Help me understand these genetics...

[SharW75]

We have two chicks--one 9 days old and one just hatched today who are the same cross. The mother is a buff rock (all buff colored), and the father is a white silkie (all white). Both of these babies were born buff colored with some black chipmunk striping! The older baby now has wing feathers and they look like they're coming in marbled light brown.

So my question is--what colors could these parents be hiding that are showing up in the two babies? Could my silkie have a hidden partridge gene? Is partridge even recessive? The parents are hatchery quality birds, so I'm sure they aren't pure like a show quality bird would be...

The baby in question is the light one in the front.

And here's the brand new baby. This one has more black on it than the older one did, but they're very similar otherwise.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

According to the calculator your chicks will buff colored with leakage...
http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator

White is known to hide other colors and be essentially a wild card.

Some genes don't have to be recessive to not show.. they might require two copies.. (that's not the same as recessive is it) example.. barring, the hen will pass two copies to her sons and only one copy to daughters.. so when bred to solid color sire.. offspring would be sexlinked with males having a white dot on head and growing out barred and females would be solid.

You know.. I'm always still leaning.. and this is my current understanding.

Cute chicks!

ETA: they ALMOST look paint (at hatch not later I see on the first one) which you get by crossing dominant white to black.

 

[Severne]

To my understanding it’s because white is just a extension of e+, wild and buff is wheaten which is another sort of wild pattern and it is dominant so most the chicks will be buffish?

 

[SharW75]

Thank you both! Genetics has always fascinated me.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Yes your silkie is partridge or at least carries partridge.
The yellow is from the wheaten on the buff rock side.
The black is from a partridge gene from the silkie side. Its just the partridge chick down pattern showing through the wheaten down pattern.
The wings feather pattern is just common on some patterns first feathers. Its their camouflage and will disappear by the time they get their adult plumage.

 

[SharW75]

Thank you!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Most white silkies have recessive white, which requires two copies to show. It hides all other colorations if there are two copies. So the chicks inherited one copy of the gene and don’t express recessive white, but instead express the color hidden under the recessive white.