Silkies Of A Different Color

[keesmom]

Here is a little three month old roo I have coming up. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he is a porcelain, but he is a silkie of a different color right now. Great lavender crest, beard, and undercoat - but a darker orangish frosting on the back and wings and chest.

I am not sure that chick is lavender. Lavender also dilutes red, turning buff into a pale straw color. The buff on your chick has not been diluted so I would think s/He is a blue instead. It is possible s/He is a lavender split since lavender is a recessive gene.

 

[Ragdollcatlady]

This our little Cinnamon Twist. She is a silkie of a different color for sure!

 

[Fur N Feathers]

I am not sure that chick is lavender. Lavender also dilutes red, turning buff into a pale straw color. The buff on your chick has not been diluted so I would think s/He is a blue instead. It is possible s/He is a lavender split since lavender is a recessive gene.

My rooster is a CatDance lavender, I don't own a blue. Here is his sire:

This lavender rooster is also the father of this red paint boy:

Keesmom, I think you have mentioned that to me before, but all I can tell you is what I have.

I thought an F1 porcelain (self blue cream) is a lavender split - lavender crossed with buff?

 

[Fur N Feathers]

This our little Cinnamon Twist. She is a silkie of a different color for sure!

Cinnamon Twist is a little doll, that's for sure!

 

[workinnanie]

What a pretty baby!

 

[MumsyII]

My rooster is a CatDance lavender, I don't own a blue. Here is his sire:




This lavender rooster is also the father of this red paint boy:



Keesmom, I think you have mentioned that to me before, but all I can tell you is what I have.

I thought an F1 porcelain (self blue cream) is a lavender split - lavender crossed with buff?

Both of your boys would look wonderful in my program. Just sayin...

Your Lavender boy is the same beautiful color as my hen. Though your boy has better type. I've seen Catdance (Karen Larson) breeding operation. She is considered one of the best Silkie breeders in the country. I believe it. I've seen it.


One of Catdance (Karen Larson) Lavender (Self Blue) pens. I think that cock is Lav split. Definitely NOT Blue.


This is one of her Porcelain (Blue Cream) pens. I think I saw three pens on my visit a year and a half ago. That is a Lavender Cock. NOT Blue.

edited to add: There were over 300 birds that day I visited. Maybe more. I never even saw the grow out pens or brooders. It appeared she has at least two to three pens of most standard and project colors.

 

[MumsyII]

The Paint x Recessive White project pen with eight colored chicks are three weeks old. The two that hatched black are certainly not Self Black. Images show the progression in down color.


They are a few days old.


Smaller one is darker. Bigger one on the left has a lot of what looks charcoal.

Today the difference is remarkable.



The Charcoal colored chick with the orange zip is the larger of the two.





The smaller chick with the pink zip is coming in the same Charcoal color but has a touch of white on each wing and there is a dusting of white on the top of the head.

If this is called something other than Charcoal, please comment. Recessive White can hide anything. Another chick from a different Recessive White hen produced a chick much like these from the same Paint Cock.

 

[MumsyII]

This is the third black/charcoal colored chick from a half sister to the recessive White hen that had the above black chicks by my Paint male. I really don't know if this will be Charcoal, Dark Blue, or Smokey. In time as they get their adult feathers and go through their first molt, I'll know more.





Black feathers from grey down. Pigment holes on the tips of both middle toes.

Nine more eggs from two related recessive White hens are in the incubator and are due next week. I curious how many of this coloring will hatch if any. I would like to test mate them to each other in time.


Edited to add: Something about this chick just didn't seem 'Silkie' to me. Then it hit me! Those are smooth feathers coming out of those wings! The only chicken I own that could have slipped a sneaky egg into this pen is a little bantam RIR hen. She can escape her own pen, sneak an egg in someone's nest and then go back to her own pen without being detected! That little punk pulled a fast one. The thing is now I know where that Charcoal coloring is coming from. The Paint male!


The little brat! Her little Paint x RIR bantam chick has five pertfect toes on each foot. Black skin and beak and the smoothest, flattest little comb for a week old Silkie cross I've seen. Maybe I'll save that chick and start a Red Silkie pen.

 

[MumsyII]

I found this formula posted by Sonoran Silkies in an older post. Not sure if I found it on this thread or another. I copy and paste much of her knowledge I find in the forums for future reference. When I decide to make a project pen with my Silkies and Bantam RIR, this will be the way I start. Just substitute Polish for BRIR. I have three very dark mahogany/Black red hens. Like many other project breeders, I'm going to need to find a very good and typey Black male.

"If your first cross is to a polish, then the F1s are 50% silkie, 50% polish.
Cross them back to silkies and your F2s are 75% silkie and 25% polish.
Cross them back to silkies and your F3s are 87.5% silkie and 12.5% polish.
Cross them back to silkies and your F4s are 93.75% silkie and 6.25% polish.

Now if you have to cross back to the other breed to reinforce the trait you are breeding in, it will take much longer. But that is how you breed in a gene that is not present in the breed."

It's going to take some time and hard culling but that's the challenge and joy of projects.

 

[Coops4me]

Any idea of her color. Top pic is now. Bottom one she was 2 months old. Now 5 1/2 months old.She had paint markings but very few..Paint is behind her and I don't know the rest.