New w/guestion on Silvers

[Guest]

My son, Brandon, and I have only had Ameraucana\'s for a year now with our first hatch this spring. We culled heavily on the chicks we kept last year so we would not have to worry about leg color. We are really carefull on the brown in the feathers on the boys but have noticed the salmon leaching into the wings on the girls. I assume this is the same as the brown on the boys? We have one dark young male. He is really nice looking except that he is very dark. He has the best breast color of all the birds so far. Has anyone grown one out to see what the adult color is? I would like to eliminate the white in the breast feathers on the males. We can only keep a limited number and so we are trying to find out if he is worth keeping or not. Thanks for any help. We already have 2 really nice pullets we have selected to keep with a few others we are watching. Now we just have to figure out the boys. Thanks for any input on this.

[Mike Gilbert]

Chari,

What do you mean by a \"dark\" male?   A silver male is basically black and white.   Does he have black in places that should be white?    Can you post a photo?  His age?

Mike G.
Wisconsin

[Guest]

I will get a photo of him and post, may take a day. By dark I mean the cockerels range from alot of white, white heads already, solid white feathers in hackles, white wing bows at young ages. To this one that has the still black head and beard, solid black body and white stipping in the hackles and saddle feathers. The pullets have the same range but we have figured out which ones have the best salmon with staying with the gray bodies. Thanks and will get pics so you can SEE what I am asking.

Chari

[Guest]

Ok the dark cockerel is first the Lighter cockerel is second. What I would like is to eliminate the white that shows up in the beards and breast of the males but keep the nice silvering in the hackles and saddle.These two are about a month a part in age.
Chari

[Mike Gilbert]

Both these cockerels will change a great deal when they grow in their adult feathers.   Best to just raise them up and see what they turn into.  Way too soon to cull in my opinion.
It might be a good idea to save one darker one and one lighter one just to see what kind of pullets they each tend to throw.    Then you will know which kind to save as breeders in the future.

Mike G.