Blue out of Leghorn/sex link crosses

[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.

 

[Amer]

Dominant white can hide blue. So do some of your Leghorn crosses have blue spots?

 

[MariaInTX]

Dominant white can hide blue. So do some of your Leghorn crosses have blue spots?

It's difficult to tell, the spots are so small. I'm guessing it came from the Leghorn rooster I had unless there's a possibility that red can mask blue.

 

[Amer]

It's difficult to tell, the spots are so small. I'm guessing it came from the Leghorn rooster I had unless there's a possibility that red can mask blue.

It can’t have come from the rooster unless the chick is white, because otherwise it would be spotted like those hens. Red can’t mask blue.

 

[MariaInTX]

It can’t have come from the rooster unless the chick is white, because otherwise it would be spotted like those hens. Red can’t mask blue.

I should have specified the sire in question is Leghorn/Sex Link, and that I'm thinking the blue must have come down through HIS sire, the Leghorn roo I mentioned. I'm assuming that dominant white can mask blue like it masks black. Chicken color genetics when it comes to blue is totally different from any other animal I've studied, where blue is recessive to black and BB as well as Bb would be black; bb would be blue. This whole splash element is confusing, as it SOUNDS like it could look like a bird with only one dominant white gene. I'm wondering if the Leghorn rooster grandsire might have been either a blue or a splash that was masked by the dominant white. Thanks for the info on red (a color I've not yet studied.) I'm guessing this pretty much eliminates everything but the Leghorn crosses, and I know which eggs theirs are so I can add more to the incubator

 

[Amer]

Ohhhh!
Since blue is melanin, yeah, dominant white does hide it.
The reason why blue is weird is because it is incompletely dominant, not following Mendellian simple dominant and recessive. It’s really no different from dominant white.
The reason why I said that about red is black tailed reds, the reds you usually see, would have blue in the place of the usual black if they had the blue gene (and this is a very rare color.)
Technically, if it was a solid red bird, you might not find the blue, but the blue *may* slightly dilute the red. I’ve never seen this color so I don’t know.

 

[MariaInTX]

Ohhhh!
Since blue is melanin, yeah, dominant white does hide it.
The reason why blue is weird is because it is incompletely dominant, not following Mendellian simple dominant and recessive. It’s really no different from dominant white.
The reason why I said that about red is black tailed reds, the reds you usually see, would have blue in the place of the usual black if they had the blue gene (and this is a very rare color.)
Technically, if it was a solid red bird, you might not find the blue, but the blue *may* slightly dilute the red. I’ve never seen this color so I don’t know.

This is one reason I absolutely love color genetics. There's always something new to learn. I was going to get rid of this flock as I bought some heritage RIR and barred rock chicks so I would have a more controlled genetic pool to play with, but I'm going to keep this one and see if I can get a few more before moving them along. I'm hooked on this blue!

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

My money is on your LeghornX line is hiding the blue gene... very fun

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Do you have pictures of the possible parents?

 

[MariaInTX]

Do you have pictures of the possible parents?

I'll try getting some in the morning. They run our goat area and aren't exactly very tame so it might be difficult. I DID look at the chicks in the same hatch of the blue and it's really difficult to tell if colored feathers are black or blue because they are such small splashes of color. I DID find a photo of the chick when it was newly hatched (I'm bad at taking photos lol.)