Svart Hona x Buff Orpington...

[Baizer84]

Chick has black skin but I'm wondering what kind of feathers we'll have. Thoughts on color?

 

[Pyxis]

The only way that either of those parents would throw a white chick is if they are carrying recessive white. And that would mean that the parents aren't as 'purebred' as you think they are.

Genetics can be a weird thing. If you look at the birds I just posted, all of them came from a pure black ayam cemani hen and a white naked neck rooster. Only one is white and has black bleeding through. Another is blue. The other one is just crazy. My ayam cemanis are pure and never throw any other color than black when bred together. The naked neck could have an interesting color background.

Birds can carry other colors under their 'true' color and still be purebred. Crested cream legbars, for example, sometimes carry recessive white. They are still purebred, they just carry another color. White leghorns often carry barring because it makes their legs nice and yellow. You can't see it in the white of their feathers, but they carry it and it's done on purpose to get their legs so yellow like the standard calls for. They are also still purebred. There are white orpingtons, and they are still purebred orpingtons - just another color of orpington. Birds can carry a lot of things that you don't see and still be purebred. It just means you might get a surprise every once in a while.

And of course hatchery 'purebreds' can be carrying just about whatever - who knows what might have been mixed in somewhere way back in the past. People would mostly consider these purebreds too, although not good representations of the breed.

Buff is also a very complicated color. The buff orp hen could be carrying dominant white and not expressing it thanks to the buff color. Doesn't mean she's not pure - buff is just a very complicated color in chickens. See here.

Anyway. Sorry for the small novel. Genetics interest me, especially when talking about these super black fibro birds.

So @Baizer84, don't worry that your birds aren't purebred. They most likely are. The white chick does not mean your svarts aren't real svarts.

 

[Kindercare]

I have a broody hen sitting on some Svart Hona roo x Buff hen eggs now. Due to hatch in the next week or so. I will post pictures for folks. It'll be interesting to see what we can learn about their genetics.

 

[Pyxis]

Pretty! He might be white or buff. This isn't the exact cross you're asking about, but here's some of my ayam cemani crosses. They tend to vary a ton. All of these birds had the same parents - ayam cemani crossed with a white naked neck.

As you can see, very variable. I also have a recent chick hatched that is half buff orp and half ayam cemani and it has mulberry legs and buff feathers. I think the genetics involved in these super black breeds can get a little crazy. You can get just about anything out of them, I've found.

 

[Baizer84]

I have one chick which I believe to be Svart Hona x Jaerhon. She's solid black with black skin, mouth and toenails but has silver Columbian markings on her neck. Coolest looking bird ever. It's not the typical bleed you see on the blacks but closer to white. Kind of like a reverse Columbian. I'll get some pics tonight.

 

[Kev]

The only way that either of those parents would throw a white chick is if they are carrying recessive white. And that would mean that the parents aren't as 'purebred' as you think they are.

Excuse me, some buff lines carry dominant white. (just now noticed Pyxis already covered this, my apologies for repeating)

Not entirely unreasonable for this chick to be a dominant white with the light down and feathers on what could have been a black downed chick.

by the way the chick is probably a pullet as orpingtons have a sex linked gene that makes their legs white. It also has a negative effect on black skin. In theory, cockerels would have either normal looking skin or nearly so with either really pale gray or patchy skin with the pullets being visibly darker but then the black skin expression varies so wildly nothing black or white could be said about it, ha...

 

[Baizer84]

 

[Kindercare]

Another picture of the white chick. It seems to be feathering out with some kind of pattern on the wings, which leads me to believe that my Svart Roo has some sort of pattern hidden by his extended black base.

 

[Kindercare]

Here are some updated photos of my Svart Hona x Buff Orpington chick @ 6 weeks.

These two chicks are the eWh, Er chicks. They ended up with some sort of lacing/penciling:




This is the white eWh, e+ chick, mostly white with some sort of spangle markings:

 

[Kindercare]

Been meaning to update. Here are the fully grown pics. I haven't weighed them, but the hens are midway between a Svart and a Buff Orpington in size. The rooster is significantly bigger than my Svart roos, but I don't have a BO roo to compare with.