Chick down is black with silver tips all over body - genetics of this?

[coffeekittie]

Mrs. Sigrid post on the Classroom at the coop forum as Sigi... been a good teacher of mine..

Really! I'm a member over there too. Lurked for a long time and recently joined. I'll check her posts out.

 

[nicalandia]

Really! I'm a member over there too. Lurked for a long time and recently joined. I'll check her posts out.

you´ll find me under Marvin

 

[coffeekittie]

I already found you! lol

 

[nicalandia]

I already found you! lol

well I try my best to be around here.

 

[KristenG]

Well - I think what has already been said is a very good prediction of what one should expect under most circumstances. I would like to add a bit more, however....mostly regarding the extended black. It is my experience that extended black hides quite a few tricks up its sleeve....and when birds are not pure for it (like EE's - who can be full of surprises - depending on the lineage) genetics can take you for a wild, unpredictable ride. Also, a solid bird can carry either silver...or gold. One will never know what a particular bird carries until it is bred.

I would agree with everything that has been said here....except the chick in question does not look like a solid extended black bird to me. Nor does it look like your typical wild type. I used to breed Light Brahmas (also Buff Brahmas, Mille Fleur d'Uccle and even Lakenvelders that have a modified silver columbian genotype) and have hatched my share of silver and columbian based chicks. This chick appears to carry both a silver gene and a columbian gene. Since it comes from Blacks (I have had chicks of this color come out of my Black Watermaal project), I would predict heavy influences from melanotic modifiers (meaning there will be mossiness in the back, in some cases approaching a silver quail pattern in females). It may also carry the blue gene, although I cannot say for sure one way or the other based on the pictures. Based on your description - black with silver tips - I can only assume that it does not carry the blue gene. What you have I would guess to be a plain silver Columbian patterned chick down. Columbian is a potent modifier - often completely modifying wild type genes. Extended Black, however, can cover even columbian...although a bit of red or silver often can be found leaking out in the hackles or saddles black birds carrying a columbian gene. This is not always the case if the bird has the proper melanotic genes, however.

I would predict that your gray EE hen (I can not say for sure that she is even solid blue or extended black based without seeing her) is a carrier of a silver and a columbian gene and that this is the source of this surprise color pattern. Since Silver is sexlinked - I would also propose that said chick is a male. I will post some chicks with columbian patterned down for your comparison. Very cute chick though.

Hope your d'Anvers are doing well

Best,

Kristen

 

[KristenG]

This is a Silver Columbian Cochin chick that was posted on this site by lilcrow

The Columbian pattern in chick down is highly variable - and is highly depended on whatever modifiers are present in the parents. There is usually more black and irregularities coming from birds that are extended black than in nonblack parents.
Here are a variety of light brahma chicks:
This one is by aggieterpkatie and was posted on BYC - original post was questioning the ID of this chick - but I would say it is definitely a Silver Columbian base and likely a light brahma:

Also we have a Light Brahma chick from Higgin's Ranch:

Oh and a few more - just to show you the diversity of this interesting color pattern. These ones are from an article written by a lady named Carole and is titled: Raising Chickens Gets More Fun with Light Brahma Chickens:


So, there you have it. While these chicks are of a different breed, the color patterns usually hold across breeds rather well. It will be interesting to see how your little one turns out.

Best,

Kristen

 

[coffeekittie]

This one is by aggieterpkatie and was posted on BYC - original post was questioning the ID of this chick - but I would say it is definitely a Silver Columbian base and likely a light brahma:



So, there you have it. While these chicks are of a different breed, the color patterns usually hold across breeds rather well. It will be interesting to see how your little one turns out.

Best,

Kristen

This picture is how my baby looks, including wing feathers coming in white with black, which I think is Silver expressing - so...cockerel! I definitely wasn't expecting this, but I have no idea what all is in the EE hen. All the other chicks are (if I understand it correctly) wildtype looking.

Interesting stuff.

 

[nicalandia]

I would predict that your gray EE hen (I can not say for sure that she is even solid blue or extended black based without seeing her) is a carrier of a silver and a columbian gene and that this is the source of this surprise color pattern. Since Silver is sexlinked - I would also propose that said chick is a male. I will post some chicks with columbian patterned down for your comparison. Very cute chick though.

Hope your d'Anvers are doing well

Best,

Kristen

Silver and Columbian just dont affect Extended black chick down at all..... but this chick infact may not be Extended black as stated before... lets just watch her/him grow