Silkies grey...blue... lavender?

[FloDoe]

So I recently started incubating my white hens eggs, my roo that is currently in there with her is black.. I unfortunately don’t have any color genetic background on either of them. So far every hatch has had black or this grey,blue,lavender(which btw I know is self blue) chicks. Can someone please identify what color these babies are and if my white hen is carrying the gene or my black roo. I know white is a color that hides any other color but I don’t know much about black.. also the older chick I posted a picture of is starting to have spots of black fluff... could this be a color leakage or is he turning this color?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Sounds like your hen is a rather dilute splash color. Splash (or "true blue") dilutes black to a color called blue. Blue can be very pale or almost black, depending on the individual.

 

[FloDoe]

Thanks for replying I asked this question with the first set I hatched and was told blue and the white hen had the gene but then everyone started giving me diff answers as they got bigger. Plus the black and blue one is throwing me off so I figured I’d show a couple more pics.

 

[FloDoe]

Here is Momma & Poppa!

 

[sylviethecochin]

Okay, so she's definitely white. There are three varieties of white: recessive, dominant, and silver. Silver is sexlinked)

In reverse order, I don't believe Silver shows in a solid pattern unless it's leakage. She's not dominant white because if she were, at least half of your babies would be white. Thus, she's recessive white. You need two copies of recessive white to have a white chicken. So she's (c/c.)

Since you have a chick that dark, it's probably black instead of really dark blue. You need two copies of black, one from each parent, to make black. So she carries the black gene. Since you have blue chicks as well, she also carries the co-dominant gene splash (or "true blue.") That makes her Bl/bl.

So she carries the blue genes, but the recessive white is hiding them. Her chicks also carry recessive white, but since it's recessive, they don't show it. Does that make sense?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Those chicks are blue.
Your hen is recessive white and will pass one recessive white gene to all offspring.
Under the white she has to be blue.
Your rooster is black.
Black Xs blue = black and/or blue chicks.

 

[FloDoe]

Those chicks are blue.
Your hen is recessive white and will pass one recessive white gene to all offspring.
Under the white she has to be blue.
Your rooster is black.
Black Xs blue = black and/or blue chicks.

I remember you telling me this with my first hatch. Do you know why the older chick is starting to get black spots?

 

[FloDoe]

I’m wondering why this one is starting to get black spots in the blue?

 

[sylviethecochin]

He's just really dark blue. The shade of blue can vary by quite a bit, and he may lighten up as he ages. They often do.

 

[The Moonshiner]

He's just really dark blue. The shade of blue can vary by quite a bit, and he may lighten up as he ages. They often do.

Agree completely.
There is no doubt it is blue the down color shows that.
It may appear to be turning black but it is just really dark blue.
I have raised many blue breeds and from my experience there isn't a breed that shows such a range of blue like silkies.
I once had a trio I thought were three blacks. They ended up hatching out blue, black, splash and white.
That told me the rooster and at least one of the hens were really blue and at least one hen and the rooster carried recessive white.