Orpington Chick Color Morph?

[heatherbeast]

Hi all,

A friend gave me some eggs to hatch from what was mostly a blue/black/splash flock. She had another rooster recently introduced a blue rooster to the flock which has red or copper in his hackle and saddle feathers. Several of the chicks have hatched with chestnut colored faces. Is this a color fault? Is it a color variety that has a name? Pic of dad in question and the chicks included.

The beebs are stinkin' cute, but I want to make sure I don't misrepresent colors should I sell any.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

The rooster has leakage. Seeing the chicks are having those colors, they might have leakage too. If you're looking to show them, that's a bad thing, but if you're looking for just backyard birds where color doesn't matter, then it shouldn't be a concern.

 

[heatherbeast]

Ah, THAT's what it's called! Thank you!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

To my eye, it looks like you have some chicks that are birchen based instead of extended black based. That means that some of the adults in your friend's flock must be birchen based or carry a copy of birchen. From my understanding, this is not unheard of in BBS breedings as Blues based on birchen are believed by some to have better lacing than Blues based on extended black. This has nothing to do with color leakage; chicks with this down coloration don't necessarily grow out to have color leakage, and chicks with normal blue chick down can end up with color leakage. The birchen-based chicks should grow out looking like normal BBS birds.