Black Rooster hiding some colors?

[Dancingwithchickensfarm]

Hello, All! I have a pen of Black and Blue Silkies that I have kept for several years. Last spring I acquired a gorgeous black rooster that I was really excited about because I had been having trouble with color leakage in the hackles of my males and this guy does not exhibit any color leakage- BUT- he occasionally throws chicks of this color... I know it's not my gals because they didn't appear until he took over that pen. So- my questions:
What color are these chicks that he is occasionally producing? I know Black Silkies often hide Partridge but It looks too dark to be a partridge?
The Blue/Black chicks he is producing are growing out nicely but am I overlooking some negative genetic issues that I am going to regret in the future??

I really appreciate any advice! Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined.

That is a real interesting question, especially since your hens are established Blue, Black. I have no idea what would cross with black to produce this color of down. Since the rooster is Black I'm assuming he has no blue gene so you are not dealing with Splash. It's possible these chicks could have one copy of the blue gene though, just not two.

I'll subscribe to this thread in the hopes someone that knows will respond.

I once got eggs to hatch from a breeder that as working with the Blue/Black/Splash gene and what I was thinking was the Extended Black gene. I'm pretty sure they were gold based, not silver. But there was some Birchen hiding under the extended black, which she warned me there might be. I could handle that with what I wanted to do. But what I did not know was there were also melanizers in the mix that turned red or brown feathers black. Those melanizers made it a pain to get rid of the Birchen. With those melanizers chicks would hatch with reddish or brown down but feather out black.

With my experiences with melanizers if you are serious about staying black I'd find another rooster and not keep any of that one's offspring even if it cost a year in the breeding program. I was extremely frustrated.

 

[Dancingwithchickensfarm]

Hmmm... That is very interesting but makes a lot of sense! Unfortunately, I do not know his background as he was donated to an auction as a fundraiser for a 4H club. I think I am going to hang on to one of these chicks just to see if it does feather out black. If so, then I will know that I have a rooster who is hiding melanizers. Now- I am off to do some studying on Melanizers! Thanks so much!!

 

[The Moonshiner]

To me it does look partridge.
I would say that rooster and at least one of your hens carry partridge.
The reason it didn't show up with the old rooster is because he didn't carry it.

 

[336White Phoenix]

Any pics of the hens and roosters to get a better idea of what where working with here and

 

[ve]

To me it does look partridge.
I would say that rooster and at least one of your hens carry partridge.
The reason it didn't show up with the old rooster is because he didn't carry it.

I will side with Moonshiner

 

[nicalandia]

I agree with Moonshiner.

To OP: Your previous rooster was pure for the extended black gene, your hens(or at least some of them) are E/eb, your current black rooster is E/eb, you had 25% chance of hatching a pure partridge chick and luck would have it that you did on your first hatch.

Partridge is often used on black lines because since are more popular and its easier to find better type birds, so crossing a superb partridge line to a middle of the line black(or blue) strain will improve the blacks on that strain, Most of the F1s are solid black, most people will breed these back to the black line to improve the strain, this will increase the melanizers and none of these cross(BC1) will show any leakage at all but 50% will inherit the eb allele hidden and most breeders will not be diligent enough to test breed their future breeding stock to confirm that they are using a pure E/E or E/eb breeding stock so these E/eb all black strains make their way to unsuspecting breeders, but now is up to you to either cull him knowing he is a eb carrier or keep using him if he is the best you can get your hands on