other than the tan he really does look exactly the same in coloring as Pepper. There are also closer pics of the color on his neck when he was younger on this thread with Pepper. (We no longer have Tootsie that is on that thread)https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/795538/my-3-silkies

So, the babies that these two parented are 3 Splash (one was taken by an owl, so we only have 2 left, so sad). And 2 gray babies. One looks exactly like Mom so far and then there is this one......
I am having trouble with figuring out what color to call this baby.........
This Baby is like a solid color lighter gray





Geez, I guess I need to get some better pics of the other 3 babies. Seems I only have good pics of this gray one.

So with the parents having 3 splash, and the 2 gray.......and then not sure what to call daddy (partridge or some mix?) Anyway just hoping to be imparted with a little wisdom. I did used to have some tropical birds many years ago and we did really good with the genetics etc and pairing the right birds to get the colors we wanted, (but we knew parentage) so it interests me. In the future I want to get some better quality chickens of whatever breeds we have. But I don't need to be 'experimenting' at that point. So trying to learn more now. Thanks if anyone has anything to say and I am going to have to get my kids to hold these fast little fuzzy butts I guess so we can have some decent pics

Pouf sounds like a blue with gold leakage. Your solid grey babies are blue, not grey. They will likely develop appropriate darker areas as they mature.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Different (and not incompatible) genes. Also take into account the id gene that determines leg colour.

Fm (fibromelanosis--aka black skin) gene is incompletely dominant--a bird with two copies has darker skin than one with one copy.

 

[bantambury]

Does anyone have some sort of reference guide for colors of chickens? I'm planning on having some silkies to breed and have little knowledge on how you determine what color they are.

Also, do the crosses of silkies with other types of chickens still produce the black skin?

Thanks--

Mollie

so far, all I DO know is that if you breed a black and white, you get a splash....but if you breed two splash together, you DO NOT get a splash.

also, I have a silkie mix...just hatched December 31st. her name is Milkshake....yeah.


she has white skin on her belly, black skin on her back. which is why I named her milkshake

It relly depends what type of chicken you breed with the silkie. if you bred another black skinned chicken with it then it WILL have black skin. if you breed it with white skinned bird, you may come out with another milkshake!

 

[kabhyper1]

We are in the middle of this winter storm, and I went into the den to check on the silkies in their box and found 2 eggs. I guess they like it in the house. lol