Need Help With Colour Identification Please

The Kooky Kiwi

Crowing
Dec 23, 2017
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New Zealand, Golden Bay
Hello all my fellow chicken people!

I would appreciate some help with identifying what colour, and patterns, this little roo is exhibiting please. In particular I'm keen to understand what gene has allowed this little fellow to exhibit the mainly white chest area (which I quite like)

Here are several pics taken of him recently at 7 weeks old, followed by 2 pictures of dad (Silver Pencilled I believe).

What isn't easy to see in these pictures - baby roo is starting to develop mahogany like or rust colour in the wing bar areas.

(As another note: All of the male babies showed the same white breast, with random flecks of colour, and all of the female babies are showing patterning on the breast).

Thanks In Advance!!
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Looks mostly Columbian to me, I do see some penciling in him. His father looks to have a Columbian top half and Black Mottled bottom half. Like you put half of two birds together. I don't see any Silver Penciled I him myself.
 
Thanks for the comment!

So .. lets explore the option that dad is Silver Pencilled and mottle? And the mottling is being overruled in the areas where the silver pencilling likes to express and only showing on the breast area?

If that were so.. mottling is recessive.. so he would have passed it to all his babies male or female yes?. I haven't seen any mottling effects in the female babies yet though..

Here is a pic of one of the female babies - sorry I didn't take many of the hens. The adult hen in the picture is the "nanny" - she's not the mum.
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Looks mostly Columbian to me, I do see some penciling in him. His father looks to have a Columbian top half and Black Mottled bottom half. Like you put half of two birds together. I don't see any Silver Penciled I him myself.

I have a possible alternative - to follow up on your Columbian comment - it is also possible that these babies have not Columbian but Dark Brown gene? This gene would also express in a similar way to Columbian but (according to readings) would be less effective on the hens and this might be why my hen babies do not show the same effect? It might also explain why the little rooster is still showing the rust colour on his wing bars (which shouldn't happen with Columbian?)

Is there anyone out there who has experience with how Columbian and Dark Brown work and how to tell the difference?
 
I've just been and taken updated photos - Baby roo is now just short of 9 weeks old.

I think he wants to be an assortment of patterns LOL! I can see mottle, barring, and the odd laced feather - and there are definite rust spots now visible on his wings and tail which hopefully you can see in these pics when you view the full size.
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OK.. so please check me on my thoughts so far with this one.. At this time I know who dad is but mom could be any one of several hens... so I'm trying to put the puzzle together with only half the information :)

1) Dad is silver. Baby is still showing elements of red so perhaps mum was not a silver? If baby received only 1 silver gene it is enough to express but only as an incomplete dominance so other traits may "bleed" through - i.e. the red.

2) Dad looks to have mottling on his chest. I also do have two hens who have mottling. So baby could have 1 or 2 copies of mottle. My understanding of mottle (in other bird species) is that this is very much a variable expression trait but with the amount of mottle on this little guy my "gut" feeling is that he received two mottle genes.

3) So next on my "query" list is how did we get the white groundcolour chest on baby? Columbian or Dark Brown?? I would say that Dad has neither of these things so presumably must come from mum?
 
What are the options for his mother to be? That my help to find out where the red is coming from. Also maybe why he seems to be showing a mostly Columbian and Penciled pattern.
 

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