Olive Eggers -- Blue or Black?

[3KillerBs]

10 weeks old -- I know they're all male.

I know that they're all from an Unknown Variety Marans x Easter Egger hens and that I set only blue and green eggs.

But I'm not good at Eggers and their pattern varieties and I can't tell if they're Blue with whatever you call this pattern with the red parts (I'm not good at red either), or Black.

Here are some chick photos:

Red Band

Pink Band

No Band

And from today (ignore photobombing crossbeak -- I don't care what color he is, he's for the crockpot anyway).

Their sister is clearly blue and a much softer red (I had a darker female -- why couldn't the hawk have taken the crossbeak?).

These boys seem to be black on the tail and much darker on their backs, but to have blue beards and underparts/fluff.

Their definately-black hatchmate does not have lighter fluff.

Here's a load of photos, not really trying to ID for any specific individual, but showing the variation.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

All black. Sorry about your darker female.

 

[3KillerBs]

All black. Sorry about your darker female.

Any idea why they appeared blue when younger? And why their beards still seem to be blue?

Black vs Blue on the Australorps is easy to tell apart the entire time, even with my darker blues. Does the red on these birds make a great deal of difference?

I'm not breeding them so it doesn't *really* matter, but I'm trying to learn more about genetics through the birds that I raise.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I've found that blues tend to have lighter fluff, where Blacks have black fluff. Not sure if having multiple main colors messes that up or not

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I have brown EE hen with back markings - her fluff is blue too. Definitely grayish.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've found that blues tend to have lighter fluff, where Blacks have black fluff. Not sure if having multiple main colors messes that up or not

I'm really confused by these guys because I *thought* that is was impossible to have black and blue on the same bird.