Relationship between chick down and adult color?

[fat brown hen]

I have barnyard mixes so I'm not looking for an ID, but was wondering -- is there a relationship between chick down color and adult color? Will black chicks grow up to be mostly black chickens, yellow chicks grow up to be mostly white, etc? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

 

[JedJackson]

Not a dumb question at all. Sometimes down color correlates to adult color, but not always. But generally black chicks are black or mostly black as adults. White chicks, well, usually white, but white or yellow chicks can turn out to be wheaten and other things as well. Really tough to precisely predict what you'll get be chick down with mixed breeds.

 

[prin23]

Rudy surprised us and grew up to be almost the exact opposite of when he was a chick!

 

[fat brown hen]

Not a dumb question at all. Sometimes down color correlates to adult color, but not always. But generally black chicks are black or mostly black as adults. White chicks, well, usually white, but white or yellow chicks can turn out to be wheaten and other things as well. Really tough to precisely predict what you'll get be chick down with mixed breeds.

Do you think these two stripey chicks will stay light tan? I was gonna give them away, but will keep if they grow up to be something other than wild-type brown.

 

[kmpcfp]

I have had lots of different colors come out of chipmunk colored chicks. This gorgeous gal looked like the one on the left.

My speckled sussex also came out of a chick that had coloration like the one on the right. The first few feathers coming in on a chick really has no indication of what their adult colors are going to be. Do you know what the parents are? That might give an indication of what the chicks will resemble.

 

[fat brown hen]

Do you know what the parents are? That might give an indication of what the chicks will resemble.

Well the parents were both black, so...

The mother hen was the result of a wheaten hen crossed with a black rooster, so I'm hoping these little guys will grow up to be wheaten. (all the other chicks are black or penguin, so I assume those ones will grow up to be black)