Recessive white hen to black rooster.

[Kamivy]

I have a batch of araucana chick's Hatching out. For the most part they are blue, black and splash to solid black roo, so the outcomes are quite simple. But I also have one recessive white hen. The first of her eggs just hatched out and revealed a smoky not quite black chicken. Looks like a dark blue, but the recessive whites parents were lavender. I know recessive white turns off the pigment, so I assume the hen is lavender underneath. I know lavender cross black normally gives a 50/50 split, but this chick appears in between the two colours, and has me thoroughly confused! What colour is this chick?

 

[Kamivy]

Ok, now that the chick has properly fluffed up, it looks a little lighter, so it appears it is a lavender chick after all...

 

[Kev]

She should be lavender if her parents were both lavender.

Lavender chick out of black rooster is only possible if he is a lavender carrier.

by the way might just be the phrasing however, lavender crossed to black gives 100% lavender splits, not 50%

If the chick grows up to be a blue, not lavender then the parentage is not as is.

 

[Kamivy]

Thanks for the reply Kev. Of course, my apologies, if the black roo was not caring the lavender gene, then 100% black split for lavender offspring. If he IS carrying the gene (very possible, I hatched him from bought eggs from a mixed colour pen) then offspring would be 50% lavender and 50% black split for lav yes? Here is the chick in question...Do you think its too dark for lavender?

 

[Kamivy]

Sigh, I really hope the roo isn't split for lav, didn't want that at all. Should prob get rid of the recessive white too, if she is lavender underneath, as it's going to muck up my blues. I had expected blue and black chick's out of this pen, with a few dominant whites. The chicks colours are proving a little unexpected, making me think that more than one of these birds is hiding the lavender gene...guess that's what you get when you breed stock that came from a mixed colour pen!

 

[Kev]

That doesn't look like a lavender chick to me. Lavender(on an otherwise black chicken- a solid lavender that is) has a very even effect on their color. Try doing image searches for (solid)lavender chicks, the down is exactly the same shade all over.

I'm pointing out the solid lavender as lavender over other color patterns can give seemingly uneven coloring on chicks, like porcelain, lavender on a red duckwing pattern etc.

Blue on the other hand is extremely variable, even on solid black chickens and chicks. They are rarely very even all over, example blue roosters typically have much darker necks and backs than their bodies- that does not happen on lavender roosters. That chick shows uneven coloring in the down is the reason I don't think it;'s a lavender.. I can't tell by picture if it's a blue or a black... you'll find out soon enough once the feathers grow out.

Yes- lavender bred to lavender split= half and half of each. If you like the white hen enough, you can test her genetics by breeding with a lavender rooster and see what happens. If you hatch more than 10(more is better but lets be realistic) and none turn out lavender, it is strong proof she is not lavender.

Test matings are a great way to get rid of hidden genes. If you really do not want lavender, ever, it could be useful to either get or keep a surprise true lavender around as a tester to cull out the hidden carriers. Lavender roo to test the hens, lavender hen to test the roosters(a reason for keeping the white hen if she proves to be lavender?).

 

[Kamivy]

Thanks, that is excellent advice! So the chick in the first post is definitely blue, however I still appear to have 4 lavender chicks. Have attached a pic of one, they are only just getting their primaries, but I can tell already, they have fret marks too. My question is, is it possible for her to have produced blue, black AND lavender chicks, or have I mixed up my eggs somehow?!

 

[Kev]

Uh oh that does look lavender... sorry.

It is easily possible for the same pair to produce black blue and lavender.. but also lavender combined with blue.

It's because blue and lavender are separate genes and not allelic to each other(it means they don't share the same spot on the same chromosome). So a bird can very easily be a black split lavender, a blue split lavender, a splash split lavender, a blue plus lavender, a splash plus lavender......

If you understand this, you will start to realize your black roo is split lavender and also at least one hen... BUT it could be any of them if other hens were laying also, not just the white one. Maybe just one hen, maybe 2-3 hens.

With the roo being a proven lavender split, it also means that half of his non-lavender chicks are lavender splits.

If you really want to test mate and figure out the hens, you can use him and try to hatch at least 10 chicks per hen, but you need to be sure the eggs are actually from a particular hen or it will be hard to figure out if there are two or more hens laying at the same time and they aren't separated.

 

[Kamivy]

Yes that all makes perfect sense. Thank you so much. As you say, the tricky part will be ID-ing the individual hens eggs. Will have a think about that. In the mean time, probably safer not to keep any of the black chick's as breeders without doing test matings , and to keep an eye out for a new roo NOT split to lavender! Thanks again!

 

[Kev]

Good luck with the project. Keeping the lavender chicks or getting a lavender roo to test mate with the hens? the lavender roo doesnt even have to be the same breed as they are culls for you...