Barred rock chick color

[nursepinch]

I hatched some barred rocks almost 6 weeks ago. One of them is all black, no barring yet. My flock includes 1 BR rooster, 6 BR hens, 1 RIR hen, and 1NH Red hen. One chick was golden but was injured during hatch and didn't survive. Another also didn't survive but looked like a BR. This one had a small light colored spot on her head at the time of hatched. Any guesses as to what he/she is?

 

[nuthatched]

Where'd you get the eggs?
Barred Plymouth rocks aren't gold or black, though the gray one could be male.

 

[Finnie]

It sounds like your rooster might not be a pure barred rock. But I think I can see slight barring on your black chick.

 

[nursepinch]

Where'd you get the eggs?
Barred Plymouth rocks aren't gold or black, though the gray one could be male.

From my coop. I figure the gold one came from the NH red. But I don't have a black hen. I have 6 BRs, 1 RIR, and 1 NH red. I think you're right about the gray one.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Any possibility that another rooster could have gotten to your hens? Hens can retain sperm from previous matings for weeks (most breeders wait at least 3 weeks, sometimes 4, after setting up breeding pens to make sure of parentage). Any chance the "off" color chicks could be from a previous rooster?

Barring is dominant, if your rooster is a barred rock he should have two copies of the barring gene which means he would pass barring on to every single chick he sires. Unless your rooster is single barred (not a pure barred rock) he shouldn't be able to father any non-barred chicks.

Black is also dominant, only requires one copy for a bird to be [mostly] black. So the fact that one of the chicks hatched gold makes me think there's another rooster at play here. Unless your rooster has any red/gold leakage (and is therefore a BR mix and not a BR), he can't have sired the golden chick that hatched.

On the bright side, a solid black chick out of barred rock hens is a black sexlink. The black chick is almost certainly a pullet. The "gray" chick is double barred, which means it is definitely a cockerel (barring is only found on the Z sex chromosome and since females are ZW they can only ever be single barred)

 

[nursepinch]

Any possibility that another rooster could have gotten to your hens? Hens can retain sperm from previous matings for weeks (most breeders wait at least 3 weeks, sometimes 4, after setting up breeding pens to make sure of parentage). Any chance the "off" color chicks could be from a previous rooster?

Barring is dominant, if your rooster is a barred rock he should have two copies of the barring gene which means he would pass barring on to every single chick he sires. Unless your rooster is single barred (not a pure barred rock) he shouldn't be able to father any non-barred chicks.

Black is also dominant, only requires one copy for a bird to be [mostly] black. So the fact that one of the chicks hatched gold makes me think there's another rooster at play here. Unless your rooster has any red/gold leakage (and is therefore a BR mix and not a BR), he can't have sired the golden chick that hatched.

On the bright side, a solid black chick out of barred rock hens is a black sexlink. The black chick is almost certainly a pullet. The "gray" chick is double barred, which means it is definitely a cockerel (barring is only found on the Z sex chromosome and since females are ZW they can only ever be single barred)

There's no possibility of another rooster as all my chickens are confined to a coop and covered run with no recent escapes. I don't know the heritage of the rooster. But he definitely looks like a barred rock rooster. He had to sire the yellow chick as there was no other way for that egg to have been fertilized. So perhaps he has some other genetic code. I do have 1 New Hampshire Red which I assumed the yellow chick was hers. Thanks for the good information.