I crossed an EE with a Lavender Marans and got the mailman’s child.

[SanitySilkies]

I'm thinking that the Marans hen is carrying wheaten. This is not the first time that I've heard of Wheaten popping up in a line of Marans. Crossed with your roosters, that would give a small chance for a light colored chick to hatch. The gold coloring from the chick is because the roosters carry both gold and silver and I believe you hen is gold based. It looks like she has some gold around her neck, I might be wrong though, so please correct me if I am. I wish I could help with the leg color, but I have no clue how leg color genetics work.

I think you are right! The lavender is supposed to only act on black, but i guess she could be recessive for red.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The lavender gene actually does make red and gold pigments paler as well, not just black, so that yellowishness around your hen's face and in her neck could be gold color leakage that's been made that pale straw color by the lavender gene.

 

[SanitySilkies]

The lavender gene actually does make red and gold pigments paler as well, not just black, so that yellowishness around your hen's face and in her neck could be gold color leakage that's been made that pale straw color by the lavender gene.

yes very true, I was referring to the fact that his mamma is lavender so she is black with the lav-genes…vs straw ie. red with lav genes. But i guess she could be heterozygous for black….and have given a red to this little one

 

[SanitySilkies]

UPDATE: now that the lavender Marans are a year old, I noticed on one of them had some red bleedthrough on her head! She's not a Lavender BCM like I bought, but instead must be a Wheaten Marans...mystery solved.