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

[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?

 

[Coopacabana]

OMG! SO PRETTY!

Please make more, thx!

Thanks! She's a real sweety, too. Those roosters are so beautiful! I've been lurking on the Aloha chicken project thread. All totally awesome chickens, but these roosters have to be some of the most beautiful i've ever seen. Don't tell me they are friendly, too or i'll be bugging you for some hatching eggs lol!!! We have too many chickens already. I really, really want lemon milles though so I hope someone knows if she has the ig gene.

 

[Meara]

Quote:

I have a pretty little d'uccle hen from the feed store that looks like a gold neck but she is a yellow color. What genes does she have and could she be used to create lemon millies? Or is she just a 'hatchery quality' gold neck? I love her color & want to know if I can make more or even some lemon millies.

Not really a color- that's a breed, a Red Sex Link roo. Cream white with red leakage.

Can you clarify what you mean by "cream white"? By cream do you mean ig? White=silver?

 

[Coopacabana]

but you can see belle is WAY lighter than my mille fleur. is that a common hatchery thing? most of the gold necks i see are dark like the millie. still, ig is ressisive, and snowflake's coloring contains some of her mother's coloring along with a deeper, shimmering (literally) gold higher up on her head. So maybe Di? Or something new all together...

 

[Meara]

No, I don't think it's a hatchery thing. I've seen breeders with that color pop up now and then. I'm sure Snowflake's color indicates what's going on genetically with her mother, but I can't put my finger on it. Hopefully, one of the "color experts" will chime in.

 

[alohachickens]

Thanks! She's a real sweety, too. Those roosters are so beautiful! I've been lurking on the Aloha chicken project thread. All totally awesome chickens, but these roosters have to be some of the most beautiful i've ever seen. Don't tell me they are friendly, too or i'll be bugging you for some hatching eggs lol!!! We have too many chickens already. I really, really want lemon milles though so I hope someone knows if she has the ig gene.

Alohas are very friendly! They don't like to be petted, but they love to hang out around people.

I could send you some eggs. Get a nice Aloha roo to cross with Belle, and you can turn Belle into a new Aloha strain. LOL! I think full-size chickens with Belle's color would be FABULOUS.

All the weird colors I'm getting right now in my flock, are from one very funky colored Banty hen I found. (Oddball.) I crossed Oddball the Banty to a big rooster, who was a Speckled Sussex - Exchequer Leghorn cross. I hatched out her eggs and got four chicks. Those four chicks outcrossed to other stuff and then back to each other created the Alohas. Oddball's color went away in her offspring, but came back in her grand-chicks. I wonder if you crossed Belle's chicks together, if you'd get some more Belle-colored babies?

 

[alohachickens]

Can anyone explain (in a "color for dummies" kind of way) the difference between Lemon and Buff genes? How they work? What they work on?

Like, I understand that Blue turns Black pigment into a gray color. And two copies of Blue make Splash, which looks like a white chicken with some dark streaks. You can cross a Blue chicken to a Black chicken, you get half black, half blue. You can cross a Black chicken to a Splash chicken and get all blue chicks. Simple dominant gene.

And I understand that Lavender is also called "Self Blue" and it ALSO turns feathers a gray color, but it works differently. It's a recessive and both parents have to carry Lavender before it shows, right? But the nice thing about Lavender is it "breeds true" and you can have 100% Lavenders in a flock for generations. (No Splash.) So far, this is correct, right?

So how does Buff work and how does Lemon work? How are they the same and how are they different? Both look "yellow" to me?

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Can anyone explain (in a "color for dummies" kind of way) the difference between Lemon and Buff genes? How they work? What they work on?

Like, I understand that Blue turns Black pigment into a gray color. And two copies of Blue make Splash, which looks like a white chicken with some dark streaks. You can cross a Blue chicken to a Black chicken, you get half black, half blue. You can cross a Black chicken to a Splash chicken and get all blue chicks. Simple dominant gene.

And I understand that Lavender is also called "Self Blue" and it ALSO turns feathers a gray color, but it works differently. It's a recessive and both parents have to carry Lavender before it shows, right? But the nice thing about Lavender is it "breeds true" and you can have 100% Lavenders in a flock for generations. (No Splash.) So far, this is correct, right?

So how does Buff work and how does Lemon work? How are they the same and how are they different? Both look "yellow" to me?

Pretty good, but Blue/Splash is actually incompletely dominant.

There is no such thing as a 'Buff' gene. Buff is a combination of Gold Dilution (or possibly Lemon) and Mahogany.

Solid Buff (i.e. Orpington) is Wheaten, Columbian, Mahogany, Gold Dilution, and Chocolate Dilution (the tail)

Gold Dilution is completely Dominant, and Lemon/Cream is Recessive.

 

[Ducks and Banny hens]

Basically speaking, there are three main Gold diluters:

Champagne - Recessive - the weakest of the three; hard to notice
Lemon/Cream - Recessive - dilutes Gold to a nive rich Buttercream color
Gold Dilution - Dominant - very Powerful. It can take Mahogany and dilute it to the same tone that Lemon dilutes gold to.

 

[Meara]

Lavender dilutes pheomelanin (red) to isabel and blue also has a dilution effect on reds. And I suppose silver is also a "red diluter" or elminator. Plus recessive white, Db, and columbian alll affect red expression.

Copacobana, I'm still mystified by Snowflake, but then we don't know what hidden recessive genes she may be carrying. Would you say she has a white body or a light cream body?
Any of the experts out there care to explain Snowflake?

Here is a link to chicken color genes/allellles on the "chicken calculator":
http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kippengenen