The Search for Silver
The Search for Silver
How far would you go for the perfect rooster?
How many late nights scrolling listings, zooming into photos, and messaging strangers have you spent chasing that one bird that could change everything?
About a month ago I drove seven hours into a neighboring state and back—and just a week ago, I made an even longer trip: ten hours each way to pick up two more.
Most people thought I was crazy. But to a breeder, the right genetics are worth their weight in gold—or in this case, silver. Those birds weren’t just the start of a project; they were the keystone for an entire generation of autosexing breeds now in development at Queen of Coops.
But I’m getting ahead of my story…
When Pretty Eggs Weren’t Enough
My own search actually began about nine months ago, when I realized the future of backyard breeding wasn’t just about creating pretty eggs—it was about creating predictability. That realization hit after losing 50–75% of potential buyers simply because I couldn’t answer “yes” to the question: “Do you sell sexed pullets?”
I could see the writing on the wall. So, I turned back to something I’d always been fascinated by but had set aside in pursuit of the rainbow egg basket: autosexing breeds and sex-linked hybrids.
As I began mapping possible pathways toward my goal of producing both beautiful egg colors and chicks that could be sexed at hatch, I realized that wasn’t enough. I also wanted to create pullets that could later be used to make their own sex-linked chicks—a kind of self-sustaining genetic ecosystem for small-scale breeders.
That meant my whole breeding program needed an overhaul. It was heartbreaking to face the reality that many of my current lines would need to be rehomed. But it was also electrifying, because I could see what this shift could mean for the future of small flocks everywhere.
The deeper I went, the clearer it became: everything I wanted to build hinged on one thing—silver.
Chasing Silver
It’s ironic that I live in Idaho’s Silver Valley but had to drive nearly twenty hours to find the perfect silver roosters. After months of searching, I finally found what I needed—because sometimes, when you’re breeding toward something that doesn’t exist yet, that’s what it takes.
My first attempts to hatch or source S/S, e⁺/e⁺ wild-type roosters with the right egg color genetics were all partial busts. Something was always off: wrong feather type, muddy patterning, poor fertility, or egg color that wasn’t blue enough.
After a failed hatch from Silver Ameraucana eggs, I finally found a breeder a few states away and made the trip—coming home with two clean, sharp Silver Ameraucana roosters. Their silver shimmer was exactly what I needed, though the strain’s spotty fertility and lighter blue eggs were less than ideal.
Then, luck struck. I reached back out to Michelle from Sunshine Mesa Farm—who, as fate would have it, also manages Whiting Farms. She happened to have two young Silver Duckwing Whiting True Blues available. These two cockerels were an absolute goldmine for my program: both carried O/O homozygous blue-egg genetics with perfect Silver Duckwing patterning—and, more importantly, represented decades of selective breeding refined by Dr. Tom Whiting himself.
Dr. Whiting’s breeding program revolutionized how we think about purpose-built chickens. His goal wasn’t ornamental—it was functional: to create lines that bred true for consistent, reliable traits. In the Whiting True Blue, that meant a strong production rate, pure blue eggs, and clean feathering—a rare combination.
That’s exactly the spirit that inspires my own work. Where Dr. Whiting focused on production, consistency, and color purity, I’m carrying that torch into the realm of autosexing genetics—building flocks that not only perform, but do so predictably, generation after generation.
For me, these Silver Duckwings represents the next step in that same lineage of innovation: birds designed not only for what they look like or lay, but for how they reproduce true to type.
At its core, the silver gene (S) is a simple switch on the Z chromosome that either masks or reveals the natural gold (s⁺) pigment in feathers. Males have two Z chromosomes (ZZ), while females have one Z and one W (ZW). Because the silver gene lives on the Z, hens can only ever carry one copy — they’re either silver (S/-) or gold (s⁺/-), never both.
Silver is dominant, which means a single copy is enough to block gold expression. But that also means heterozygous birds (S/s⁺) can sometimes show “leakage” — those brassy or golden feathers peeking through a mostly silver plumage.
What makes this gene so fascinating isn’t just the color — it’s the clarity it gives a breeder. Silver is a built-in visual marker. Once you understand how it moves through generations, it becomes one of the most powerful genetic tools in poultry.
The Hidden Power of Silver: Predictability
When I first started researching sex-linked hybrids, I realized there were two main ways to achieve visible sexing at hatch. The first was through barring, the method used in commercial black sex-links and early autosexing breeds like Cream Legbars and Bielefelders. Barring creates clear visual differences between male and female chicks — a practical system that’s been refined for nearly a century.
But as I dove deeper, I discovered a second, lesser-known method: autosexing through wild-type dimorphism. In wild-type chickens, males and females naturally hatch with different down colors — males lighter, females darker and more patterned. And this difference becomes even more distinct when silver (S) is introduced and stabilized within the line.
That realization changed everything for me. I understood that by developing my own silver duckwing lines, I could not only breed chicks that were sexable at hatch, but also provide the foundation genetics for others to do the same. Silver-based hens are the key: when bred to any gold rooster, they produce clearly sex-linked offspring — silver sons and gold daughters.
This gives me (and eventually, other breeders) incredible flexibility. I can sex my own chicks visually from day one, while also producing silver pullets that serve as the building blocks for anyone who wants to create their own silver-gold hybrids or rainbow-egg projects: all they need to do is put a gold-based rooster . It’s a system that connects small-scale creativity with professional-level predictability — and that’s the niche I’ve chosen to build within Queen of Coops.
Why Silver Is So Rare
For something so useful, silver is surprisingly scarce. That’s because it originated as a mutation of the wild-type gold gene (s⁺). Most heritage and landrace breeds developed in isolation, long before global trade made genetic diversity possible, so many never encountered the silver mutation at all.
Even when silver did appear, it wasn’t always desirable — traditional preferences leaned toward rich, warm tones like partridge, red, and gold. Silver was often bred out or left unrecognized, especially in breeds where dark pigment or barred patterns took precedence.
That’s why modern breeders often have to “rebuild” silver-based lines from scratch — crossing, selecting, and refining until the right balance of production, feather type, and egg color emerges. It’s slow work, but for those who see what silver can do, it’s deeply rewarding.
A Foundation for the Future
I’m not chasing silver just for beauty — I’m building it as a framework.
Each silver-based line at Queen of Coops is designed to become a functional tool — a breed that can cross cleanly with gold counterparts to produce sex-linked chicks, while still standing alone as a beautiful, hardy, and productive variety.
Silver is more than a color; it’s structure. It’s how we create order out of the chaos of genetics. And it’s one of the few traits that lets small breeders take control of what they produce — from predictable hatches to custom egg baskets that express both science and art.
Follow the Journey
If this topic fascinates you as much as it does me, you’ll want to follow along. In future articles, I’ll show you how to introduce silver into your own lines, how to stabilize it, and how it sets the stage for true autosexing systems that empower backyard and homestead breeders.
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