Genetic Mystery

[connieconnie]

So pretty!

Yep, dead certain he's the father. There is no other cockerel for miles, they live in a completely closed garden, I hatched all the chicks myself and they haven't left our yard! There is no way they aren't the parents

Could it be some weird throwback from the cream legbars?
The chick looks like it has Maran chick markings, if the light yellow was white and the dark yellow was black! or some weird melanin inhibiting gene?

Are you sure about the father? Hens can store sperm for months.

Your cockerel doesn’t have dominant white. Cream legbars are barred cream gold duckwing. Here’s what the rooster described on the calculator would look like (not my picture).
View attachment 2595235Dominant white gets rid of black.
You might want to mark the rooster as gold/wildtype (aka gold duckwing) instead of birchen, too.

It’s alright, I can’t use the calculator too well either.

Looked at the barred cream gold duckwing colouration and my cockerel doesn't have any colour (just light white and grey barring) on his wingtips like the duckwing?

By the way, thank you for all the help! Really enjoying working it out. Will try and keep you updated on what colouring the feathering comes out. At the moment the wing feathers are sprouting out a very light brown colour from the chick. Could this mean my cockerel carried a single Chocolate gene?

or would a chocolate barred chick no have yellow colouration?

 

[connieconnie]

The throwback would have to come from the marans. Looking at your pictures again, the black hen does have a lot of extra leakage I haven’t seen on purebred black coppers. She could be a wheaten cross or maybe a marans crossed with another breed.
Also, the chicks really do have bright legs, so they may keep that yellow color as they grow up. I’m not sure yet. That would suggest that the marans have the recessive genes for yellow legs, meaning they most likely aren’t purebred.

Makes a lot of sense, the eggs I hatched her from were from a mixed pen of marans (blue, black, splash etc)!!! Would not be surprised if the breeder also had wheatens

 

[connieconnie]

The throwback would have to come from the marans. Looking at your pictures again, the black hen does have a lot of extra leakage I haven’t seen on purebred black coppers. She could be a wheaten cross or maybe a marans crossed with another breed.
Also, the chicks really do have bright legs, so they may keep that yellow color as they grow up. I’m not sure yet. That would suggest that the marans have the recessive genes for yellow legs, meaning they most likely aren’t purebred.

I think you cracked it, if both the CL cockerel and Maran hen carry the recessive Wheaten gene, you'll get a very small chance of having a barred wheaten female chick!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Looked at the barred cream gold duckwing colouration and my cockerel doesn't have any colour (just light white and grey barring) on his wingtips like the duckwing?

By the way, thank you for all the help! Really enjoying working it out. Will try and keep you updated on what colouring the feathering comes out. At the moment the wing feathers are sprouting out a very light brown colour from the chick. Could this mean my cockerel carried a single Chocolate gene?
View attachment 2595298
View attachment 2595299

or would a chocolate barred chick no have yellow colouration?

Assuming you mean the wing triangle (triangle on the end of the wing), he does have it, it’s just hidden by the barring and the cream gene. I’ll try to explain.
(Not my pictures.)

This is gold/red duckwing.

These are double barred gold duckwing roosters (roosters can have one or two barring genes, though hens can only ever have one). Notice how the wing triangle is practically invisible, but it’s still faintly there.

This rooster’s wing triangle is much more visible. The distinctness of the wing triangle is influenced by breeding.

This is a single barred gold duckwing rooster. As you can see, his barring is less pronounced, so his wing triangle is more distinct.

This is a cream gold duckwing rooster. He’s basically a legbar without barring. Notice how the wing triangle is lightened by the cream gene, so it’s coloring is closer to yellow/off-white. Barring is white as well, which means the cream wing triangle can easily blend into the barring and disappear.


It’s highly unlikely your legbar cockerel carries the chocolate gene.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I think you cracked it, if both the CL cockerel and Maran hen carry the recessive Wheaten gene, you'll get a very small chance of having a barred wheaten female chick!
View attachment 2595325View attachment 2595326

I don’t think the legbar carries the wheaten gene. I think it’s possible that the marans passed on wheaten to her chick instead of birchen, meaning that her chicks with a duckwing rooster had the chance of not being black at hatch.

 

[connieconnie]

I don’t think the legbar carries the wheaten gene. I think it’s possible that the marans passed on wheaten to her chick instead of birchen, meaning that her chicks with a duckwing rooster had the chance of not being black at hatch.

Thank you for explaining this so well! Finding chicken feathering genetics super interesting, although I don't know much! It's like a game of Cluedo, working out the genotypes from the phenotypes I see now how unlikely he is to carry the wheaten gene, think I just got too overenthusiastic with the chicken genetic calculator

Does this mean that the yellow chick is more likely to be a female?
Colouration of the chicks does look like this Crele Orpington chick! Which if there was one Wheaten gene in my Maran hen could be possible?

Not to mention the crazy combos if the mother was the blue copper maran with a wheaten gene:

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Thank you for explaining this so well! Finding chicken feathering genetics super interesting, although I don't know much! It's like a game of Cluedo, working out the genotypes from the phenotypes I see now how unlikely he is to carry the wheaten gene, think I just got too overenthusiastic with the chicken genetic calculator

Does this mean that the yellow chick is more likely to be a female?
Colouration of the chicks does look like this Crele Orpington chick! Which if there was one Wheaten gene in my Maran hen could be possible?
View attachment 2596780

View attachment 2596784


Not to mention the crazy combos if the mother was the blue copper maran with a wheaten gene:
View attachment 2596785

Wheaten isn’t a sex-linked gene, so I’d say no. You could get a crele looking chick, but it wouldn’t be pure to the pattern (due to the wheaten). Other than that, you’ve got the genetics right!