Silkie color please?

This little silkie was born a light yellow color with black spots. What in the world is that about? I have no chicken that looks like this, so it must be some gene popping up from somewhere. I know the rooster, but not which hen laid the egg. Could even be coming from genes from the rooster if they were doing some experimenting I suppose.

Maybe someone here can make some sense out of this for me. I don't understand it. I think it is a pretty color, but I would like to know what color it is exactly.

Is it possibly a paint?

Interesting! I don't know anything about Silkies; do they come in barred marking? The chick seems to have bars on the wings. Also do Silkies change colors a lot as they grow mature feathers? Perhaps this pattern is temporary.

The rooster was either blue or partridge; what are the possible hen colors?

I appreciate your help and time Porkpal.

There was one black, two whites, a splash, and a splash showgirl with the blue rooster. All fairly good quality birds. The splash is probably the best one out of the bunch.

The two blue showgirl chicks are definitely from the splash showgirl hen. They almost look black, but I suppose they are blue according to these charts. Other than that, I don't know. I was pretty sure none would be white, because white is usually recessive. Of course the chicks will carry the white gene.

This info came from a couple of websites:

Blue X Blue = Blues, Blacks and Splashes
Blue X Splash = Blues and Splashes
Blue X Black = Blues and Blacks
Black X Splash = Blues
Splash X Splash = Splash

black on blue 50/50 Black and Blue
black on splash 100% blue
black on white Almost anything - there are 2 types of white, dominant and recessive and can hide all SORTS of colours
blue on blue 25% black, 25% Splash 50%Blue
blue on splash 25% blue, 75% Splash
blue on white See other description for white crosses
splash on black 100% Blue
splash on blue 25% Blue, 75% Splash
splash on white See other description for white crosses
-----------------------------

According to this chart, the blue on splash should have produced 75% splash and 25% blues.

As far as bars on the silkies, there is only one I've ever seen and it is a cuckoo.

From my experience with the first baby silkies I had, the only ones that changed colors as they grew were the partridge and the red ones. None of them looked anything like this baby.

I really regret not waiting another week to pick up the eggs, as at least three of these chicks seem to be partridge mixes. The partridge rooster is gorgeous. I have him out right now with all the hens. He is five years old now and had never been with hens. He didn't seem to be doing anything, so I thought he was too old. Maybe the young blue reminded him what roosters do? lol

The blue rooster was locked up six days ago. After another week or more I will try to somehow get the eggs from the partridge hen. How am I going to do that without upsetting her? You know how chickens are. You upset them and they won't lay. Oh I hope she will give me some fertile eggs. I so much want more partridge silkies. The roosters are just gorgeous, and I bought this expensive partridge hen several years ago to breed with him. She is a great bird, but he is probably the prettiest bird I have. Obviously he is able to breed. We have the proof. lol :( lol Little half breeds running around here. Who knows they may turn out to be pretty too, but I have my doubts.

Only time will tell, but I'm hoping for more partridges. :)

Thanks again for your help and concern for me Porkpal. You are a nice person.

I don't know which color genes exist in Silkies, but if your hen was dominant white she could be hiding partridge color patterns as could your black hen. So the rooster may not have been the source of the unexpected colors. Cuckoo is a type of barred pattern which could also be concealed by the dominant white or black. It will be fun to see these chicks as adults; keep us informed!

Porkpal, I was talking to a lady on fb and she said that paints are born yellow with black spots. She could not explain the barring on the wings though.

One of my whites came from Dallas where this woman was breeding paints. I remember because she had some to give away because they had defects. Defects only because they were not silkie standards. I can't remember what the defect was. Seems it was a color problem with the skin or the beak or earlobs or something. I have forgotten. I'm thinking maybe that is where this chick is coming from. Nothing else makes any sense to me. It could have even been bars on the wings she was upset about. I can't remember. I think it was the skin though. The skin was not black.

The very first hatching eggs I bought were for partridge silkies. Three hatched, two were the partridge color, and one was yellow. I asked the man that sold them to me what happened? He said, "I don't know what I've done". lol He said he did have white silkies but didn't think he had sent me any of their eggs.

I've often wondered about that. Could two partridge silkies produce a white silkie, or did he accidentally send me a white? I didn't mind it, he was cute. That bird is the meanest one I have though. Alvin! is his name.

Porkpal, you won't believe this, but it is possible that my fb friend had the gggggggg.... grandparents of my little chick, if this color is coming from the bird from dallas. Quite a coincidence. The lady's name is Judy Lee. I can't remember how I became her fb friend, but most likely I was looking for silkie people and asked her to be my friend. I know I did that once or twice, just because I like silkies.

She actually developed the painted American Silkies. Can you believe that? You should read her story it was on byc. I can hardly believe it. I asked her about this chick and posted the picture, and she started telling me that paints are born white or yellow with black spots, but no bars on the wings. She didn't tell me anything else, so I googled her name, out of curiosity, along with silkie chickens and found out on my own. Anyway, here is her own story that was copied and pasted on that page. Don't think she'll mind my sharing. It is a cute story, and is so like her.

