possible cross bed mutt chickens question

[uglydog]

I have 8 hens and 3 roos that free range together. I know that the Amercauna Roo is older and dominant and does most of the breeding. However ever once in awhile one of the two Spitzhauben roos, will get his oppertunity and cover a hen.
All my girls are laying regular, and I decided to try some of the eggs in the incubator. 4 have hatched so far, one of the Blue Cochin hens, one blue egg from as Ameracauna, One Spithauben hen, and one from a Barred rock hen. Two chicks look identical just black.
one is much smaller, black but with a red tint coloring on the head, and one looks like my Americauna chicks did when I got them in the mail.

I guess what I am wondering is do they take more of the mommas genetics or more from the roo? I kno wthey are mixed breeds but, what are the chances of them looking more like one of the parents or is it more probable they will be mixture of both in their traits?

I also had two of my hens go broody and setting nests so hopefully I will have a bunch of healthy babies soon.

This is the Americauna looking chick, and I noticed it has feather curl where tufts should be one day, so I am hoping he will look like Daddy!

 

[SportTees]

I dont know but I had a partridge rock/ polish and a white rock/ polish that look identical. I'm thinking they take more from the roo. It would be who ever has the more dominate genes I guess

 

[Kev]

As a general rule, chicks don't 'take after' one parent over the other.

Sometimes it will seem that way but only due to dominant genes. Beards/muffs, pea comb are dominant genes so in this case it could seem the chicks are taking after the Ameraucana roo when it's simply the dominant genes expressing themselves.. in other words if the cross was the other way around, the chicks would look more or less the same.

If you know the basic genetics, sometimes you can figure out which were the likely parents, for example if the amer roo is pure for beard/muffs and pea comb.. any chicks that does not have beard/muffs and has a single comb(probably looks odd too such as being in a Y shape when viewed from overhead) then it's probably from a Spitz roo over a Rock, and if that chick has partially feathered legs too, then it's probably a Spitz roo over a Cochin.

If you get a bearded chick that later shows a little 'tassel' on top of head then it's probably Spitz x Amer hen.

If the barred rock hens are the only ones with barring then all birds with barring will be boys and out of those hens. (daughters out of them will be solid black and later showing off color on necks)

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Body type sometimes carries through--I can certainly tell which of my crosses have d'uccle vs brahma parentage.