# silkie color genetics~ little help please



## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

I am just defeated trying to understand chicken color genetics. I mean, I understand a basic punnet square, but somehow I get lost in chicken genetics. So~ 

I've had white silkies for a couple years now. Last year I bought a couple black and buff silkie chicks. My *understanding* was that I would get white, buff and black silkie chicks by adding the buff and black silkies to my pen. Cool. Eggs started hatching recently with black chicks. This is what I expected. But I also started sometimes getting GREY chicks. I held onto them~ they turn all white and you can't tell them from the white chicks when they get older.

I dont get it. Why are the grey chicks turning white? I understand the yellow chicks turn white, but grey suddenly? I never got a grey chick before~ this has to be related to the buff and black silkies added to the pen.

Then this morning these little beggars hatched~ black chicks with yellow fuzz on their legs and wing tips. What color are those chicks gonna be? And ONE of the chicks has yellow tips on the SKIN of the longest middle toe on both feet. All black skin otherwise, and 5 toes as expected. But white toe tips and white/yellow fuzz on the legs and wing tips. I KNOW they hatched from silkie eggs~ and I'm reasonably sure the daddy had to be a silkie too. Either one of my older white roos or one of the two younger black roos (none of the buffs turned out to be a rooster). But one of the black silkie roosters did develop gold feathering around his neck. His pic is below too. And he was MEAN~ Well....mean for a silkie. I just sold him off for beating up my favorite old white rooster so he's not here anymore~ but is maybe black and gold silkie rooster the daddy of the oddly colored babies? And are the babies going to stay oddly colored or turn all black like the grey chicks turned all white?


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

I think the grey chicks are silvers. In theory if they are the silver they can be used in sexlink matings with reds and i think a couple other colors. As to the black an buff combining i have no idea but have seen it before


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## Sanza (Sep 8, 2008)

I'm so glad I have a special folder just for chicken sites I found useful  Some of these genetics were way over my head so I got rid of all my colored silkies, kept the blues and now have a flock of predominantly splash. 
Now I am working on breeding for all bearded ones. Good luck in your mixing and please let me know if you find the formula for getting chocolates or lavenders.


BYC has a great section on silkies too.


This site lets you add the different colors to see the different results:
http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator

So does this one:
http://www.edelras.nl/chickengenetics/html_pages/calculators.html

This explains it a bit:
http://kippenjungle.nl/basisEN.htm


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## DayBird (Jul 26, 2004)

Ladycat would be the one to ask. She's my go-to lady for color genetics.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

I think you'll find the chicks with white on the tips of wings will be black chicks when they mature. It's something to do with the migration of melanocytes (melanin producing (black pigment) cells in embryo, or at least that's what it is with mammals (white tips on dogs' tails, white socks or stockings, etc.) but with birds the effect doesn't last to the juvenile or adult feathers, although I think the toes will stay white. Which probably means it could be another related mechanism, maybe related to the total number of melanocytes the bird has. I can tell you that with turkey poults the black ones nearly always have a white mask and often white wing tips, and I've seen the rare one with an entire white head. Every time I see it that white head I think it *must* look different as an adult, but they never do! 

The Silkie roo with the gold on his neck may be a gold Birchen. In Marans they call it Black Copper, but I think otherwise it's called Brown Red. Somebody correct me if I've got that wrong. I speak Turkey, and Chicken is a second language for me.


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanks so much for the answers! I've been holding on to the chicks~ at least for a few weeks to see what color and feathering I get~ but I've got more due to hatch soon and I can't possibly keep all the chicks that hatch! So I really need to be able to tell buyers what it is I'm selling when I sell them a chick! Thanks so much!


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