Thanks! I had read that Salmon Favorelles were silver based but she didn't seem very whitish. So if Sexlinked works, will the hens be silver based?
In chickens, there are three loci ( gene locations on a chromosome) that control the basic color of the chicken. The three are the autosomal tyrosinase locus ( recessive white (C*C) or color (C*N), the autosomal extension locus ( black, wheaten, wild type, brown, birchen,etc,) and the sex-linked silver locus. All other genes dealing with plumage color modify the expression of the genes found at the previously mentioned three loci.
At the tyrosinase locus, the two most common alleles found in chickens are the wild type color allele and the recessive white allele. There are two other rare recessive alleles found at the tyrosinase locus; autosomal albino and red eyed white. Chickens that carry one or two dominant color alleles C*N/C*N are some color other than white.
At the extension locus, a bird can carry several alleles, the most common are extended black E*E, birchen E*R, wild type E*N, brown E*B and wheaten E*WH or E*Y.
At the sex-linked silver locus, the two most common alleles are gold S*N or silver S*S.
The salmon faverolle carries two tyrosinase alleles for color (C*N/C*N), two light wheaten alleles at the extension locus (E*WH/E*WH) and silver at the sex-linked silver locus; males are S*S/S*S and females are S*S/ W. Males can carry two S while females can only carry one S.
Any time you cross two chickens the female offspring will inherit one sex-linked allele from the father and
no sex-linked alleles from the mother. If the father only carries silver alleles- all the female offspring will be silver. Some males carry a silver and a gold , therefore some female offspring will be silver and others gold. If a rooster carries two gold alleles then all the female offspring will be gold.
Concerning the salmon faverolle, there is a difference in the plumage color of an unmodified gold, light wheaten hen and an unmodified silver, light wheaten hen (salmon faverolle). If you had the two side by side you could see the difference. The difference is very apparent in the males. Silver males have silver hackles (salmon faverolle) and gold males have red hackles.
Blue copper cross (The copper in the male is an expression by the gold allele.)
In your case, the female offspring will inherit the gold allele from the father ( blue copper) and as adult females, they will have a plumage color similar to female black coppers or blue coppers. As chicks , they will be black or blue with white or gray on the belly- some white gray may extend into the chin. The birchen allele is normally dominant over the light wheaten allele, therefore the chicks will look like black or blue copper chicks.
The male offspring produced from the cross will inherit a silver allele from the mother and a gold allele from the father. The males will be basically silver because the silver allele is incompletely dominant to the gold allele. The male chicks will look like the female chicks. The adult males will have a silver birchen adult plumage with red on the back and some red in the silver hackles.
Blue rooster cross
The cross with the blue rooster will produce black or blue offspring. The adult plumage will be a basic black or blue. The blue male rooster parent could be silver or gold so you do not know what the female offspring will inherit. The male offspring will be silver because the female parent is silver.
