Brahma/silverudd and cream legbar cross = white chick?

[DarJones]

Too few chicks hatched to draw good conclusions about the genetic details. The last chick sired by BCM pretty much proves it is dominant white. The black spot on the back suggests dominant white is covering up some form of recessive black along with mahogany. I am curious if the hen lays blue eggs or not.

 

[Ylva]

The hen (Elsa) doesn’t lay blue eggs, her eggs are light brown (almost white). I thought her eggs would be light green since her father is SB/Brahma, and I am starting to wonder if I got the eggs mixed up last summer. In that case her mother could be Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte or Rhode Island Red. Any guesses?

 

[NatJ]

The hen (Elsa) doesn’t lay blue eggs, her eggs are light brown (almost white). I thought her eggs would be light green since her father is SB/Brahma, and I am starting to wonder if I got the eggs mixed up last summer. In that case her mother could be Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte or Rhode Island Red. Any guesses?

Since Cream Legbars are supposed to breed true for the blue egg gene, any daughter of a Cream Legbar SHOULD lay blue eggs.

If Elsa's mother was a White Plymouth Rock, this would all make perfect sense. White Wyandotte might also.

Elsa's mother was probably not a Rhode Island Red, if you are sure of her father. I would expect to see either black or blue in her feathers if she had a Rhode Island Red mother and that rooster as her father.

 

[Ylva]

Thank you for your replies!

I guess her mother must be Wyandotte or Plymouth Rock! I wonder which of my other hens are the CL mix hen, then

So a CL x Brahma/silverudd mix would still lay blue eggs, not green?

The breeder I bought the eggs from doesn’t have any white hens in her mixed flock, and the sb/b rooster is the only rooster she has with them. I sent her pictures of Elsa last year, and she didn’t resemble any of her hens.

 

[nicalandia]

The black spot on the back suggests dominant white is covering up some form of recessive black along

That is just the effect of heterozygous Dominant White(I/i+) on the Birchen e allele(Chick is ER/e+ or ER/eb)

California White Chick(E/E, I/i+)

Black Copper Maran Chicks Hatch with Black chick down, almost identical to Extended Black

 

[NatJ]

So a CL x Brahma/silverudd mix would still lay blue eggs, not green?

Blue or green, but NOT white or brown.

There is one gene that controls whether an egg is blue or not-blue.
There are other genes that control whether the egg has brown on the outside. (Brown over blue makes a green eggs.)

When I said that the daughter of a Cream Legbar should lay blue eggs, I was being a bit careless. I meant to include both blue and green eggs as possibilities, but exclude white or brown.

The breeder I bought the eggs from doesn’t have any white hens in her mixed flock, and the sb/b rooster is the only rooster she has with them. I sent her pictures of Elsa last year, and she didn’t resemble any of her hens.

If any of the breeder's hens are red or brown with some white (like White Laced Red, or the white-tailed-red of Golden Comets and ISA Browns), then maybe one of them could be Elsa's mother. The white would indicate the Dominant White gene, which she most likely has.

I wonder which of my other hens are the CL mix hen, then

Good question! For a hen with a CL mother and the Brahma/Silverudd father, I'd be looking for some amount of blue or black in the feathers (especially the tail), legs that might be clean (CL) or have some feathers (part-Brahma), a comb that is single or pea, and laying blue or green eggs. I don't know whether such a hen would have any brown/red/gold shades in her feathers or not, because it could go either way.

 

[Ylva]

Thank you for your replies!
I have six more eggs from the same hen and rooster in the incubator now. I’m so excited to see how the chicks turn out!

An updated picture of the chick, which I think is a cockerel (and possibly the sweetest, gentlest cockerel I’ve ever met!), with his little brother under his wing:

 

[Ylva]

This is how her last six chicks turned out. The first one was white, the last five were darker. I don’t know which five is hers (of the seven chicks on the picture) but they are definitely not white.

 

[NatJ]

This is how her last six chicks turned out. The first one was white, the last five were darker. I don’t know which five is hers (of the seven chicks on the picture) but they are definitely not white.

I think I'm seeing some blacks and some blues (more than 2 of each, so she must have produced at least one of each color.)

Since the rooster appears to have black (not blue), that would mean the hen has one copy of the blue gene (to produce blue chicks) and one copy of the not-blue gene (to produce black chicks.)

Of course that doesn't explain why she's white, just shows one of the other genes she has, that we cannot see on her because of the white.