question regarding black and black copper coloring in a Marans rooster

[warhorse]

I have a young rooster that was sold to me as a black with a black hen. The hen looks 100% black with greenish sheen, but the rooster seems to have reddish tints in his neck hackles. The rest of his body is black, black withthe greenish sheen like the hen and the black australorp I had had. The neck hackles aren't obvious, but if you look closely, they do have the reddish tone. Is black a pure color, or does the tint of red mean there is another color type acting there?

 

[tadkerson]

Black birds are black because the black birds have genes that cover the other colors a bird can produce. Chickens can have the gold gene or the silver gene that is being masked by the extended black gene and other genes that make the bird black. In your case, the gold gene was turned on for a little while and the extended black gene was turned off allowing the red to show in the feathers.

Male chickens show red or silver more often than females. The hormones in the female tend to help extend black on their body while males have tendency to extend red or white (silver) in their feathers in the pyle zone.

What is happening is not unusual. The amount of red or silver a male shows is detemined by the genes or alleles he carries. If a male is pure (homozygous) for the extended black gene, he will most likely not show red/silver. If he is hybrid or split (heterozygous) for extended black and another allele ( like wheaten) then he could show some red/silver.

Tim

 

[warhorse]

Thanks so much for the explanation!