Blue chick in a hatch... where did it come from?

[MariaInTX]

I have a flock of Leghorn/sex link crosses, all are white with black spots. In this flock are also two Leghorn hens, two red sex link hens and a black sex link hen. The Leghorn crosses go back to my Rhode Island red & barred rocks.

I had a bit of a surprise when, in hatching out a batch of eggs from this flock, I got a light blue chick. Being a total color genetics geek, I went on a search to see if I can identify the likely culprit. This is what I know about the genetics of my flock:

Dominant white from the Leghorn father of the mixes; only one gene from him, so all his offspring are white with black breaking through. Since the rooster has one dominant white gene and my Leghorn hens have two, I can rule them out as likely suspects, correct?

The black hen would be BB so I could likely rule her out as well. This would leave me with the reds and the Leghorn crosses. Can/does red affect blue? If they can be ruled out, would the likely Leghorn cross suspect have blue rather than black flecks of color? What is throwing me off is the whole splash thing with blues since I'm also dealing with the dominant white gene and have no idea how that would affect the splash color pattern.

There IS a slight possibility that the egg was from a Delaware hen that disappeared, but I'm not 100% sure I had eggs from her in the incubator.

 

[chickchicklife]

Pictures?

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I have a flock of Leghorn/sex link crosses, all are white with black spots. In this flock are also two Leghorn hens, two red sex link hens and a black sex link hen. The Leghorn crosses go back to my Rhode Island red & barred rocks.

I had a bit of a surprise when, in hatching out a batch of eggs from this flock, I got a light blue chick. Being a total color genetics geek, I went on a search to see if I can identify the likely culprit. This is what I know about the genetics of my flock:

Dominant white from the Leghorn father of the mixes; only one gene from him, so all his offspring are white with black breaking through. Since the rooster has one dominant white gene and my Leghorn hens have two, I can rule them out as likely suspects, correct?

The black hen would be BB so I could likely rule her out as well. This would leave me with the reds and the Leghorn crosses. Can/does red affect blue? If they can be ruled out, would the likely Leghorn cross suspect have blue rather than black flecks of color? What is throwing me off is the whole splash thing with blues since I'm also dealing with the dominant white gene and have no idea how that would affect the splash color pattern.

There IS a slight possibility that the egg was from a Delaware hen that disappeared, but I'm not 100% sure I had eggs from her in the incubator.

Do you have pictures?

 

[MariaInTX]

Do you have pictures?

I have pictures of the chick but need to chase down the flock in order to get close photos.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Yes you can rule out the leghorn hens.
Is your black hen truly black? No chance of her being blue but such a dark blue that she looks black?
Yes the leghorn mix should have blue instead of black if the parent but again it may just be a really dark blue.
You don't have to worry about splash. Takes two parents with a blue gene to get into splash so sure you're not gonna worry there.
Dominate white covers splash just like it does black.
Blue doesn't effect red. A totally red bird could have blue and you'd never know it.

 

[MariaInTX]

Yes you can rule out the leghorn hens.
Is your black hen truly black? No chance of her being blue but such a dark blue that she looks black?
Yes the leghorn mix should have blue instead of black if the parent but again it may just be a really dark blue.
You don't have to worry about splash. Takes two parents with a blue gene to get into splash so sure you're not gonna worry there.
Dominate white covers splash just like it does black.
Blue doesn't effect red. A totally red bird could have blue and you'd never know it.

Thanks! I'm an egg-hatching fool right now as I want to not only see if I can get another blue, but what else might be hiding. I'm about 75% sure the blue is a roo. I bought some Rhode Island red and barred rock chicks with the plan to switch my flock away from the barnyard mix and concentrate on my rose combed heritage RIR, barred rocks and sex links. But then this little dude came along and now I want to play a bit with his genetics. I DO want to have a backup or three though before I disband the old flock.