siblings different colors??

[quaggy]

I obtained eggs that supposedly had the same parents. When the first two hatched, one of the chicks was yellow/white and one of them was brownish - they look totally different. How did this happen??

edit: silkie chicks. the parents are gray.

 

[NatJ]

Short answer: genetics.

Sexlink chicks commonly have brown females, yellow/white males, from the same parents.

Your chicks might not be sexlinks, though, because sexlinks require a specific arrangement of parent colors. Other combinations of parents can produce males and females of both colors.

 

[sylviethecochin]

If the parents themselves were mixed, then their offspring could easily have inherited different genes from the same parents.

If Dad's E/E^R (Extended black over Birchen) and Mum's e+/e+(duckwing/duckwing), then all of the chicks would inherit e+ from Mum, but half would inherit E from Dad and the other half would inherit E^R

The chicks would thus be E/e+ extended black over duckwing (which means that they would be entirely black, or some variation thereof, such as dominant white or blue, but with leakage) OR
E^R/e+. They would be Birchen over duckwing (which means that they would have mostly birchen markings).