Are These Not Splash Silkies?

[HeyContrary]

Hello!

First post so let me know if I do this wrong or am posting in the wrong place!

I'm from Australia, I have had chickens for about 2 years, I keep my flock small and want to eventually have a little BBS flock (with one exception - a partridge that's become a favourite) currently I only have 1 splash hen, 1 blue hen (with orange leakage around her neck), the partridge, 1 black frizzle X and 1 splash rooster.

I recently hatched out some chicks - first ever time using this rooster, and I made sure I was only hatching eggs from the splash and the blue hens - and I ended up with some weird combinations! Definitely NOT what I was expecting!

I'll post some photos of the parents - and one of the babies, there are 2 other chicks that are odd, one is a blue but with a white belly/neck like a little tuxedo, I have seen other breeds with that colouring as chicks and they usually grow out as a solid colour? Like blue Australorp chicks!

Either way none of the chicks look like previous splashes I have had (and I was expecting mostly splash with the possibility of blues) so I'm wondering if my hen/rooster are actually splash? I hatched the splash hen myself and I am pretty sure she is a splash, but I didn't raise the rooster myself - just so confused!

Please note I am aware they are pet quality and not for showing etc. thanks!

 

[HeyContrary]

This is what I was expecting! A splash I hatched from purchased eggs!

 

[Amer]

The chick could still be splash. Possibly the gold gene could make the down more yellow, I don't know. When I look up splash Silkie chicks most of the chicks are grey but a few are lighter.
The other possibilty is that your chick is recessive white and the parents carry that gene, however, if all of them are like that it is far more likely that it's just a very yellowish expression of splash.
The white belly is quite common in blue chicks in other breeds, though not typically Silkies. However, I have no reason to doubt that the chicks are pure silkies. If you look up chicks of specific varieties you will see a lot of variation in down color even though their parents might all be the same color.

 

[HeyContrary]

If you look up chicks of specific varieties you will see a lot of variation in down color even though their parents might all be the same color.

I was wondering about this - how accurate is down colour for determining the actual colour of the bird when it's fully grown?

Like I've had brown and black partridge chicks grow up to be silver partridges!

I guess I have to wait and see, I just really thought BBS breeding would be fairly predictable.

 

[Amer]

I was wondering about this - how accurate is down colour for determining the actual colour of the bird when it's fully grown?

Like I've had brown and black partridge chicks grow up to be silver partridges!

I guess I have to wait and see, I just really thought BBS breeding would be fairly predictable.

Down color is weird because it doesn't look like the adult bird but it can also give you information that you will never know by looking at the adult feathering (like base color, sometimes.)

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Still looks splash. I have seen splashes range from almost a blue based to lavender based to a light mauve base. Your roosters head the spots almost look brownish? If it is indeed more brown than black your chick could be a splash mauve and the rooster was carrying a chocolate gene.