A Mixed Chicken ... Who Knew?

[Mimi13]

My question is, how could this have happened?

I sold a friend 4 hens and a month later I sold him 8 fertile eggs for one of the girls that had gone broody. Even though my hens are all purebred, my rooster is not. He a beautiful mix of a Welsummer over a Barred Rock.

(picture of Rusty with his moma, Georgia Girl)

Rusty has produced many beautiful offspring, but they have all been very colorful, lots of red and gold from his Welsummer lineage. But much to my surprise, I was literally shocked to see his offspring that hatched from one of my eggs that I sold. The mother is a White Plymouth Rock. She has hatched out several other birds for me and they have all had a certain orange and white coloration, hence their names of Peaches N Cream and Tater Tot, you get the coloring idea. However this particular one BLEW MY MIND!

Without further ado, here is the beauty!

I know these aren’t the best pictures, but how in the world would this cockerel have turned out 99% white? I think I see tinges of yellowing in his hackles, but is he not gorgeous? I’m still shocked!

 

[NatJ]

The reason the rooster is siring so many different colors of chicks is because of his own mix of genes. He's got one copy of every gene a Welsummer has, and one copy of every gene a Barred Rock has.

So some chicks get the Welsummer genes, some get the Barred Rock genes, and some get a mixture.

Plus the chicks get whatever genes come from their mother, which further changes what colors you will see.

If the rooster who sired any of the offspring was Barred, all offspring will be barred.

If the rooster is PURE for the barred gene, then yes he passes it to all his chicks.
If he has only one copy of the barring gene (from the Barred Rock parent), then he passes it to about half of his chicks. That's exactly what I see happening--some barred chicks, some not.

 

[Chickenchickwithchickens]

You said the mother is a White Plymouth Rock. He must've gotten his coloring from her.

 

[Chickenchickwithchickens]

But I wouldn’t think white would be dominant over the sharp colors of red and gold of a welsummer.

You're right. But that's the only thing I could think of.

 

[Kiraeh]

Recessive white, perhaps? You'd have to test breed to confirm, but it would behave like that. It only shows up on chickens with two copies of the gene, but when it does, it completely whites out whatever other colours the chicken has.

Edit: looked it up and yep, that's the white that WPR have.

 

[Mimi13]

Okay, I am so confused! @Kiraeh and @MysteryChicken, which do you suspect my White Rock is, I/I, I/i, c/c, etc.? These are the four offspring that have hatched from her:

From purebred Welsummer - both girls hatched January 2019.

From mixed Welsummer/Barred Rock roo — both birds hatched April 2020.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Okay, I am so confused! @Kiraeh and @MysteryChicken, which do you suspect my White Rock is, I/I, I/i, c/c, etc.? These are the four offspring that have hatched from her:

From purebred Welsummer - both girls hatched January 2019.
View attachment 2424812View attachment 2424809

From mixed Welsummer/Barred Rock roo — both birds hatched April 2020.
View attachment 2424806View attachment 2424791

The girls are dominant white, & it's actually possible for the parents of the birds to carry both dominant white, & recessive white genes.

If the cockerel has any leakage, he's most likely dominant white also. I can't tell from the photo of him though.

 

[Mimi13]

You said the mother is a White Plymouth Rock. He must've gotten his coloring from her.

But I wouldn’t think white would be dominant over the sharp colors of red and gold of a welsummer.

 

[Mimi13]

Recessive white, perhaps? You'd have to test breed to confirm, but it would behave like that. It only shows up on chickens with two copies of the gene, but when it does, it completely whites out whatever other colours the chicken has.

That is very interesting and shows how little I do know about genetics. I’d maybe have learned more in high school Bio if they had used animals I was interested in. Eh, probably not.

 

[Kiraeh]

Recessive/dominant white is a particularly cool one! If you bred him with another recessive white chicken, they'd only have white chicks, even though it's possible none of the grandparents were white.

But breeding him with a dominant white bird could easily result in zero pure white chicks, although white with leakage would be pretty common.