Oh, and btw she said my little silkie is a half breed. She did say that and she wants me to send her pics in a few months as he feathers out. lol

I'm thinking that the paints were being bred by the woman in Dallas and this one little chick came out white, but carried the paint gene. She just gave it to me as I walked out the door. You might remember. I named her Polly.

Here is Judy Lee's story:
---------------

"Here is the story of how the American Paints started. I have been a back yard Silkie owner (not breeder, not necessarily an enthusiast) just a person who enjoys the fuzzy little beasts. Never went to a show, or knew anyone else that had any. Never had an incubator, just whatever hatched was welcomed. I had two black hens, but never could find a black rooster, so after a while, I allowed my white rooster to breed the black hens so they wouldn't be completed wasted. One of the chicks was a grayish bluish splash color I still have him. One winter it was SO cold I decided to put everyone together and heat one big room for them, a total of about 10 chickens. I thought that I would separate them in spring when they started laying again. I was a little late on one hen, and she was already sitting on a clutch so I just left her alone and let her hatch them. I went out and checked under the white hen that had been bred to that bluish little rooster and along with the other mish mash of babies was a white chick with distinct black spots. I picked it up and said to myself "hmmmm". I had never had one like THAT before. So I continued allowing those two to breed, but never got any more. Then when that one spotted chick grew to be a hen, I allowed the same grayish rooster to breed her, and still years went by with my hopes always to get another few spotted Silkies. Then after 4 years, all of a sudden in one clutch there were 4 out of 11 all beautifully spotted babies. I didn't know if this was common but I knew that I liked them and wondered if there were more out in silkie land somewhere. I ended up talking to Deb Steinberg, and told her what I had and wondered if there were more. I was curious about whether silkie breeders would accept them if I was able to make a bunch of them. She told me that projects like this had been tried many times, and the truth is that usually, the project fails because of lack of continuing on for various reasons. But she said if you REALLY get this going, let us know. She said there were birds similar to this in the Netherlands developed by a geneticist, and they were called paint silkies. I was encouraged to some degree so I thought I would give it a shot. Now I had one grown bird and 4 chicks. When they all grew up, I wound up with two roosters and two hens and the original spotted hen. I bred those together and then had fourteen. When I had fourteen spotted birdsabout a year later I tried to contact Deb again, but my computer had died and took her contact information with it. I searched around and found a past ASBC official and decided to ask them about it. This person told me that I had no idea what I was doing (and they were right)... that there was no such thing as a "Paint Silkie", and I made the whole thing up. They were very discouraging. They told me what it takes to get a color recognized and what a daunting task it is. So I let my enthusiasm die some, but kept breeding my birds, and then one day came across Debs info again and decided to call her, as she had seemed much more interested. I told her I now had fourteen spotted birds and sent pictures. SHE WAS SO EXCITED!!! Deb and Bren came out here to see my little program, talked chickens and took pictures of every feather, of eyeballs, pink toes, etc. They mailed pictures to Sigi the geneticist in The Netherlands. I never new there was so much to know about a chicken. When they left, I was overwhelmed, but so excited that this could be something really big. She told me my birds would be known as American Paint Silkies. Deb and Bren took home a few grown birds, mostly solid colored with the Paint gene, and a bunch of chicks, all with Paint genes. I was grateful for the information, grateful for the enthusiasm and for them taking their time to make such a big trip. I have been educating myself since then so I can do justice to this wonderful thing that started all by accident."

Quite a story! Could your chicks have inherited the gene(s) for spotting but combined with a different background color than the American Paints?

I don't know. The little chick has even more gray feathers today. He may feather out all gray barred? I have a smaller one too that is almost identical. It is also coming out with the tiny gray feathers on the wings.

When they were born they look identical to pictures of the paint babies I saw today online, yellow with black spots.

I don't know what to think. Maybe I should find out what cuckoo babies look like when they are born.

LFJ I would love to see more pictures of that silkie.

Ty Green. I took some pictures of them a few days ago. They feathered out much different than you'd think. The one that looked like a partridge, in the picture, feathered out into a beautiful little blue. Isn't that weird? I think it is a hen. She is my favorite. Several came out the dark black, like the hen I drove to Dallas and bought.

The main one I was asking about.. well, I'll just have to get you a picture. I think it is a rooster and I've never seen a silkie like him before. Guess that lady really was "experimenting". I really think she bred some solids to some partridges. If I see her again at the Chicken Show in Shawnee, OK next month I will ask her.

Right now I have seven chicks in one little pen, where the cats can't kill them. Then, I have eleven in a little chicken coop by Trixie that I bought and put together. They all came out today and had a grand time. It is beautiful outside right now. We are about to start getting some cold weather though.

I'll try to post some pics and videos in a minute or two.

