[sarahup]

I am just starting out hatching my own silkies, so far I'm just doing b/b/s and have them in a separate pen which is going well. I have a couple questions. One I think I already know the answer to, (yes?), which is:
Can I put my "lavender" silkie hen in the B/B/S group? I was told lavender breeds as black when not bred to lavender so just want to make sure that's true.

I also have a Red Pyle hen, what can she breed with (I know definitely not B/B/S)/what breeding group would i have to create to breed her?

The silkies mentioned above are all great quality so I'm hoping for the best with them. But my last question is... Can I do anything with this satin boy (pictured, not full grown)? Not sure what his coloring is called, or how satin/smooth feather genetics work at all. He was bought as a "pet" (we call him Heart Boy since he has little hearts on his chest). He has a single comb, which I know is a fault, so should he never be bred anyway? Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything!

 

[robin416]

It would be worth trying the lavender/red breeding. If I remember right, that's where the porcelain color comes from.

Lavender is a self blue. The problem with putting her with the BBS group is that you won't be able to tell what is what. It won't make a mess of unacceptable colors but you won't know what is Lavender and what is BBS. That could affect you later for sales because you won't be able to say what their true color is. Which could mess up someone's BBS breeding.

Someone has been playing with their breeding program. That boy is absolutely stunning but he's not full Silkie. The only thing I would put with him would be: 1. a paint silkie 2. true black silkie 3. white. He's so soft feathered I wonder if he's part Cochin.

The paint would be my first choice since he already has the dom white gene, offspring should hatch black and white (paint). True black might give you all black. White, could be a mess now that I think of it. The recessive white gene could produce wild colors.

You really made me pull out that stuff buried deep in my brain.

 

[Sylie]

This is so interesting to me, I love reading all of this genetic and color breeding business, someday I would love to start breeding for colors etc but I can't have that many birds where I live and I am not supposed to have a rooster *whistles innocently* but maybe someday I'll live where I can have what I want so I am storing all of this info for later

 

[robin416]

There are only a couple of people out there that understand genetics and can put them in terms that can be understood. I was lucky enough to know one of them.

Silkies are a bit different from other birds in the color genetics. White can be a problem when it comes to mixing it with other Silkie colors because they carry two recessive white genes that hid any other colors that are in the background.