Black copper maran with white feathers

[ShaylaJ]

Hello! I have a black copper maran chick that is around a month old and I am curious to know why she has some white on her chest. I have heard that some chicks get white in the feathers and it goes away at the juvenile molt but this seems different since it is also on her chest. She also has some different colouring in the face like black in the comb and on her beak. She is from a pure black copper maran rooster and hen so I feel like this has to be some sort of colour defect. I would love to hear what everyone thinks about this and why she has this colouring. I will attach some pictures of her.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I'd say that's some extreme leakage. It could be a genetic flaw that jumped a generation on the parent stock. There is a possibility that it will grow out close to six months to a year in age. Even if it does, I wouldn't breed it because it'll pass this down.

On a different breed of chicken that I was breeding, I got a cockerel that had similar leakage on his chest. As he grew older, he lost most of the leakage. The leakage came from his father. His father, when his father was young, had a gorgeous black chest, which was what was looked for in the breed. When he grew older, he grew leakage into his chest, ruining his looks. (By that age, it was ok, but that showed were the leakage came from.)

 

[ShaylaJ]

I'd say that's some extreme leakage. It could be a genetic flaw that jumped a generation on the parent stock. There is a possibility that it will grow out close to six months to a year in age. Even if it does, I wouldn't breed it because it'll pass this down.

On a different breed of chicken that I was breeding, I got a cockerel that had similar leakage on his chest. As he grew older, he lost most of the leakage. The leakage came from his father. His father, when his father was young, had a gorgeous black chest, which was what was looked for in the breed. When he grew older, he grew leakage into his chest, ruining his looks. (By that age, it was ok, but that showed were the leakage came from.)

ok thank you so much!

 

[ShaylaJ]

I'd say that's some extreme leakage. It could be a genetic flaw that jumped a generation on the parent stock. There is a possibility that it will grow out close to six months to a year in age. Even if it does, I wouldn't breed it because it'll pass this down.

On a different breed of chicken that I was breeding, I got a cockerel that had similar leakage on his chest. As he grew older, he lost most of the leakage. The leakage came from his father. His father, when his father was young, had a gorgeous black chest, which was what was looked for in the breed. When he grew older, he grew leakage into his chest, ruining his looks. (By that age, it was ok, but that showed were the leakage came from.

How often do you think happens? Will this happen a lot when breeding? Also do you know if it affects their health or anything or does it only affect their appearance?

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

How often do you think happens? Will this happen a lot when breeding? Also do you know if it affects their health or anything or does it only affect their appearance?

I haven't done enough breeding to see how often it happens, but from hanging around on this site, I've seen a lot of leakage on different chickens. (It was actually on this site when I learned what leakage was called and what it was.) It doesn't affect their health, only their appearance. There is other genetic things that do affect their health though. Like crossbeak is one. You don't want to breed a crossbeak, not even a hairline crossbeak (a beak that's off just a little) because that can be passed down. Another thing I found that can be genetic is water belly. (That's a hard one because by the time you discover your hen has that, it's too late and one may have already bred it.) But with leakage, it won't affect their health. They're just birds you don't want to breed further and won't be able to show. With serious breeders, they put birds with leakage in their "cull" flock. That's the flock that they're either going to sell, keep only for eggs or pets, or eat. If you don't mind not breeding them, they're actually fun birds because they're different.

 

[ShaylaJ]

I haven't done enough breeding to see how often it happens, but from hanging around on this site, I've seen a lot of leakage on different chickens. (It was actually on this site when I learned what leakage was called and what it was.) It doesn't affect their health, only their appearance. There is other genetic things that do affect their health though. Like crossbeak is one. You don't want to breed a crossbeak, not even a hairline crossbeak (a beak that's off just a little) because that can be passed down. Another thing I found that can be genetic is water belly. (That's a hard one because by the time you discover your hen has that, it's too late and one may have already bred it.) But with leakage, it won't affect their health. They're just birds you don't want to breed further and won't be able to show. With serious breeders, they put birds with leakage in their "cull" flock. That's the flock that they're either going to sell, keep only for eggs or pets, or eat. If you don't mind not breeding them, they're actually fun birds because they're different.

Ok thats makes sense! thank you so much for all the help