Please help with chicken genetics!

[chickens 4 life]

Hi! Recently my hen decided to hatch some eggs. I really want to know what the chicks will look like since hen and rooster and different species.

First question:
Hen (her name is Moon), came from a Mille Fleur D'uccle (dad) and a Splash Cochin Bantam (mom). Mom had lots of dark spots but mainly white, but Moon came out as a fully black colored chicken (with a few tiny orange stripes). We don't have any black chickens, so why did she turn out this color?

Second + Third question:
The dad of the eggs is a Buff Brahma Bantam. He is much bigger than Moon. When the chicks grow up, will they be big, small, or in between the size of the parents? What colors + features will the chicks have?

Pictures:
Dad (of Moon):

Mom (of Moon):

Moon:

Fluffy (dad of Moon's eggs):

 

[Egg Snatcher]

@nicalandia

 

[LikeTurkeys]

#1. Splash is two copies of the blue gene (a gene which dilutes black to grey). If your bird is bl+/bl+ (no dilution), then it leaves black feathers as they are, one copy (Bl/bl+) dilutes them to blue (grey color), and two copies (Bl/Bl) make splash (a light grey). So Moon is actually blue, because she received one copy from her mother, who is a splash bantam Cochin. The reason she does not have any other colors except in her neck is because your Splash Cochin has two copies of extended black, which covers up other colors.

#2. Since both parents are bantam, the chicks should be bantam (small size) as well. Of course, there may be some variation between chicks since the parents are slightly different sizes, but I wouldn't expect a huge range.

#3. 50% of your chicks will receive the one copy of extended black that Moon has. And 50% will receive the blue dilution gene. So to make it a little simpler, there are 4 broad possibilities (we'll ignore the other genes like columbian for now).

1. Extended Black & Blue
2. Extended Black & NO Blue
3. NO Extended Black & Blue
4. NO Extended Black & NO Blue

So 25% will be black with gold leakage, probably in the neck but may appear here and there elsewhere (type 1). 25% will be blue with gold leakage (type 2, which is like Moon). Types 3 & 4 won't get extended black, so all the gold from their parents will show. Both types will also get columbian from their father, which means that they will have some black/blue feathers that are restricted to the tail and neck. If they're type 3, the feathers will be blue in the tail and neck, whereas type 4 will have plain black in the tail and neck.

If your Brahma is true to breed, all of the offspring will have a pea comb like their father since that is a dominant gene.

There is a chicken genetics calculator that helps you get some nice info about cross breeding: http://kippenjungle.nl/breeds/crossbreeds.html

Here are Moon's parents (Mille Fleur d'uccle and Spalsh Cochin):

Here is Moon paired with the Buff Brahma rooster:

And finally, here are your results (sorry for the blurred image, I was trying to get them all to fit on one page):

 

[chickens 4 life]

Wow thank you so much! This helps a lot! Appreciate it!

 

[chickens 4 life]

But will the fluffy cheeks from Moon be passed down to the offspring?

 

[Finnie]

But will the fluffy cheeks from Moon be passed down to the offspring?

To half of them.

 

[chickens 4 life]

To half of them.

Oh, thanks!

 

[chickens 4 life]

Does anyone know if the eggs will be okay if Moon left to eat for about 3 hours?

 

[Finnie]

Does anyone know if the eggs will be okay if Moon left to eat for about 3 hours?

They should be fine.

 

[chickens 4 life]

Thanks!