Genetics behind blue & barred colored chickens

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I don’t know why I care so much, but I do.

Last spring, I purchased 2 blue chicks. One is supposed to be a Blue Rock, and one is a Rhode Island Blue. They came from Mt Healthy by way of a feed store. I don’t know which hen is which breed. I posted about it a while ago. Original post here

Back in December I hatched an egg from my red Orpington roo and Chicory, my blue hen with silver leakage (hen #2 in the above post). The chick, Charcoal, hatched out solid black, then began developing some color. Would the coloring on his chest be considered barring? If it is barring, does that mean his mom has to be the Blue Rock (barred rock x Blue Andalusian)?

My other blue hen’s son turned out to be blue with some red & silver.

I just hatched another one of Chicory’s eggs. Chick looks extremely different, but I think he’s developing barring on the feathers. So, same question… is this barring? Does that indicate that the mom must have Barred Rock (or other barred breed) to produce offspring with barring?

Lastly, since the hen has silver leakage and the father is red, could the resulting chicks be sex-linked?

Thanks for listening to my insignificant curiosities!

 

[NatJ]

Back in December I hatched an egg from my red Orpington roo and Chicory, my blue hen with silver leakage (hen #2 in the above post). The chick, Charcoal, hatched out solid black, then began developing some color. Would the coloring on his chest be considered barring? If it is barring, does that mean he mom has to be the Blue Rock (barred rock x Blue Andalusian)?

I just hatched another one of Chicory’s eggs. Chick looks extreme different, but I think he’s developing barring on the feathers. So, same question… is this barring? Does that indicate that the mom must have Barred Rock (or other barred breed) to produce offspring with barring?

No, that is not barring on either chick. A blue hen, with no white barring, cannot carry barring to give to her chicks.

Barring is white lines across the feathers. The first cockerel has some white in his chest feathers, but it's not the right shape for barring, and barring would be all over not just on his chest. The second chick has lines of brown and black on the feathers, which is fairly common in chicks but usually gets replaced by some other pattern or even a solid color as the chick grows and molts a few more times.

Lastly, since the hen has silver leakage and the father is red, could the resulting chicks be sex-linked?

If the mother is genetically silver, and the father is genetically gold, then yes they should produce sex-linked chicks: gold daughters and silver sons (with the sons maybe showing some yellowing or red in the feathers as they grow up.)

But looking at your photos of the chicks, I think Chicory must be genetically gold, with some kind of dilution gene making it look pale. When I look at the photos of that first cockerel (Charcoal) as a young chick, I see lots of brown in his wing feathers. If his mother was silver, he should be showing silver rather than that brown (gold).

If the newer chick also grows up to be a male, that would be another proof that Chicory is actually gold rather than silver. (If the new chick grows up to be a female, that doesn't prove anything except that the father is gold, which you already knew.)

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Thank you for the explanation. I have a fairly colorful flock but the one color I don’t have is barring, so I don’t have a good comparison.

Charcoal actually has both gold and silver color on him. Is that typical to get both?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Here's what barred feathers look like. Ignore the gold ones though, regular barred birds won't have those

 

[NatJ]

Thank you for the explanation. I have a fairly colorful flock but the one color I don’t have is barring, so I don’t have a good comparison.

If you don't have any chickens with barring (genetically speaking), you won't get barring in any of the offspring. Of course a chicken can have barring (genetically) but not look like it, if the chicken is white (White Leghorns are known for carrying barring without it being obvious.)

Charcoal actually has both gold and silver color on him. Is that typical to get both?

--Roosters often show different shades of red/gold in different parts of their feathers. So he could just have gold, with various levels of dilution.

--A rooster who is genetically silver/gold split will often show just the silver when young, but some of both as he grows up. Showing just silver when young is what makes color-sexing work so well. That's why I was paying attention to the colors in his chick photos as I was trying to figure out whether he is silver/gold or gold/gold.