Blue chick feathering out white?

[Cloverr39]

I have a chick with blue down, who has started to grow white feathers. At first I thought it was just the first few wing tip feathers growing that juvenile white tip, which they molt out of later, but turns out the whole wing is white.
I'm confused, since it's the only one that looks like that out of about 19 siblings. The other blues are growing blue feathers.

Parents are a flock of black, blue, dominant white, paint, and blue cuckoo silkies. Though, I believe the white and paint weren't laying at the time the eggs were collected. Even if they were, the chick's down still looks too dark to be dominant white.

So what genes might be present here and causing it?

First photo is more accurate to the shade of blue that this chick is. The other has weird lighting, but shows the white wings.

 

[Debbie292d]

So cute!! Maybe that'll be a two-toned blue or silver partridge?

Maybe @NatJ has more insight with the various colors of silkies than I do because as of late, I've been having some very different variations of colored chicks coming from mine too. Very pretty, nonetheless.

Otherwise, what I do is I either sell them and make them promise to send me pictures, or I grow them out.

 

[Cloverr39]

Parents are a flock of black, blue, dominant white, paint, and blue cuckoo silkies.

I should probably mention that the father is black, so the chick couldn't be splash either. But a splash chick wouldn't be that dark anyway.

 

[NatJ]

Maybe @NatJ has more insight

I've got a few ideas, but not certain of anything.

Maybe that'll be a ... silver partridge?

I was wondering something like that, but chicks with silver & black will usually show black in the first wing feathers, so maybe not. I'm not sure.

I wonder if it could be recessive white? White Jersey Giants have recessive white, but when I look at photos of the chicks they are gray and even black. So it is definitely possible for a chicken to have colored down and grow all white feathers.

Or maybe a very light blue, but if the feathers are actually white, that wouldn't be right.

I have a chick with blue down, who has started to grow white feathers. At first I thought it was just the first few wing tip feathers growing that juvenile white tip, which they molt out of later, but turns out the whole wing is white.
I'm confused, since it's the only one that looks like that out of about 19 siblings. The other blues are growing blue feathers.

Parents are a flock of black, blue, dominant white, paint, and blue cuckoo silkies. Though, I believe the white and paint weren't laying at the time the eggs were collected. Even if they were, the chick's down still looks too dark to be dominant white.

So what genes might be present here and causing it?

First photo is more accurate to the shade of blue that this chick is. The other has weird lighting, but shows the white wings.

Please do post updates as it grows. I'm curious to see what it looks like later.

 

[Cloverr39]

I wonder if it could be recessive white? White Jersey Giants have recessive white, but when I look at photos of the chicks they are gray and even black. So it is definitely possible for a chicken to have colored down and grow all white feathers.

I don't think it's very likely, but it wouldn't be impossible. I suppose we'll see once the chick feathers out more. If I'm not mistaken, recessive white inhibits the production of all pigmentation (unlike dominant white, which can have gold leakage or black flecks), so if any color shows up in the feathers, we could theoretically rule out recessive white, correct?

Or maybe a very light blue, but if the feathers are actually white, that wouldn't be right.

Definitely white. Just double checked. The whole wing so far. Plus my blues usually tend to lean on the darker side.

Please do post updates as it grows. I'm curious to see what it looks like later.

Absolutely.

I had something vaguely similar happen a different year. I had chicks with fully blue wings and tails and white bodies, so it was different from what this current chick has. But they also had blue down at first. My guess was they probably inherited some kind of pattern from their parents, which either limited the white or the blue, making the wings and tails blue, while the body turned white. Their father was hetero dominant white though, so that's likely where it came from.

 

[NatJ]

I don't think it's very likely, but it wouldn't be impossible. I suppose we'll see once the chick feathers out more. If I'm not mistaken, recessive white inhibits the production of all pigmentation (unlike dominant white, which can have gold leakage or black flecks), so if any color shows up in the feathers, we could theoretically rule out recessive white, correct?

That matches my understanding, that recessive white is very much non-leaky as compared with any of the other kinds of white.

Then again, McMurray hatchery does say their White Jersey Giants can have little bits of black leakage, so leakage may not be enough to completely rule out recessive white.

If you were to get a male and a female of such chicks, and breed them together, recessive whites would produce only white chicks, while most of the other possible genes would give some chicks of other colors or patterns as well as white ones.

Definitely white. Just double checked. The whole wing so far. Plus my blues usually tend to lean on the darker side.

I had something vaguely similar happen a different year. I had chicks with fully blue wings and tails and white bodies, so it was different from what this current chick has. But they also had blue down at first. My guess was they probably inherited some kind of pattern from their parents, which either limited the white or the blue, making the wings and tails blue, while the body turned white. Their father was hetero dominant white though, so that's likely where it came from.

Interesting, but I see why you say it was different than what you've got this year. From your description, I'm visualizing something like Blue Tailed White or Blue Silver Columbian. (As if a Black Tailed White Japanese or a Light Brahma got their black parts turned to blue.)

 

[Cloverr39]

I haven't updated in a bit. The chick is all white and has a light beak and comb, which is something I've seen before in two recessive white silkies I hatched a few years ago, so it makes me think this chick might be recessive white after all. Though, why the down was such a dark blueish color I don't know.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but not much has changed color-wise.

 

[NatJ]

I haven't updated in a bit. The chick is all white and has a light beak and comb, which is something I've seen before in two recessive white silkies I hatched a few years ago, so it makes me think this chick might be recessive white after all. Though, why the down was such a dark blueish color I don't know.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but not much has changed color-wise.
View attachment 4125204

Thank you for updating!

That is quite a change, from dark down to white feathers. I don't know why the down was so dark, but I agree that it's probably recessive white.