Paint Silkie

Description

Paint Silkie bantam chickens have attractive white plumage with black splotches, similar to a pinto horse or a Dalmatian dog. As with horses and dogs, the size and number of splotches vary from one paint Silkie to the next. The most popular paints have the largest black patches, although some have so few they appear nearly white.

It’s easy to confuse paint Silkies with splash Silkies, but there are differences. Paints have larger splotches. Further, in a paint the entire feather is black. In splash just the tips of the feathers are either black or blue. In paints the background is white, while in splash the background is pale blue. And some paints have a lighter color skin than splash Silkies, which have black skin like other Silkie varieties.

Genetically they are entirely different. Splash is a variation of the color blue, resulting from a modified black gene. If you mate two splash Silkies, all the chicks will be splash.

Paints, on the other hand, are the result of mating a dominant white Silkie to a true black Silkie. The resulting chicks have a single dominant white gene modified by genes that influence the number of black feathers. Unlike splash Silkies, paint Silkies do not breed true. If you breed a paint to a paint, only 50% of the chicks will be paint; 25% will be white and 25% will be black.

Although numerous Silkie varieties have been accepted into the APA Standard of Perfection since 1874, the paint Silkie bantam has not yet been accepted by APA. The American Bantam Association standardized the paint bearded Silkie in 2018.

In addition to paint bearded Silkies, Cackle Hatchery® offers several other color varieties of Silkie bantams. For more information about Silkies, see Silkie Bantam Chickens in the Breed Spotlight.

Breed Farm Source: Cackle Hatchery® Poultry Breeding Farm has been developing our bloodline or strain of Paint Silkie Bantams since 2022.