Orpington hatch. pullet eggs, cold eggs, and color of chicks

[4stakes]

We just finished hatching 18 Orpington chicks. We had 16 pullet eggs and 2 hen eggs that hatched out of 20 eggs in incubator. We have a Splash rooster and 3 Splash hens and 1 black hen. The pullets are black. So out of the pullets eggs we should get Blue. One of the eggs


that hatched was very cold when I collected it on the 15Th of January. Also 3 of the pullet eggs were older than 10 days. What is your opinion on the color of chicks that hatched? Thanks, Kevin

 

[Pyxis]

Given the colors of your birds, it should only be possible for you to get blue chicks and splash chicks. However, I see black chicks. That shouldn't be possible with a splash rooster; are all the chicks in this picture from those birds?

Splash over splash would produce 100% splash. Splash over black would produce 100% blue.

See this chart for details, ignore the lavender and mottled charts, they do not pertain:

 

[Ravynscroft]

X2 what Pyxis said... should only result in splash and blues... those look an awful lot like Lavender (self blue) as well...

Got pics of the parents?? Something is going on here...

 

[4stakes]

Here are the black pullets and the splash hens and rooster

 

[Ravynscroft]

And all those chicks came from just those? Odd... black should not be genetically possible out of those colors... also, it does look like your roo has some leakage, that will pass on to his offspring, just fyi...

 

[4stakes]

Yes those chicks came from our eggs. What do you mean by leakage? And what would that cause? Do you think we have any blue chicks or just splash and black? Thanks for your help.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Yes those chicks came from our eggs. What do you mean by leakage? And what would that cause? Do you think we have any blue chicks or just splash and black? Thanks for your help.

Looks like lots of blues, just the yellowish chicks are splash... the thing is the blacks shouldn't be possible...

Leakage is the rust colored looking feather I circled here...

Discoloration on his wing *could be* sunbleaching but that feather in his hackle looks like leakage to me... shouldn't be any other color on him in any shade of red/rust/orange... you don't want to breed that into others...

 

[Pyxis]

Didn't you have lavender orps as well? Any chance some of these eggs are from them and not from the splash and black group? It's just not possible to get black chicks out of a splash rooster.

 

[minihorse927]

I agree with the opinions given before it is genetically impossible to get black chicks out of that Crossing. It does look like there is self blue, AKA lavender, chicks in there. There has to be another Rooster in the mix.

 

[4stakes]

No other rooster. We got rid of our lavenders last fall. Could it be the black pullets are a real dark blue? One or two have some different breast feathers. I will get pictures of them and better pictures of the chicks tonight.