This is my Silkie, Riley. I am not sure what color he is. He is six+ weeks old and is just getting his little crest. His color is dark charcoal grey with dark gold tips on his neck and chest feathers. Does anyone know what this color is called?
What color am I?
I don't know what that would be called. We are into the heavy breeds right now. Sure is an interesting little fella....cute!
I looked up official Silkie colors on the internet and I think he is a Partridge. It is apparently one of the two newest colors. Nothing else seems to fit.
Yep, looks like a Partridge.That's what my roo Roanin is, very pretty coloring as they get older : )
This message was edited Jun 11, 2008 11:05 AM
Thank you Patchouli! I noticed that some of the pictures of partridge Silkies were much lighter than he is and he did not look like a "partridge" chick--he was just a plain charcoal grey until recently. But there were some adult partridge Silkies that looked simialar. So there is a dark partridge--that makes sense then. He is growing increasingly golden around his neck and chest and even a little on his back. It is very pretty.
Yes, my Roanin is considered dark partridge. Someone on here shared photos of their light partridge silkie. The light partridge has a more bronzey look, whereas the dark partridge looks more mahogany as they get older. You'll love the coloring. At first I though it may be a gray, but my grays are six weeks old now and they are a charcoal gray with white necks, your guy definately has a brown color to him.
Yes, and he is getting more and more golden brown feathers every day. He is the rattiest looking creature, but so appealing. I read the description for Silkies as having "moderate" feathering of the legs and feet--but his are extremely feathery. I think he is going to be beautiful someday--its just taking him a long time to get there:0)
I guarantee you he will be gorgeous! They do go through an awkward ratty stage and it will last for a minute or so, but in the end he will be very pretty.
Riley may be a partridge, it kind of depends on how he feathers out. If he gets lots of colour on his head, hackles, wings and saddle, yes. If a girl, she needs penciling on all her feathers; there is not the wide variation in colouring on different parts of a partridge female's body as there is in males. Partridge males take quite a long time developing their colouring. In general darker males and redder females are what you want. At this age I really wouldn't settle into considering Riley male. Partridge is not a new colour, not sure when partridge was accepted into the standard, well before 2000, though.
New colours being worked on by a number of breeders, but not yet accepted in the standard are calico, blue partridge, porcelain, lavender, chocolate.
Incidentally, silkies should not have "moderate" foot feathering; they should have ABUNDANT foot feathering. There are some featherleg breeds where the standard calls for less foot & leg feathering, but not silkies. Riley's foot feathering is very nice.
Here is my son's very nice partridge pullet in 2005.
Suze, Sonoran Silkies
Excellent Suze! I am glad his feathery feet are a la mode. I haven't settled on his being male-- I would prefer a pullet. It is just to give "him" an identity and I thought "Riley " would do for either sex. How old are they generally when you can reliably sex them?
Riley was a nice surprise, since he was supposed to be a Silkie/Sebright cross. When he hatched the first thing I saw were his enormous feathery feet. My other S/S cross turned out to be a purebred golden Sebright. The one cross I did end up with is a darling little Marans/Silkie cross with black skin, 5 toes on one foot and feathery shanks (the Marans strain she came from was clean-legged). Quel surprise!
If Riley is not partridge, what could he be?
A black with a gold neck. Pretty, but a DQ for showing. I saw a post on one of the silkie lists just the other day showing birchen silkies in Australia. They called a gold necked black a gold birchen. The thing is, birchens have coloured backs and saddles, too, and they are supposed to be white (aka silver), not gold.
Suze
He doesn't look like my partridges at all. He looks like my blues, only he has that brown/gold color going on.
Karen
Suze: Fortunately I'm not showing or breeding for showing--unless my Nankins take off. It will be awhile before I can tell what his color will be--the gold is also starting on his back, there is more everyday. But he never looked like the typical partridge chick--he was just a dark grey wry-necked (Riley) chick. I read that wry-necked chicks that are treated and recover can still be used for breeding--that doesn't seem right to me. What's your opinion?
Hi, Light: The flash sort of distorted his color--I don't think he is blue--until now he just looked charcoal grey. But then I've never seen a blue Silkie!
This message was edited Jun 12, 2008 8:44 PM
I have a couple with the same markings .I just consider them black and brown .
Hi whatsupdoc! Do you have pictures of your black and browns? I would love to see how he might look when he grows up.
Now that I've looked at your picture again, maybe he doesn't look so blue.
Here is a picture of my partridge and blue. Not a very good pic of the partridge, but maybe it will help. They were about 5 weeks old, both silkies from Ideal.
One of my blue's looks almost black. I have trouble counting them because I count him as a black. Lately I just count the blues and blacks together, it's easier.
Karen
I wonder what calico may look like. Sounds like it might be pretty.
i am getitng some chocolate OEG this fall...
roo...
hen...
