Does a white head dot always mean barred/cuckoo? If not, then...?

[MistRidge]

Hi all! Question: does a white spot on a dark chick's head always indicate barring or cuckoo genetics are present? I know it's not always indicative of sex depending on which parent(s) are barred or cuckoo. But can a chick just have a white spot without it meaning anything? Or is that white spot ever related to a different pattern, such as mottling?

The particular chick I'm wondering about hatched 10 days ago out of a green-blue egg (gotta love impromptu egg purchases to appease psycho broody hens). The mix was supposed to be a Silver Laced Wyandotte roo over an Ameraucana hen (I didn't see the hen, but the breeder said she is "brown"). Out of the 6 green eggs that hatched at least one was fathered by her sneaky frizzled silkie, because that chick has 5 toes, fluffy feet, and a little head pouff . I don't know of any other potential dads.

At hatch this chick looked black-brown with yellow feet and pretty standard white markings that you'd expect on a Barred Rock. Weird. When he/she first started getting some wing feathers I thought maybe I was seeing the beginning of cuckoo stripes or barring. Now I'm not sure what to even call this pattern. I don't think it's either? The white seems restricted to the feather tips... Would that be mottling? Can mottled chicks get the little white spot on in their head too? Is it possible that this colouring came from the Wyandotte/Ameraucana cross, or would it have had to come from some other mix?

I'm still pretty new to genetics so please go easy on me . Maybe none of it means anything at this point with so many variables. I'm just curious about colour genetics and also a bit impatient when it comes to waiting for all the feathers to grow in!

Thanks in advance for any insight!!

 

[nicalandia]

Hi all! Question: does a white spot on a dark chick's head always indicate barring or cuckoo genetics are present? I know it's not always indicative of sex depending on which parent(s) are barred or cuckoo. But can a chick just have a white spot without it meaning anything?

White dot on a non crested chick means Barring. White crested polish hatch with large white area on their head

 

[MistRidge]

White dot on a non crested chick means Barring. White crested polish hatch with large white area on their head

Interesting - thank you for answering! So the chick in the pictures... Would that just be some sort of 'messy' barring? I'm not actually seeing multiple "bars" per feather yet, just white on the feather tips. (And as far as I know there's no surprise crested gene going on)

 

[MysteryChicken]

Interesting - thank you for answering! So the chick in the pictures... Would that just be some sort of 'messy' barring? I'm not actually seeing multiple "bars" per feather yet, just white on the feather tips. (And as far as I know there's no surprise crested gene going on)

The chick is barred, the brown in juvenile plumage can sometimes wash it out abit, but then show better after molt.

 

[MistRidge]

The chick is barred, the brown in juvenile plumage can sometimes wash it out abit, but then show better after molt.

Dang, I guess I have to be patient after all . Thank you! I'll post update pics once he/she's got adult plumage

 

[MistRidge]

The chick is barred, the brown in juvenile plumage can sometimes wash it out abit, but then show better after molt.

I guess the follow-up question is: unless the mom was a cuckoo Ameraucana (or some kind of barred Easter Egger), there's probably no way this chick came from an Ameraucana/Wyandotte crossing, right?

 

[MysteryChicken]

I guess the follow-up question is: unless the mom was a cuckoo Ameraucana (or some kind of barred Easter Egger), there's probably no way this chick came from an Ameraucana/Wyandotte crossing, right?

Barred chicks can only happen if one parent carries the barring gene.

The chick could've came from that crossing if one parent is barred yes.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I guess the follow-up question is: unless the mom was a cuckoo Ameraucana (or some kind of barred Easter Egger), there's probably no way this chick came from an Ameraucana/Wyandotte crossing, right?

Yeah, there's no way to get a barred chick from two non-barred parents.

Also, this chick pretty obviously has a single comb and neither of those breeds I'd supposed to have a single comb. Single combs are recessive and several of the breeds used to create wyandottes have single combs so they do pop up often enough in wyandottes aa to not be rare. But ameraucanas and ameraucana based easter Eggers past the first generation or two are usually homozygous for pea comb.

Either the person you got your hatching eggs from was mistaken about which bird the eggs came from or they don't fully know what breeds they are working with. Either way you got a cute chick there!

 

[MistRidge]

Update #1: Here are some pictures of little Rocky Raccoon at almost a month old! Barring has started showing up in patches over the past week, so right now he/she is looking like quite the little mash-up

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

Hi all! Question: does a white spot on a dark chick's head always indicate barring or cuckoo genetics are present? I know it's not always indicative of sex depending on which parent(s) are barred or cuckoo. But can a chick just have a white spot without it meaning anything? Or is that white spot ever related to a different pattern, such as mottling?

The particular chick I'm wondering about hatched 10 days ago out of a green-blue egg (gotta love impromptu egg purchases to appease psycho broody hens). The mix was supposed to be a Silver Laced Wyandotte roo over an Ameraucana hen (I didn't see the hen, but the breeder said she is "brown"). Out of the 6 green eggs that hatched at least one was fathered by her sneaky frizzled silkie, because that chick has 5 toes, fluffy feet, and a little head pouff . I don't know of any other potential dads.

At hatch this chick looked black-brown with yellow feet and pretty standard white markings that you'd expect on a Barred Rock. Weird. When he/she first started getting some wing feathers I thought maybe I was seeing the beginning of cuckoo stripes or barring. Now I'm not sure what to even call this pattern. I don't think it's either? The white seems restricted to the feather tips... Would that be mottling? Can mottled chicks get the little white spot on in their head too? Is it possible that this colouring came from the Wyandotte/Ameraucana cross, or would it have had to come from some other mix?

I'm still pretty new to genetics so please go easy on me . Maybe none of it means anything at this point with so many variables. I'm just curious about colour genetics and also a bit impatient when it comes to waiting for all the feathers to grow in!

Thanks in advance for any insight!!

I'm not sure but our SLW/Americana cross Roo didn't have one. He was dark colored like your little one and feathered out similarly without a dot. I'll see if I can still find a pic of him it's been a couple years and I've switched phones since he was a chick. His mom is a reddish brown color. She no longer lays but is an auntie.