How did my Lavender Orpington egg hatch THIS?!

[Snugglesandwigglespetcare]

So my chicken groups have separate dedicated areas and coops. My LO hens are flighty and will fly out, but no one comes into their space, much less their coop to lay an egg.

With that said, I no longer have Speckled Sussex hens, but I have one or two roosters from my sweet Minnie who fell to sour crop

I do remember Hershey running over and mating with one of my LO hens and thought to myself, yep, gonna have a black one from that.

I do have pics of my other free ranging roosters. A couple are crossed with LO, but they are dark or Birchen mixed.

The other notable, WHAAATT?! Is that this chick has feathers on its legs and feet I mean, it is beautiful and I am definitely keeping it, but I guess that could narrow down the rooster?? I’m also thinking I have roosters to at are LO/SF and maybe it is getting its feathered legs from the SF side??

I am looking forward to getting feedback. TY

 

[NatJ]

So my chicken groups have separate dedicated areas and coops. My LO hens are flighty and will fly out, but no one comes into their space, much less their coop to lay an egg.

With that said, I no longer have Speckled Sussex hens, but I have one or two roosters from my sweet Minnie who fell to sour crop

I do remember Hershey running over and mating with one of my LO hens and thought to myself, yep, gonna have a black one from that.

I do have pics of my other free ranging roosters. A couple are crossed with LO, but they are dark or Birchen mixed.

The other notable, WHAAATT?! Is that this chick has feathers on its legs and feet I mean, it is beautiful and I am definitely keeping it, but I guess that could narrow down the rooster?? I’m also thinking I have roosters to at are LO/SF and maybe it is getting its feathered legs from the SF side??

I am looking forward to getting feedback. TY

Lavender Orpingtons should generally have the genes to be black all over, plus the recessive lavender gene diluting all the black.
So yes, you should have gotten a black chick.

If you are positive that only a Lavender Orpington could be the mother of this chick, then one of them is not pure for the Extended Black gene (one of the genes involved in being black all over.)

As regards the father, if the chick has feathered feet and the mother does not, then it probably has a father with feathered feet. It is sometimes possible for two clean-footed parents to produce a chick with a few feathers on its feet, but I would still look for feather-footed roosters before considering any with clean feet.

Comb type can be hard to tell on tiny chicks, but I think it looks like a single comb. So if the mother has a single comb, either the father also has a single comb, or else he could have a different comb type but carry the recessive genes needed to make a single comb.

You could also watch for any other traits that might give a clue about who the father is. Crest, muff/beard, extra toes, and frizzled feathers are caused by dominant genes, so any chick with one of those traits will have a parent that also has that trait. (But any parent that shows one of those traits may be carrying the recessive gene for the normal form, so you can't entirely rule them out if the chick lacks those traits.)

 

[Snugglesandwigglespetcare]

If you really want to learn color genetics, check out Brian Reeder's book on it, it goes more in depth than these forums could hope to. Nobody can help you if you don't share what you're working with and what your goal is, nobody cares what weird mix you're doing, look around.

One thing that seems to be confusing you reading this thread, is you need to realize that what someone calls a color or variety, is the phenotype, it doesn't tell us the genotype. In some cases the variety name and genotype are different, and aren't the same across breeds. Like in your last post and Isabella. Genetically that is simply wild type with lav added. However if you look around you'll see people selling isabella brahmas that are clearly golden partridge with pattern gene with lav genetically. Even when dealing with solid color birds you don't ALWAYS know what is underneath. The Brown Cochin, now functionally extinct, but I'm aware of an effort to remake it using the original recipe, was created from crossing White to Black Cochins. Most White Leghorns carry the barred gene under their dominant white. There are about 8 different ways genetically to reach buff color etc etc.

I did check the one rooster I thought it was and he does have feathered legs, so I am pretty sure it is him. His mom is a Speckled Sussex, so that would make perfect sense. It will be really interesting if this chick ends up being speckled. If they are feathered like a SS does that mean that the chick could be speckled?

 

[NatJ]

I did check the one rooster I thought it was and he does have feathered legs, so I am pretty sure it is him. His mom is a Speckled Sussex, so that would make perfect sense. It will be really interesting if this chick ends up being speckled. If they are feathered like a SS does that mean that the chick could be speckled?

The "speckling" is caused by the mottling gene, which is recessive.
That means a chicken will only show that trait if it inherits the mottling gene from both parents.

Lavender Orpington is not supposed to have the mottling gene at all, so a chick from a Lavender Orpington mother should not show mottling.

But (big exceptions here):
--since the Lavender Orpington is already carrying one wrong gene (to produce a chipmunk-striped chick rather than a black one), I wouldn't bet on what other wrong genes might be present
--a chick with just one copy of the mottling gene can show some mottling while young, but lose it when mature. So "does not show mottling" is true of the adult coloring, but not always true of the chick coloring, for chicks that inherit mottling from one parent and not the other.

 

[RememberTheWay]

The "speckling" is caused by the mottling gene, which is recessive.
That means a chicken will only show that trait if it inherits the mottling gene from both parents.

Lavender Orpington is not supposed to have the mottling gene at all, so a chick from a Lavender Orpington mother should not show mottling.

But (big exceptions here):
--since the Lavender Orpington is already carrying one wrong gene (to produce a chipmunk-striped chick rather than a black one), I wouldn't bet on what other wrong genes might be present
--a chick with just one copy of the mottling gene can show some mottling while young, but lose it when mature. So "does not show mottling" is true of the adult coloring, but not always true of the chick coloring, for chicks that inherit mottling from one parent and not the other.

So question on the mottling gene and expression in chicks.... If a chick gets mottling from both parents instead of just one is what you said about early mottling still true? If both parents are mottled do those chicks typically have mottling at a young age or does it come in later?

 

[NatJ]

So question on the mottling gene and expression in chicks.... If a chick gets mottling from both parents instead of just one is what you said about early mottling still true? If both parents are mottled do those chicks typically have mottling at a young age or does it come in later?

I've seen it either way.

Some chicks with mottling will show it from an early age. Sometimes it appears different when they are young than when they grow up-- like having black feathers on the back and white on the breast, then later having black & white mottling all over.

But some chicks with mottling will now show it until later. Mille Fleur coloring seems to have a lot of that.

I don't know how much of the difference is in what the base coloring is (black vs. brown & black in various combinations), or how much is due to modifier genes of one sort or another, or what other factors may be involved.