Love the chocolate coloring. Was always my favorite color in bunnies!
i just can't wait!!! he won't sell any till after the fair. and by then i may take everything he doesn't want! my other OEG breeding program isn't going so well. lost Mr. Purple to the rats [i also called her Bob], a self blue. the self blue from Welp is a splash roo.... and i have NOTHING to breed him with. last time the Blue Wheatens started a nest, the eggs got too hot. now they are at it again, and the leghorns and the BAs dediced they wanted up into the little bitty hen haven, kept breaking the OEG eggs. so i locked up the Blacks, and just keep moving the leghorns eggs back where they belong... i guess chocolate OEGs are my only hope LOL
Hey T what is going on with those rats?
I went to HomeDepot tonight and got some 1/2 inch hardware cloth, 75 feet of it. Maybe it's overkill, but I am thinking there are so many things at the lot outside of town that might try to hurt the chickens. I was wanting to put the wire on the bottom of the coop too, and everywhere that isn't wood. Does that sound reasonable? Maybe make it light enough to move around, I'm not sure yet. I wish I had had my camera I would have taken some pictures of some small wooden sheds they are selling for $1800. Didn't look that difficult to make, if a person were to put their brain to work a little, and their muscles too.
Karen
ahven't seen any. chicks are out of the hardware cloth brooder for the night. i left the lights on since it is cooling off a bit. we will see how many are left in the AM.... we have found some new remians where the kittens have been munching on rat fur, YUCK! but a good sign... i really need to be able to turn them out...
you are wise to have hardware cloth. i use it lots of places. OVERKILL is my middle name accoridng to DH...
when you staple it on, consider that some creatures could pull it off. so use long staples. DH used his router so that it lies mor efluch in the wood, then covered the edges with trim... there is a thread here with pics somewhere if that helps...
DH has built two small goat sheds from left over fencing materials, posts, and scrap metall...
tf
I put hardware cloth on the bottom of my henhouse, Light, but I saved money by using a little larger holes--I think 1/4 inch on the sides and 1 inch on the bottom--or something like that. I haven't seen the bottom in a long time:0)
lost the Swimmer chick last night... she may not be dead, just GONE. was keeping her in the hosue with the frizzles, and she didn't like them. she may have snuck out an open window LOL
i don't even buy the 1/2 inch hardware cloth, not that much cheaper, and anything we build needs to be suitable for bantams and keets as well as the larger fowl...
Calico is splash with patches of red as well as blue. This is my pullet; she isn't as good type-wise as my roo, but has better colouring. Female calicos are pretty rare; I've speculated that something in the colouring is sex-linked, but not sure.
Suze
By wry neck, do you mean crookneck/limber neck/stargazing?
If so, it depends on the cause. For silkies, it is generally safe to assume that the cause is head trauma, and that shouldn't be a reason to not breed them. Silkies, like most crested chickens have a hole in the top of their skull. In many cases, the brain protrudes through the hole (this is called a vault), and is only protected by the skin and feathers. Thus, they are more prone to head injury.
Another common cause is inadequate nutrition. Silkies seem to need a higher level of vitamin E & selenium than other breeds.
Botulism can also cause crookneck symptoms.
I don't know of any genetic causes, but can't say that there aren't any; there could be some diseases that remain in a carrier state. Those are the two reasons I would decide to not breed.
Thanks Suze. I am concerned because "he" really wasn't exposed to any other trauma (he hatched out with two chicks that were in the brooder while he was still in the hatcher). He had a crooked neck (kinked vertebrae) at birth and still has it but that is only apparent when you feel his neck. The symptoms of crookneck started within two days and involved the classic bent down head and walking backward. He was very badly affected and it was progressive until I gave him Vit E and selenium--that resulted in a very rapid (12 hours) amelioration of his symptoms and he has remained normal even without additional Vit E. He is now 2 months old. Could it be that his mother didn't have enough Vit E selenium? Because his symptoms appeared before he was eating. Which is why I am wondering if their is a genetic component to it. Perhaps he was more sensitive to Vit E levels than his mother? It is interesting.
Cat, remember Emu? well, i never marked him separate, as i was sure i could always tell the difference, with the elongated neck that had been twisted. i just banded that group today, and of the seven blacks, any could have been the one born with a crooked neck. i had done like you siad with VitE and Selenium, and also rubbed his spine down with cold liver oil...
Where do you get vitamins for chickens?
i just used peopele vitamins i had on hand... squeezed some into a small contianer, and used a baby syringe to give him a dro a few times a day...
Same for me. I worried about dosage--they are so little. But it didn't seem to matter. I kept giving it to him for about a week after the symptoms disappeared. He has been fine since.
That's nice to know. TY
You can get bird vitamins online or at feedstores or pet stores. I use AviaCharge 2000, but there are others. And, as was posted, a lot of folks use human baby vitamins. If you are giving spacific vitamins (such as E), it's easiest to get human vitamins--just make sure you don't overdo the amount. You don't ned to worry about an excess of E, but you very definitely do need to worry about too much selenium.
Suze