partridge silkie chick colors

Since Sunday, we have had 6 bantam silkie chicks hatch. Half are yellow with a hint of light tan-brown, the others look like chipmunks. Is this a sex link thing or will we end up with another color? We only have the partridge color.

The e  gene series affects the chick down colour and the adult colour. They will probably all end up partridge, but the lighter chicks are either eb (brown, do they have darker heads? ) or -  eWh based (wheaten) (are they yellow with reddish down tips, like toasted marshmallows?) and the chipmunky striped chicks are e+ Wild type duckwing) . The e gene series works with some other genes to put the pattern/depth of colour and colour on the feathers and the extent of red and black. There are slight differences in the adults, based on their e series genes, but you probably won't notice much difference in the adults because there are a whole lot of other genes that affect the outcome.  It would be worth marking the chicks to see how they compare as adults, if a certain down colour produces the adults you like best, you could select for those in future generations.

Thank you! This is information that I couldn't seem to find anywhere. It is exactly what I was looking for.

You are very welcome. I had Buckeye chicks of the correct colour (yellow with reddish tips) and Buckeye chicks from a different line- never seen anything like it even on the Internet that were dark chipmunk striped- I thought they were the wrong breed. In the end though they both turned out the same, all proper Buckeye colour.

Well...It looks like we actually have 3 whites in the mix. They are feathered now, of course. Will they change color any more as they get older? I am starting to think not... Not that I mind whites...but I really do like the partridge color.

The others are easy to tell apart by feather tuft color on their heads, although you can see plumage differences otherwise as well. I find them interesting.

Sorry, Niglefritz haven't been on this forum for a while. The white chicks you have will be recessive white if the white didn't show in either of the parents. This means that if you cross these white chicks with other colours their chicks won't be white (unless the other parent is hiding recessive white as well LOL ) but may be carriers. To express, the recessive white gene must be pure- so in this case this means your original partridge silkie parents each had a copy of recessive white. The recessive white chicks will stay white, they won't turn partridge.

Thanks. So interesting.