Blue Copper Marans chicks

[UThobbyfarmer]

I hatched some chicks from my BBS Marans group. Before this hatch I've only hatched a handful of eggs from them. These are our table eggs.

I had a black copper Marans rooster over 1 black copper, 1 blue Copper, and 2 Splash hens.

Here's my question. I hatched 2 black copper and 2 blue copper chicks. But one of the blue chicks is much lighter than the other. It makes me wonder if it's truly blue or some other color (lavender)? Is it normal to have that much variety among blue chicks? I got then blue and splash hens as juveniles from a local source. While I knew they we not well bred ,lots of faults, this chick has me wondering is they might actually be crossbreds.

FYI: white chicks are olive eggers. So cute.

More pics to come. This is all I have at the moment.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Yep, you get no consistency when running BBS together... was one of my first lessons when I started with Marans and Silkies.

Splash is easy to mistake for Lav. But you should not be getting splash chick from your stated cross.

To me it's a starting point for beginners... but if you wan't good blue color, ya gotta breed for it.

Show pics of your adult birds for better assessment of pure bred or not.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Thank you! Your reply helped a lot. After my initial post I did some reading on BYC. I think I understand the difference from Blue and Lavender much better. At least in how they express. There is no way this little guy is lavender. Which means he's definitely blue. But I'm still unclear on how much variation there is between blue chicks. Is this typical? From light to dark grey?

I have 8 more eggs from this group hatching tomorrow. I'm planning on growing all these chicks out. So I'll post pics as they grow. To share their color develop with others.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

There is no way this little guy is lavender.

If both parents are carrying a hidden or single copy of Lav (ie: split to)... they could produce a percentage of Lav offspring...

The much lighter chick is likely from a splash hen. Want lighter blues... breed to splash. Want darker, breed to black. Want consistency breed blue to blue.

Look forward to your updates!