About Mottling - Pics

[Stacykins]

So I have been pleasantly surprised by a mottled bird in my flock, from my own hatching eggs. Not sure on the parentage of the first bird pictured. And, I am having trouble finding good information about mottling in chickens.

First, pictures, then questions.

This cockerel I know is mottled.







This one, I am not so sure. It is an olive egger, I know the exact parents, too. Is this chick a mottled one? Also, not sure on sex, thinking pullet at this point, but that doesn't matter so much.



Same picture, but I've used paint to circle patches of white feathers, since they seem hard to view in the picture. The father was a blue splash Araucana, and the mother a black copper marans. But for this bird to be mottled, both parents would need to be split to mottled, right?




This mutt has pretty decent tufts, hah. The set of tufts on the right side of this picture (left side of chick's face) are white and blue.


White wing tips, two or three white feathers.





So what is going on with this blue bird? Mottled is a simple recessive gene, right? That is what I understood it as. That if a bird gets two recessive copies, it is a chicken that appears kinda pied.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

My guess is that the bird carries one copy of mottling. It can show in juvenile plumage, but will virtually disappear in adult plumage. To show in adult plumage, both parents should carry or be mottled, allowing the bird to inherit a copy from each parent.

Mottling can have a range of expression, and while some appear pied, most have white spots at the tips of their feathers. The pied looking birds are sometimes called hysterically mottled. They tend to turn completely white at a fairly young age.

 

[Stacykins]

My guess is that the bird carries one copy of mottling. It can show in juvenile plumage, but will virtually disappear in adult plumage. To show in adult plumage, both parents should carry or be mottled, allowing the bird to inherit a copy from each parent.

Mottling can have a range of expression, and while some appear pied, most have white spots at the tips of their feathers. The pied looking birds are sometimes called hysterically mottled. They tend to turn completely white at a fairly young age.

So the mottling on the blue olive egger should disappear, right? Since I really don't think the BCM is a carrier for the gene.