Black Bantam Cochins Resulting in Cuckoo Chicks?

[Climbingalbatross]

My smooth black bantam Cochin Hen and frizzled black bantam Cochin Rooster results in numerous black chicks with a white dot on their heads. Is it possible that one or both carry the cuckoo gene? How would the cuckoo gene be masked? I thought the cuckoo striping is dominant. Why is there a white dot on their heads?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@NatJ

 

[Amer]

Cuckoo is dominant.
Do you have any other birds that could be the parent?

 

[Climbingalbatross]

Only black Bantam Cochins in the pen. Could it be recessive white showing?

 

[NatJ]

My smooth black bantam Cochin Hen and frizzled black bantam Cochin Rooster results in numerous black chicks with a white dot on their heads. Is it possible that one or both carry the cuckoo gene? How would the cuckoo gene be masked? I thought the cuckoo striping is dominant. Why is there a white dot on their heads?View attachment 3808534

I don't know what is going on here, but I'd really like to see pictures when the chicks grow some feathers. Maybe it will become more clear then.

Yes, the barring gene is dominant. It should not be possible for solid black parents to produce chicks with white barring.

Only black Bantam Cochins in the pen.

Is there any chance they had a different father? Hens can store sperm for several weeks after a mating.

Or any chance that the eggs actually came from other hens? Maybe someone mixed up which eggs came from which pen?

Could it be recessive white showing?

I have never heard of recessive white doing anything like that. (That does not prove anything about whether it can happen, just that I didn't hear if it did.)

I know that White Crested Black Polish have white in their crests (on top of their heads) but they do not have barring (no white lines on the black feathers of their bodies.) I do not know the genetics involved in their coloring, but I wonder if something similar could be happening with your chicks?

The head spot on this chick looks sort of long and skinny. The head spot caused by the barring gene is more often rounded, instead of long. The head on White Crested Black Polish chicks also has a rounded light area, not long and skinny. The marking on the head of your chick is shaped more like the dark marks on the heads of chipmunk-striped chicks, but of course the colors are reversed. I do not know if that tells anything useful, but I feel it is an extra detail that makes the situation more puzzling.