New Hatchling! Barred Hen x Silkie Mix Roo

[GuineaPig24]

Hi all! My favorite hen passed away three weeks ago so I decided to incubate her eggs left behind. Only one baby made it but to my surprise, instead of being black, white, or blue, the baby is brown? I’m curious to see if anyone else has had a brown chick after crossing a barred hen with a random roo. It has the same straight comb as well as peachy skin tone as its mom did. I’m also curious if you guys think male or female.

Above are the two pictures of the chick. And below I will be posting pictures of the barred mama and the three possible dads

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Congratulations on your hatch! Would be great to see how he/she develops

 

[JedJackson]

That is a surprising color for those parents. If you are sure the BR hen is the mother, then the chick is a female. Non-barred male over barred female will give sex linked chicks. The male chicks in that cross would have the head spots.

 

[Stipenvlerk]

That is a surprising color for those parents. If you are sure the BR hen is the mother, then the chick is a female. Non-barred male over barred female will give sex linked chicks. The male chicks in that cross would have the head spots.

This is a really cool fact! I'm going to save this answer

 

[NatJ]

My favorite hen passed away three weeks ago so I decided to incubate her eggs left behind. Only one baby made it but to my surprise, instead of being black, white, or blue, the baby is brown? I’m curious to see if anyone else has had a brown chick after crossing a barred hen with a random roo.

I once had a hen that was supposed to be a Barred Rock bantam, and she looked just like one, but half of her chicks showed other colors rather than the black I expected. So she was obviously carrying some other gene for coloring, even though she looked like a perfectly normal black hen with white barring.

My off-color chicks did not have chipmunk striped like yours, but were actually yellow or buff in color, and grew up to show Columbian and Buff Columbian coloring. They were pretty chicks, just very surprising when they hatched!

 

[GuineaPig24]

see

I once had a hen that was supposed to be a Barred Rock bantam, and she looked just like one, but half of her chicks showed other colors rather than the black I expected. So she was obviously carrying some other gene for coloring, even though she looked like a perfectly normal black hen with white barring.

My off-color chicks did not have chipmunk striped like yours, but were actually yellow or buff in color, and grew up to show Columbian and Buff Columbian coloring. They were pretty chicks, just very surprising when they hatched!

Well that makes me feel a little bit better! Were all of the off-colors female? This is so surprising is all haha

 

[NatJ]

see

Well that makes me feel a little bit better! Were all of the off-colors female? This is so surprising is all haha

From my hen, some of the off-colors were female (hatched buff color, grew up buff/gold with a black tail and some had black in the hackle feathers).

Some of the off-colors were male (hatched white, grew up white with a black tail and maybe black in the hackle feathers, plus white barring that was only visible on the black areas.)

The expected chick colors were black (females) and black with white barring (males). About half the chicks had those colors.

Due to a coincidence of what genes the hen had and what the rooster had, I had sexlink chicks of two kinds (black/barred and gold/silver), which was kind of fun after I figured out what was going on. But it sure gave me a shock when the first not-black one hatched!

 

[GuineaPig24]

From my hen, some of the off-colors were female (hatched buff color, grew up buff/gold with a black tail and some had black in the hackle feathers).

Some of the off-colors were male (hatched white, grew up white with a black tail and maybe black in the hackle feathers, plus white barring that was only visible on the black areas.)

The expected chick colors were black (females) and black with white barring (males). About half the chicks had those colors.

Due to a coincidence of what genes the hen had and what the rooster had, I had sexlink chicks of two kinds (black/barred and gold/silver), which was kind of fun after I figured out what was going on. But it sure gave me a shock when the first not-black one hatched!

Oh that’s so cute! Chicken genetics are much weirder than I thought! I’m pretty positive Primavera was not full barred rock because she had blue earlobes and pink legs (she was also quite slender!) So maybe this baby is still absolutely hers?
Thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful experience with me! It’s made me feel more confident about knowing she is most likely the mom.

 

[NatJ]

Oh that’s so cute! Chicken genetics are much weirder than I thought!

Yes, the genetics definitely can be weird!

I’m pretty positive Primavera was not full barred rock because she had blue earlobes and pink legs (she was also quite slender!) So maybe this baby is still absolutely hers?
Thank you so much for sharing such a beautiful experience with me! It’s made me feel more confident about knowing she is most likely the mom.

From that description, I agree that your hen does not sound like a pure Barred Rock. If she was some kind of a mix, this chick certainly could be hers.

 

[GuineaPig24]

Yes, the genetics definitely can be weird!


From that description, I agree that your hen does not sound like a pure Barred Rock. If she was some kind of a mix, this chick certainly could be hers.

That’s good to know! It’s hard to see in the picture I have above but here’s a really good picture of Primavera and her pretty earlobes. They were opalescent and would kind of change hue in different lighting! I thought it was white until I got chickens with actual white earlobes! I miss her so much.