Question about my Silver-laced Orpington chicks

[NatJ]

I have a SLW I crossed with my Orpington rooster.

SLW = Silver Laced Wyandotte
So that chicken is a cross of yellow legs (Wyandotte) and white legs (Orpington). Yellow is supposed to be recessive, so it's interesting that it showed up at first and later faded out.

@PineHavenMama, I think the first few pictures you show are yellow, green, green, fourth photo has a green plus a maybe-white.

I'm sure that exchanging the greens makes sense, and probably the yellow as well.

The ones you call slate have me a bit puzzled--they sure don't look white, but I have very little direct experience with chicken legs of those colors.

I'm hoping someone else can help sort this out, because now I'm a bit stuck too

 

[Isaac 0]

@Pyxis

Can you help here?

 

[PineHavenMama]

SLW = Silver Laced Wyandotte
So that chicken is a cross of yellow legs (Wyandotte) and white legs (Orpington). Yellow is supposed to be recessive, so it's interesting that it showed up at first and later faded out.

@PineHavenMama, I think the first few pictures you show are yellow, green, green, fourth photo has a green plus a maybe-white.

I'm sure that exchanging the greens makes sense, and probably the yellow as well.

The ones you call slate have me a bit puzzled--they sure don't look white, but I have very little direct experience with chicken legs of those colors.
I'm hoping someone else can help sort this out, because now I'm a bit stuck too

Thank you for that explanation of SLW. I wondered after I’d posted. There are several pictures of the green and yellow, but it’s only two chicks thankfully. So, I may exchange those two.

And I do hope that someone else has an opinion to share on the other leg color.

 

[NatJ]

There are several pictures of the green and yellow, but it’s only two chicks thankfully. So, I may exchange those two.

The only good thing about yellow: it is definitely not-dark. So it has one of the genes you need, unlike the green who is genetically pure for BOTH wrong leg color genes!

 

[PineHavenMama]

The only good thing about yellow: it is definitely not-dark. So it has one of the genes you need, unlike the green who is genetically pure for BOTH wrong leg color genes!

In your opinion, is the other leg color a light slate or something else? I know you said you don’t have much experience with that color. Just wondering if I need to be equally concerned about that. If so, I won’t have too much to work with.

 

[NatJ]

In your opinion, is the other leg color a light slate or something else? I know you said you don’t have much experience with that color. Just wondering if I need to be equally concerned about that. If so, I won’t have too much to work with.

If I had to guess, I think I see two with white legs (second photo in the second post of photos), and quite a few that look slate to me.

If it is the sex-linked dark skin, then it is more likely to be seen in females, but you can work with them: they cannot pass that gene to their daughters, only to their sons. So if you have any male with white legs, you could cross to slate-legged females and get some daughters with white legs. Then breed those daughters back to their white-legged father and you should get more white legs of both genders. (Might get some dark legs too, but at least some with white legs.)

In case you want to search for other info--the sexlinked gene you want is usually abbreviated Id for "Inhibitor of dermal melanin." (Fancy words for "blocks dark skin," meaning it causes light skin). The recessive is written id or id+ and is the one that gives the dark legs. The + means it is the form found in the wild Jungle Fowl ancestors of our domestic chickens.

Some genes get really weird names--people try to name them something that doesn't overlap with any other gene abbreviation already being used, but that somehow describes what the gene is or does

 

[gunslinger33]

NatJ

You are correct. I was so confused as to who the parents were at time of hatch. Now it all makes sense but I actually thought it was my Biel / PR cross. Initially the wings were coming in crele and now it's pretty obvious given my choices. My surprise was how yellow the skin looked at first.

 

[NatJ]

You are correct. I was so confused as to who the parents were at time of hatch... My surprise was how yellow the skin looked at first.

Yes, I would not have expected that at all. But if a chick that is split for white/yellow skin can show yellow legs at first, that could make it much easier to breed out the yellow gene in OP's Orpingtons! It's always a problem, trying to identify the birds that are carrying a recessive gene but not showing it.

 

[gunslinger33]

I also don't know if any other breeds (crosses) are behind my SLW or Orps. I have two English build Orps and one American build Orp. My SLW is from Hoover and she is the ugliest SLW ever hatched but she lays very well. So there could be some other genes behind them

 

[gunslinger33]

Looks like all the chicks in PineHavenMama's post are single combed , so very unlikely Wyandotte was used due to rose being dominant to single.