Okay, I have a simple question about some black sexlinks I hatched. I've made an incubator from an old ice chest that works good and decided to try it out by hatching some of my own eggs from my flock. I used my eggs (Barred Rock hen and EE rooster) but when they hatched they're not black like expected but came out as grey and dark grey poofs. Now that it's been a few weeks they're beginning to feather and they're a blue or grey with black bordering the feathers.
I've done some reading and I suspect my rooster might carry the dominate white gene that caused this to happen. My rooster is a handsome white (someone referred to him as a blue splash when he was young, but he's more white than blue these days) with rust on the shoulders and a few dark blue feathers here and there mixed in.
My question is, if they're not black, should I still call them black sexlinks? Or is there another name for this variety? I have a few pictures to better shed light on all this.
here's my pullet and cockerel
The pullet
Cockerel
I had two more hatch 2 or so days ago and they've come out the same. Would I still call them "black" even though they're obviously not totally black?
I've done some reading and I suspect my rooster might carry the dominate white gene that caused this to happen. My rooster is a handsome white (someone referred to him as a blue splash when he was young, but he's more white than blue these days) with rust on the shoulders and a few dark blue feathers here and there mixed in.
My question is, if they're not black, should I still call them black sexlinks? Or is there another name for this variety? I have a few pictures to better shed light on all this.
I had two more hatch 2 or so days ago and they've come out the same. Would I still call them "black" even though they're obviously not totally black?
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