is it possible to tell what color the chick will be...

[aelizabeth]

.. by the color of the parents? or is it sort of random?

I'm letting my little bantam hatch out an egg from my EE for fun. the hen is black and white and the father is a BO (cross, maybe?)

 

[georgialee]

You can use the chicken calculator (http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator) to help you guess at what the offspring will look like. However, it does not take into acct. the recessive genes that the parents have (unless you know the exact genetic makeup of your chickens which would only be if you knew the color/pattern of each of their parents). Buff x black mottled in the calculator shows 100% black offspring with a recessive mottled gene. hth!

eta: now if you breed those offspring together you will get mostly black but also a whole array of other colors

 

[aelizabeth]

that's really neat!

thank you.

 

[georgialee]

you're welcome! just a tip for playing with the calculator - click on 'help, pick color from list' to go to another page that lists almost all the colors. Once you've selected the colors click on 'to chicken calculator' which will automatically bring up a new page and input your colors. Click on 'calculate crossing' at the bottom of the page to see what the offspring will be.