Dominate White Mutation or Something Else?

[LoveOfFeathers]

I have this chick that came from a paint and black pair. I know it’s partridge colored. I’ve seen something about dominant white gene having mutations. So both my paint and my black have carry the eb (partridge) gene. Cock is Black but Carries both silver and gold. Hen is paint? This chick looks grey? Blue? Is this Smokey? Chick has light skin and eyes, slate legs with pink soles on feet and tan toenails. I’ll post pictures of parents and the chick in question.

Attached link so pictures are easier to see. Should’ve posted here first. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/silkies-they’re-simply-spectacular.1334299/post-27442806

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Hen is on the left. On the right is a dominant white polish paint for color comparison.

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No idea what’s stuck to the rooster’s face
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Hen
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Hen’s feathers up close View attachment 3730698
Rooster top right ( black one) Hen at bottom of photo.
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Rooster carries both silver and gene shown in his hackles.

Chick pictures
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Butt fluff and bottom of feet
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Showing down feathers
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FeetView attachment 3730718
Weird toenail color

Chick photoView attachment 3730734

Full Paint sibling: feathers up close

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[NatJ]

Cock is Black but Carries both silver and gold. Hen is paint? This chick looks grey? Blue? Is this Smokey? Chick has light skin and eyes, slate legs with pink soles on feet and tan toenails. I’ll post pictures of parents and the chick in question.

I think the chick is blue.

I have this chick that came from a paint and black pair. I know it’s partridge colored. I’ve seen something about dominant white gene having mutations. So both my paint and my black have carry the eb (partridge) gene.

What makes you say the chick is partridge colored? It just looks blue to me (genetically a black chicken, with the blue gene turning the black to gray.)

How sure are you that those are the parents? And that they are the parents of the paint chick?

The genetics are giving me trouble. A black rooster and a splash hen would produce blue chicks (and a splash hen might be mistaken for paint.) But black x splash will only produce blue chicks, not splash and no paint. So the paint sibling (whether it is actually paint or is splash) would not make sense if the parents are black and splash.

A black rooster and a paint hen (no blue gene, no splash) would produce paint chicks and black chicks. That explains the paint sibling nicely, but not this chick that looks blue.

A blue paint hen could produce blue chicks, paint chicks, black chicks, and blue paint chicks. But the hen does not LOOK like a blue paint hen.

So if you are very confident that both the father and the mother are correct, and that the mystery chick is a full sibling of the paint chick, then I am distinctly puzzled about how this happened.

Maybe someone else will see a detail I'm missing in the pictures, or have a better explanation of what is going on, or maybe there really is a mixup of some sort. (Mixups are very common in some flocks, and almost impossible in some other flocks, for various reasons. I don't how likely they are in YOUR flock.)

 

[LoveOfFeathers]

I paired the two for breeding and the hen hadn’t been exposed to anyone else. Chick down color is what makes me think partridge and the light tics of gold on its feathers. Chick down looked like chick C. I also ended up with a red pyle chick from this pair of birds. “Breed chickens they said, it’ll be fun they said!” I was so shocked when these chicks hatched, I was expecting paint and black but ended up with a bag of skittles

 

[NatJ]

I paired the two for breeding and the hen hadn’t been exposed to anyone else...I was so shocked when these chicks hatched, I was expecting paint and black but ended up with a bag of skittles

Yes, that does sound like good reason to be sure of the parentage of the chicks.

When you say the hen hadn't been exposed to anyone else-- how long had it been?

Chick down color is what makes me think partridge and the light tics of gold on its feathers. Chick down looked like chick C.View attachment 3731954

That does sound like a good reason to think it's partridge. Yes, in that case each parent would be carrying the gene for partridge.

I also ended up with a red pyle chick from this pair of birds.

I wonder if it's partridge too, but with Dominant White instead of black. That would fit with the hen being paint (Dominant White gene).

For the chick you're mostly asking about (partridge by chick down, looks gray-ish), maybe it's just looking gray because of the mixture of colors in the feathers? If it had normal feathers, we could look at what pattern they are showing, but of course Silkie feathers just fluff all over instead of laying flat and showing nice patterns. And some patterned chickens have gray down at the base of the feathers, even when the visible part does not show any gray. The down would be more visible in a Silkie than in a chicken with the normal smooth feathers.

 

[LoveOfFeathers]

Hen has a dark cranberry colored comb, maybe due to dominant white gene?

 

[LoveOfFeathers]

When you say the hen hadn't been exposed to anyone else-- how long had it been?

She was with him before she ever laid her first egg and before that she was with two definite pullets.

 

[NatJ]

Hen has a dark cranberry colored comb, maybe due to dominant white gene?

You mean cranberry vs. black might be due to Dominant White making it lighter? That is a possibility. Or maybe she's missing one or another of the genes that would make it actually black.

When you say the hen hadn't been exposed to anyone else-- how long had it been?

She was with him before she ever laid her first egg and before that she was with two definite pullets.

Got it
Yes, that is pretty definitive!

(I've seen a number of other "mysteries" where the explanation was a previous rooster. )

 

[LoveOfFeathers]

Hen has a dark cranberry colored comb, maybe due to dominant white gene?

You mean cranberry vs. black might be due to Dominant White making it lighter? That is a possibility. Or maybe she's missing one or another of the genes that would make it actually black.

I think she is missing a skin color gene? Dominate white could be part of the problem too. I have three chicks from this pairing with light skin.

Solid white since hatch light skin and eyes

When you say the hen hadn't been exposed to anyone else-- how long had it been?

She was with him before she ever laid her first egg and before that she was with two definite pullets.

Got it
Yes, that is pretty definitive!

(I've seen a number of other "mysteries" where the explanation was a previous rooster. )

Dark skinned showgirl in back ground. Red plye, paint, blueish one in background too.

Pink skin

I can take more photos later

 

[LoveOfFeathers]

I have aliens

 

[NatJ]

I think she is missing a skin color gene? Dominate white could be part of the problem too. I have three chicks from this pairing with light skin.

Yes, with chicks like that, probably missing one of the genes usually needed for black skin.

I'm losing track-- does either of the parents have skin that is actually light?