I have what looks like a crele orpington hen in with my lavender orpington rooster. I hatched one of her eggs and its a black chick. What's going on there? Could the crele have been split for black? Now what would the chick be split for?
Lavender is a black chicken with the black diluted to lavender. what a sentence.. keeping it real simple here... black is dominant over non- black. so what you did was technically a black roo over a non- black hen. Black chicks are to be expected as a result of black being dominant. Also this is a sex linked pairing- crele is very very widely used name for barring over non-black chickens. Barring is a sex linked gene so from this you can tell the sex right away from hatch- males with white spot on top of head, girls without it. They will grow up to show variable amount of coloring on their necks/breasts plus on backs of the roosters. The roosters will also have barring however it may be sparse and variable. Also all chicks will be carriers(split) for lavender.
So an update on the black chick I hatched. It's starting to get some brown on its wing feathers. I wasn't expecting it to just be a black fluff ball when it hatched I guess. Also, out of the 10 I've hatched since then, only one has a white dot on its head. That means I only have one male, right?
Yes all the males should have a white or cream patch on the top of the head. The size of the patch can vary. 90 % female is unusual but possible.
