Quick genetics question!

[HuffleClaw]

Thanks. Look at those black legs.

That leads to all kinds of speculation. I picked up melanizers from a breeder that had Black Ameraucana, it was pretty strong in turning red chickens black. I was hoping to get Extended black but she warned me there could be some Birchen in the mix. I thought the Birchen would be easy to deal with but did not appreciate the power of melanizers.

My guess is that the Blue Orp to start with had recessive melanizers that had no effect on the red feathers of the OP's rooster. I'm not sure how many different melanizers there might be or whether they are dominant or recessive. But what ever was turning that original blue orp solid black was not extended black. With the color of the OP's rooster's legs I'm not even sure it was Birchen.

Thank you ridge runner! You’ve been a really good help.

 

[nicalandia]

The father was the blue orp not the mom, thank you for the wonderful information though! I really appreciate it

Do you have pics of the rooster in question(the one too restricted to be E/eWh)? or if you remember how did he hatched? Was he yellow/orange/red when he hatched?

 

[nicalandia]

View attachment 1522557
This boy shows the most red out of all of them. RSL (eWh/eWh?) over BlCM (ER/ER). We still see the darker tones in the undercarriage, but the Wheaten with Colombian is really bringing out that red pigment through the chest.

Did he hatch like a regular ER chick? If not chances are that BlCM was hiding wheaten from Blue Copper Maran x Wheaten Maran cross,

 

[HuffleClaw]

Do you have pics of the rooster in question(the one too restricted to be E/eWh)? or if you remember how did he hatched? Was he yellow/orange/red when he hatched?

He was like 2 weeks in this photo...

He appeared black at hatch but then developed red.

 

[HuffleClaw]

The picture isn’t that good but when he hatched I honestly thought he was one of my black sex links, but I marked the eggs proving he wasn’t one. He was very much black when he hatched, he appeared black up until about 4 weeks old. He started developing red, then way more red color.

 

[Sneebsey]

@nicalandia mine hatched ER; everyone who hatched wheaten, partridge or wild type was legbanded at first so I could select my keepers from those.

 

[nicalandia]

He was like 2 weeks in this photo... View attachment 1523244
He appeared black at hatch but then developed red.

Yeah, that's Birchen alright

 

[nicalandia]

It's weird that a ER/eWh Co/co+ has such effect on your birchens, perhaps the "Birchen" OEG I used on my Self buff cochin was actually a undermelanized extended black,

Co/co+ should never have such effect on heterozygous extended blacks(E/eWh for example black sexlinks) so the chances that your bird is ER/eWh Co/co+ is about 99% now, and the blue line you have is based on a Melanized Birchen(Ml, Pg) and that is why your rooster is showing partial lacing