Question on color genetics

[mire0042]

I have a newly hatched chick from a cross of a black orpington roo and black ameraucana hen. The chick's down appears to be blue not black. I have read that black x black yields 100% black. Sooo, can someone share their knowledge of how this came to be? Thanks in advance!

 

[mire0042]

Also, there is no other rooster in the pen with the hen except the black orpington,

and I am certain that the egg is the Ameraucana's egg as she is the only blue layer in that pen. I have hatched another chick from that mating and it is a black chick as expected.

 

[Wappoke]

Also, there is no other rooster in the pen with the hen except the black orpington,

and I am certain that the egg is the Ameraucana's egg as she is the only blue layer in that pen. I have hatched another chick from that mating and it is a black chick as expected.

Scenario 1 The hen and rooster are carrying a recessive gene that dilutes black. Each parent carries one gene that allows for black and another gene that dilutes black. The recessive gene will not dilute the black because of the normal (wild type) dominant gene.When the hen and rooster mated, The hen gave the offspring one recessive diluting gene and the rooster gave the same offspring another diluting gene. Since the check has two recessive diluting genes, the two recessive genes work together to cause the gray color in the chick.

Scenario 2 One of your birds is not actually black but is a dark blue. Blue crossed with black equals some blue.

I had a lavender chick hatch from an egg and I did not have any lavender birds in my flock. The male parent was a black australorp and the female parent was an easter egger.

 

[mire0042]

Thank you for explaining the possible causes

 

[Simple-country]

I'm desperately hunting for an answer so I'm hijacking this post! Sorry!! Last year I acquired a splash Orpington pullet. This year I went out and found a super nice blue cockerel. I have had them in a breeding pen by themselves for over 2 months with another splash pullet. In the last couple days, one of my hens has hatched out 5 babies. Now here is the question. Out of her eggs, she has 2 splash, 1 blue, and 2 BLACK. How did this happen? I can't find an answer anywhere since blue and splash are suppose to be 50% blue/50% splash. PS My girls had ZERO contact with any other rooster than the blue. The eggs she is hatching out are hers and her sister's only.

 

[donrae]

I'm desperately hunting for an answer so I'm hijacking this post! Sorry!! Last year I acquired a splash Orpington pullet. This year I went out and found a super nice blue cockerel. I have had them in a breeding pen by themselves for over 2 months with another splash pullet. In the last couple days, one of my hens has hatched out 5 babies. Now here is the question. Out of her eggs, she has 2 splash, 1 blue, and 2 BLACK. How did this happen? I can't find an answer anywhere since blue and splash are suppose to be 50% blue/50% splash. PS My girls had ZERO contact with any other rooster than the blue. The eggs she is hatching out are hers and her sister's only.

Do you have pics? My only thought is sometimes dark blue babies look pretty black when hatched, kind of a smoky black. But they're really blue.