Help me understand the blue genetics here, and patterns.

[RoostersAreAwesome]

My ER Rooster apparently has some strong blue genes. 25 chicks out of 14 hens came out mostly blue. I think 1 BR boy was black, 2 BCM chicks were black, and 3 chicks are white, but the rest are grey (blue?) Even the BR mixes and the BCM mixes. Those hens are obviously black and dad is mostly black, so i was shocked to get so many blue babies. I don't see any indication of blue coloring in dad. Ill post a photo of him, but he was soaking wet from rain so it may be hard to see his colors right. The blue genes obviously didn't come from the hens. Look at me talking like i know what the "blue" gene even means or where it comes from or anything long story short, bunch of blue EE chicks and no "blue" EE parents. Well, a couple hens, but they dont explain the whole batch. Also, what would you call their markings/coloring? Its unique. Or atleast to me. I've never seen chickens colored like this. My hens aren't colored this way to contribute either. Anyways, here's dad and chicks. The first 4 single chick photos are some of the BR and BCM babies to show how even the jet black hens made blue babies with him. The rest are some of the EExEE crosses.

His blue gene isn’t strong. He’s just blue. Blue crossed with blue/black/splash will give you about 50% blue chicks. Out of random chance, you got more than 50%.

That looks about like the way crochet patterns look to me. So he don't have to be blue colored himself, just have a blue gene? How is he not blue if he "is" blue? I'm still so lost, lol.

One blue gene would make him blue, two blue genes would make him splash. He’s blue, so he has one blue gene.

And im lost on the splash too. Is that what their weird markings are considered? And why are they marked this way if the roo and hens aren't? This is gonna take awhile...

None of your chicks look splash. You can’t have a chicken that is both blue and splash, though you can have a splash with a lot of spots. So all the chicks with a lot of blue aren’t splash.
They actually appear to be silver, which your rooster is as well. See the white feathers on your rooster? That’s the silver. Some of your hens appear to have silver as well. Silver usually replaces the majority of the red/gold/brown tones on a chicken.

 

[CoopsNPoops]

His blue gene isn’t strong. He’s just blue. Blue crossed with blue/black/splash will give you about 50% blue chicks. Out of random chance, you got more than 50%.

One blue gene would make him blue, two blue genes would make him splash. He’s blue, so he has one blue gene.

None of your chicks look splash. You can’t have a chicken that is both blue and splash, though you can have a splash with a lot of spots. So all the chicks with a lot of blue aren’t splash.
They actually appear to be silver, which your rooster is as well. See the white feathers on your rooster? That’s the silver. Some of your hens appear to have silver as well. Silver usually replaces the majority of the red/gold/brown tones on a chicken.

Oh gosh. I barely got dove in to blue, and now you wanna throw silver on me I can see him being silver over blue though, except he has grey feathers too.) But what looks like is white on him isn't. I had to use flash on these photos, but what looks white is actually tan. Or does that matter. Is tan still silver? None of my hens have any white except for the 3 odd white and gold ones. But im not sure how you are getting that the grey/blue chicks are silver. (Except for the obvious white ones) They are literally so grey they look "blue" in person. With the black hens chicks being grey, wouldn't that have to mean the rooster is blue? Or can he be both blue and silver? Or does silver and black make blue too? Lol. I warned yall, this is gonna take awhile!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Oh gosh. I barely got dove in to blue, and now you wanna throw silver on me I can see him being silver over blue though, except he has grey feathers too.) But what looks like is white on him isn't. I had to use flash on these photos, but what looks white is actually tan. Or does that matter. Is tan still silver? None of my hens have any white except for the 3 odd white and gold ones. But im not sure how you are getting that the grey/blue chicks are silver. (Except for the obvious white ones) They are literally so grey they look "blue" in person. With the black hens chicks being grey, wouldn't that have to mean the rooster is blue? Or can he be both blue and silver? Or does silver and black make blue too? Lol. I warned yall, this is gonna take awhile!

A chicken can be both silver and blue.

Blue = blue
White = silver
Red = red (a chicken can have both red and silver, but the silver will usually be more dominant.)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

These are my white hens, which i just assumed must be the white chicks moms. Would it help if i posted colors of all my hens?

All those hens are actually splash with gold/red. Not silver or blue.

I do have a couple blue hens. Here, ill just post them and get ahold of Rusty tonight and see if his black penciling may actually be blue. And correct me if im wrong, but wouldn't dad definitely be blue if he threw blue chicks with the BCMs and the BR? And now that im uploading photos, some of the moms do have the dark heads and splotchy coloring.

1- splash and gold/red hen
2- blue and gold/red (unless the lighting is making her look a different color than she actually is.)
3- black, could have gold or silver (all chickens have gold and/or silver, even if they don’t have any gold or silver feathers.)
4- blue and silver
5- blue and gold/red
6- black
7- blue

 

[CoopsNPoops]

All those hens are actually splash with gold/red. Not silver or blue.

1- splash and gold/red hen
2- blue and gold/red (unless the lighting is making her look a different color than she actually is.)
3- black, could have gold or silver (all chickens have gold and/or silver, even if they don’t have any gold or silver feathers.)
4- blue and silver
5- blue and gold/red
6- black
7- blue

See, i thought they were splash but when i posted about which ones of my 14 hens were the two Ameraucanas, people said that that wasn't splash.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

See, i thought they were splash but when i posted about which ones of my 14 hens were the two Ameraucanas, people said that that wasn't splash.

They aren’t of the variety splash. This is because they’re not solid splash. However, they are splash in the sense that they have those genes. They’re genetically splash, but also genetically a lot of other things with that mixed pattern and their mixed background. Does that make sense?

 

[CoopsNPoops]

All those hens are actually splash with gold/red. Not silver or blue.

1- splash and gold/red hen
2- blue and gold/red (unless the lighting is making her look a different color than she actually is.)
3- black, could have gold or silver (all chickens have gold and/or silver, even if they don’t have any gold or silver feathers.)
4- blue and silver
5- blue and gold/red
6- black
7- blue

And yes, #2 does have gold undertones.

 

[CoopsNPoops]

They aren’t of the variety splash. This is because they’re not solid splash. However, they are splash in the sense that they have those genes. They’re genetically splash, but also genetically a lot of other things with that mixed pattern and their mixed background. Does that make sense?

Yea, i suppose so.. they're not technically splash, but they have splash genes in them to cause some "splashing." (<-- would that be the correct terminology? Lol)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Yea, i suppose so.. they're not technically splash, but they have splash genes in them to cause some "splashing." (<-- would that be the correct terminology? Lol)

Yeah, basically. They’re not the splash variety, but they would be splash genetically because they have two blue genes.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

Just to clarify for you:

A bird has two general "parts" to their color formation.

Areas that are black (or an enhanced or diluted version of black)
Areas that are red/gold (or an enhanced or diluted version of red/gold)

Blue and Splash are dilutions of black - so they will only affect feathers/areas on the bird that would have been black.

Silver (as mentioned above by @RoostersAreAwesome) is a gene that changes the expression of the red/gold parts. Usually Silver acts to remove red/gold and show a silver or white feather. In some birds the expression of Silver is poor and there is "leakage" where some gold isn't removed - therefore you see varying degrees of red/gold on silver/white feathers.

So - on your rooster - the areas that would have been black - we are looking to see if they have been diluted by "Blue". And on the areas that would have been red/gold - we are looking to see if they have been diluted/removed to show silver and/or show some red/gold leakage.

On your chicks - this concept is very clearly seen - there is no black, only blue, and there is no gold, only silver.