Since the chickens destroyed my grass, I've planted a few evergreen trees and a few bushes that they don't seem to like to eat. I've really been enjoying these babies, especially watching them hatch out! They are so cute.

Thanks for asking, Green.

I breed silkies (H&H Silkies) and i get this color occasionally. I'm not possitive that it's exactly what you have, but I've been told that what i breed is called a Columbian silkie. In this pic it's the chick on the left. The chick on the right starts out similarly, but turns roo partridge fall colors, but is usually female. I also am showing how the Columbian roo looks now and also a pullet with the fall colors i mentioned. :)

I also get silver partridges. They start out chocolate brown with gold mixed in and then turn nearly jet black with white (a bit of silvery grey too) barring on the wings, tail, shoulders and even head. They are rare and stunning. I just hatched one recently and can't wait to watch it grow and change!

I love to look at silkies

I did a ton of research and discovered that the chick in the nearest above pic that i called a silver partridge, as someone had told me, was actually what's called a Birchen.
Also, the chick and pullet pictured above the Birchen and to the right of the Columbian, is what's called a Calico. :)

I wonder if this would be a calico?I have had a few of these hatch over the years and they all been roosters,so I give them away

You may be right. They have some different colors on them. The biggest and oldest one is darker and a suspected rooster. The smaller one is a lighter color. The woman I bought them from said she was experimenting, and she even said, "You won't like them". lol I hatched out 18 babies from her blue rooster. Seems I have more blue than anything, along with a couple of nice dark colored blacks that I know came from my good black hen, perhaps a lavender or two, and then these weird colored ones.

I think she said the Show Girl hen I bought from her was a split lavender or something like that. I have two chicks that are sort of the color of the SG. When they were born I described them as being "light blue". I'll have to look into this lavender business, because I'm unsure exactly what color that is. At first I thought the ShowGirl was splash, but now, I am not sure. If it is splash it is certainly not distinctly marked. She's a pretty girl though, and my favorite.

The blue rooster was also bred to my best splash hen with the distinctive spots, but so far none of the chicks have her markings. Sad about that. Some of them have the big round crests though, and that is good, but some of them do not. All of them should be fairly decent looking birds when they are grown.

Thanks Green. Certainly something to consider. I'll post some pictures and maybe you can help me figure it out.

How do you give yours away? I was thinking maybe I could sell some birds and put the money into a savings account for my grandson. Might make it easier on me to sell them that way if I need to get rid of some.

My next adventure will be to breed my whites.

I have a rooster guy that used to take all my roosters,thats all he wanted and raised,so there never was any fighting.But sadly when I called him this past fall he had enough so I don`t know what I am going to do unless he losses a few this winter.Wouldn`t it be nice if we could tell by looking at an egg before it hatched if its a pullet or cockerel????I always have more boys than girls in a hatch.I go to all the chicken swaps in the area all summer and sell a lot of chicks.I think this past year I made $500.00 in sales .I don`t buy at the swaps to afraid of sickness getting into my flock.I did buy from someone that I had bought from before from his farm and ended up with lice in my flock.Not a good thing was a while getting rid of them.I will not buy live anymore only eggs,but I have enough now that I can raise my own.I have found that if you take two pullets and one rooster to a swap and say they have to go togather that your chances are better of getting rid of the rooster.With silkies you can`t really sex them until they are about 5 months old so your changes of selling them before hand is very good.I have a hard time sexing silkies,but the bantam cochins are easy

The lice can even come on the eggs is what I was told.

I sure don't blame you being cautious about diseases. I read about one lady that won't let visitors on her property because she says if they have chickens or poultry they could bring in disease even on their shoes.

Lice cannot live long off of their host chicken. Mites, however, can. It is safe to add day-old chicks to your flock as they normally will be disease and parasite free.

That's true LFJ,I sell a lot to people that come to my home to buy and I pray that they don`t come in the same shoes that they do their chores in.If I go somewhere they have chickens I spray my shoes with bleach and water or Lysol
Can`t be to careful

I did not know there was any difference in mites and lice to be honest, Porkpal. Always learning here.

I guess it was mites then that killed my baby chicks once from some eggs I had ordered. When I brought the three remaining ones inside and dusted them with seven dust or whatever it was I had, tiny black specks came crawling off them. I guess that was mites. :(

ZZ said they may have come on the eggs. She helped save the lives of the three. I sure didn't know why the other three had died. I had no idea mites could kill baby chickens. I mean they died shortly after they hatched too. QUICK! If she hadn't told me I would have just sat here and let the other three die too. I was clueless.

I have come down off my high horse as far as wormers and dustings go. I now use Safegard, Ivermectin, and Seven Dust. I still would prefer not having too, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I've been putting apple cidar vinegar in their water too.

Try die no mite strips to.I ordered mine from murrey mcmurrey.They r strips that u hang and when they go under them it touches there heads and backs with something that kills mites.My vet says they work great