The "What Color Is My Chicken?" thread! Calling all color experts!

[alohachickens]

Hi! After seeing some posts on here with really COOL chicken colors (and not knowing what the heck they are) I thought it would be fun for everyone to have a place to post photos of their "mystery color" chickens for feedback and info from the gurus of chicken color that lucky for all of us, lurk on BYC.

I'll get the thread rolling with my own "Mystery Chicken Color". I've been working on a project that requires some serious line-breeding, and last year, I had this color unexpectedly come up in two of my roosters. LOVE it!

Color has absolutely NO BLACK. Areas of tail that would normally be black are a pale milk-chocolate color with red tones. (Darker than body color.) Body color is a bright orange shade. He also has mottling on top, but it's the base color I'm wondering about:



Above: Rooster "Butterscotch" Below: Rooster "Pumpkin"



The strain I've been working with, I believe does contain some kind of random bred Mexican game stock, due to body type and mottling. The original hen that these roosters were line bred from, was purchased from my Mexican neighbors next door, who moved back to Mexico shortly after I got her.

I did find this Craigslist ad for a "pumpkin game rooster" who was located within a few miles of my house. I saved the Craigslist ad photo (NOT MY PHOTO OR MY CHICKEN) because I thought the color kind of reminded me of my unusual guys here:


So my questions are:

1. What color is this?
2. Does it show up in hens, or just roosters?
3. What would be good color crosses, to breed to these roosters, to produce more?
(Currently, I have purebred Speckled Sussex, New Hampshire Red, and Buff Rocks to use as outcrosses.)

Thanks for your help!

Anyone else have a cool mystery chicken color to post?

 

[alohachickens]

I honestly don't know what all the "mystery" is about with Pumpkin Hulseys, looks like dun to me.

Dun doesn't breed true, just as their variance shows, and dun does indeed have a homozygous relative color, Khaki, just as blue is with Splash. So of course, you're going to see orange and black, orange and, umm, dun, and then there's the orangey yellow and white. Which is khaki. The rest of the variety is simply things like (at least, in my opinion) the darkbrown gene or columbian gene present or not. I've even seen articles where people claim that their hulseys are true, and others aren't, because theirs don't vary in color. Well, theirs didn't because they didn't have the dun gene - So naturally, all their birds were orange and black.

Just my opinion. I see the dun gene in a lot of games. Brazilians, Spanish, even the occasional Asil and Thai.

It would be awesome if this was dun. But isn't Dun a simple dominant - and one of the parents have to show it? This popped up out of two parents that both had black in their feathering somewhere. I can't figure that one out. All the info on the Pumpkin Hulsey lines, no one can really "nail" the color down.

However, I did see this photo online, and it DOES appear that hens can show the color! So maybe I simply haven't seen it in a hen yet. But the hens in this photo (behind the rooster) look faded, the only vibrant Pumpkin color on the hens is in their tails:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-Pure-Pum...ultDomain_0&hash=item416324fa37#ht_500wt_1069

I *wish* the photo of the hens was bigger! I don't see any true black on the hen's tails on this Ebay photo - do you guys?

And if this is Buff, can buff come up out of two NON-buff chickens? Here is a photo of one of my "orange mottled" roosters again:



Above and Below: "Orange-Mottled" rooster - note lack of black pigment anywhere.



His Dad: (For sure his dad, the only rooster in the pen when he was hatched)





Mom could be any of these hens:






There were a LOT of hens in the pen last year! But all hens had a touch of black somewhere on them. If it is Dun, and the color came from the dad, wouldn't half the chicks have turned out Dun? Why only two orange roosters out of tons of chicks hatched? That's why I was wondering if maybe it was a recessive?

 

[tadkerson]

Mera,

If he is the offspring from a cross between a silver duck-wing and a gold duck-wing with autosomal red; then you will get the same effect as a gold duck-wing that carries cream. The probabilities are higher that he is heterozygous at the silver locus (silver/gold) but he could also be a gold duck-wing that carries cream ( ig/ig). The problem with chicken genetics is that you can get the same phenotype (what the bird looks like) with different genotypes (genes in the bird).

Tim

 

[Wishapup]

This chick is the offspring of a Blue Ameraucana Rooster and either a Blue Ameraucana pullet or an EE hen, so I was wondering if it's just a weird white colored bird (from an EE) or if it could possibly be a splash from the 2 Blue Ameraucanas? I tried to get a photo of it's leg color as well as a few bits of dark color starting to appear on it's wing and tail.

That's a tough one...what colour is your EE? I feel like that chick is splash. I see a blue feather in the tail and one on the back. BUT the legs are not the right colour...greenish.

 

[draye]

This chick is the offspring of a Blue Ameraucana Rooster and either a Blue Ameraucana pullet or an EE hen, so I was wondering if it's just a weird white colored bird (from an EE) or if it could possibly be a splash from the 2 Blue Ameraucanas? I tried to get a photo of it's leg color as well as a few bits of dark color starting to appear on it's wing and tail.

That looksije what I call a Nlue Wheaten Splash. Are the parents a blue and red color.

 

[junebuggena]

Sharing two of my more unusual bantams.

EE- unsure of how to classify color
View attachment 1140082 View attachment 1140083

Cochin- silver penciled with autosomal barring? Female and male versions
View attachment 1140084 View attachment 1140081

The Easter Egger looks like a blue variation of the Salmon/wheaten coloring seen in Faverolles.
The Cochins are penciled. What you are seeing as autosomal barring is just juvenile patterning. It will likely change into more defined penciling as they are mature.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I am no expert genetics guru but if you look up the pumpkin hulsey gamefowl, they come in that color. The hens are more of a wheaton color. I know the variety has lots of variance, ranging from light, almost white to a darker red. Hopefully one of the genetics gurus will pop in with a better answer.

 

[tadkerson]

Breed him with a buff rock. He is a variation of buff.

dominant white, gold, dark brown restricted on wheaten.

Cross them with a black hen- if they produces white chick with red faces he carries dominant white.

That is my guess- a look at the mother & father would help.

You can get the same color in chickens with different genetic make ups,

I agree he does look like a pumpkin hulsey.

Tim

 

[Meara]

I am SO glad you started this thread!

Breed him with a buff rock. He is a variation of buff.

dominant white, gold, dark brown restricted on wheaten.

Tim are you referring to both of the above pictured roosters or just one? And when you say dark brown do you mean the gene Db?

 

[tadkerson]

yes both roosters. Yes Db is dark brown restricted.

There is a high probability that the birds also carry columbian. The white in them could be from mottling or dominant white- I do not know.

Hypothetically- I believe a buff bird can be produced that is silver wheaten. I believe this because of some anecdotal results I have obtained from my experimental crosses. This is just a thought I have- I need more data to support the idea.

Seeing the parents would really help.

Buff birds are difficult to analyze because there are so many gene combinations that can cause the buff color. These birds are just a variation of buff. I would like to have seen the pictures of the breasts on the birds.

Tim