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

[Meara]

Not to muddy the waters by showing a young roo,

but here is a variation of the color I am getting in the cochins.

Their heads and saddles usually have much more silver lacing on blue however even when young.

But since it's the only photo I have at the moment ... this one goes with the Frizzle I posted here way back yonder...

Still wondering what this should be called. Entered in fair (with more silver) as a Blue Brassy Gold. They are always blue. We get no dark roos or hens.

Ok, that picture helps. I'd call him a silver blue birchen with autosomal red leakage or maybe since the red is so deep in color it is mahogany. Although he resembles a brassy back I don't think he is because his saddle feathers are silver.

 

[tiki244]

Before you assume he is Duckwing, you should know that the Cocks of Duckwings, Partridges and Weatens are identical.

O My Goodness. If they have babies can it clear things up any? I suppose if one of the parents was a known quantity/quality it may. But probably not both. Well I think I will try anyway. I do like the color of him and her though.

That is a pretty cochin rooster.

 

[Meara]

They are always blue. We get no dark roos or hens.

Do you mean to say that you are breeding blue to blue and getting only blue? Because blue (Bl) just doesn't work that way. You should be getting blue, black, and splash offspring...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Agreed.

 

[Meara]

This hen is such a soft powdery blue that she looks more like a lavender than the typical blue. I'm fairly sure that she's not a lavender though. However, I have wondered if she could be lavender AND blue (Bl/bl, lav/lav). I have many birds with this soft blue color in various patterns. Considering almost all of my birds are Bl/bl, I should be getting a fair number of splash chicks, but I don't. I've wondered if this light blue is actually an atypical expression of splash. I thought I read somewhere that splash can express as a very light blue instead of the more typical black and white splattered.

 

[Lovely Emily]

O My Goodness. If they have babies can it clear things up any? I suppose if one of the parents was a known quantity/quality it may. But probably not both. Well I think I will try anyway. I do like the color of him and her though.

That is a pretty cochin rooster.

Yep, that's pretty much the only reliable way to diagnose the color of cocks, is see them as chicks. All Wheatens are pearly white as chicks,all Duckwings look like chipmunks, and all partridges have a messier and darker chipmunk-ish pattern.

Emily


P.S. To help with some other questions, the 'blue' Cochin may be a smokey, if he and his hens never produce B/B/S offspring. and the EE hen I think is Khaki (Blue/Lavender, or Chocolate/Blue)

Emily, again

 

[Meara]

P.S. To help with some other questions, the 'blue' Cochin may be a smokey, if he and his hens never produce B/B/S offspring. and the EE hen I think is Khaki (Blue/Lavender, or Chocolate/Blue)

Emily, again

By "smokey" do you mean the presence of the dun gene, I^d? Or did you mean the smokey gene, I^s (which is also called recessive blue)? Isn't the smokey gene REALLY rare? Do we even have it in the U.S.? That sure would explain the all blue offspring though..... Can smokey be visually differentiated from blue? Or for that matter from dun?

 

[Lovely Emily]

I meant Recessive blue Smokey. I doubt it's been imported to north america, but it's always possible to have a spontaneous mutation (remember, the Buttercup genotype mutated 4 times in Leghorns, Dutch, and OEGBs)

 

[Lovely Emily]

You'll also notice how his color is dark, and not laced. Blue feathers are usually laced with a dark rim. These are perfectly solid. And, like I said, it is a tad darker.

Emily

 

[Meara]

I meant Recessive blue Smokey. I doubt it's been imported to north america, but it's always possible to have a spontaneous mutation (remember, the Buttercup genotype mutated 4 times in Leghorns, Dutch, and OEGBs)

Given the number of small farm chicken flocks in the U.S., I'd imagine it's statistically probable that color mutations pop up. Does anyone reading this thread have actual numbers for the mutation rates at specific loci?
And how often would anyone even know (or care) what they were looking at? If purple crested green chickens popped up in my friend's farm flock they'd just say, "Huh, I wonder if they are still ok to eat?", and then they'd tell me the story over a chicken dinner...