Help with newest brood!

[Dgrif5]

Hi, and apologies if this format is incorrect.

With our last group of chicks, you were all incredibly helpful in identifying/sexing them, so thanks again! Since then, one of our hens disappeared for 3 weeks, and came back with 13 chicks! As they are all from one hen/cockerel combination, we were expecting little variation in the chick colours/types, but to our surprise we've had a large amount of variety in the little flock, including several unusual chicks. I know they may be a little young for any help with gender (and the photos aren't great), but I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on the unusual nature of several chicks? thanks! For reference: The top two are the mother/father in the image below:

As can be seen is the second image, of particular note are three chicks that don't seem to have formed proper feathers, and instead are covered in 'fluff'. One of these three also has a prominent crest of fluff on its head, not seen in any others. Are one of the parents cross-breeds with recessive traits? We can't really think of another explanation.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the large/poor images.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A couple of different things could be going on. How sure are you that the one hen laid all the eggs? Often other hens will lay in the nest so you could have different mothers. I'm assuming there is only one possible rooster involved.

The more likely reason is that the father and/or mother and likely both are not purebreds. That is exactly what happens when you breed crosses. I don't know where you got the parents or how likely they are to be crosses but that is my guess. So yes, recessives pairing up and dominant genes dropping out, all kinds of different genetic pairings.

 

[Dgrif5]

I'm pretty sure no other hens laid in the nest, as we kept getting the normal amount of eggs in the coop, and the mother was nesting far away in the undergrowth, where the others rarely go. Thanks for the info on cross-breeds! As for the three odd ones, are they Silkies? they don't look like any I've seen in research, but they don't really have normal feathers either.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't tell you might need to give it a bit more time. Certain genes control how fast feathers grow. It is quite possible with the parents probably being mixes that is having an effect. But the Silkie feathering is a recessive trait, it's possible both parents have a Silkie in their background. It could be something totally different.

I thought the crest was a dominant trait. Well an incomplete dominant trait. That means that if it is present you should see an effect but if there is only one gene present at that gene pair it will probably not be a full effect. I think there are other genes that can modify what the crest looks like so it is possible one of the adults does have that gene and it doesn't really show. That's part of the fun and frustration of breeding crosses, you never know what you will get. Since Silkies have crests one or both of those adults might have some Silkie in them.

Basically I don't know but enjoy them and see how they turn out.

 

[Dgrif5]

Thank you very much for the insightful replies! We're definitely excited to see how they all turn out (and hoping not too many of them are cockerels).