So does anybody have any idea why our jersey giant mutts have all started becoming yellow.

[chickensins]

We used to have a blue jersey giant rooster named Flur. Flur was not from a reputable breeder and came from a flock with many different color jerseys, but he was loved dearly.

Flur lived alongside our flock consisting of hens of the follow breeds; naked neck, pavlov, flower hen, white silkie, yellow silkie mix with unknown mom (white silkie came later), two brown hens after what was very like like a red new hampshire rooster and Flurs various weird offspring with the aformentioned hens, some of wich were proberly Flur x hos own daughter, but all of wich were solid black (He had grey daughters too, but they were lost to foxes)


Flur recently passed away bit not before getting a bunch hens broody fathering yet another cascade of little “what on earth are you”’s .

Due to wanting to find out who had the most Flur like personality we for once kept the roos along for longer and one thing we noticed is that with one exception they all started delevoping yellow beck and saddle feathers on top of their jg colors , the one excpetation delevoping red ones instead.

so what gives

Side question about size;
Flur originally came from a bad place and might not have been fed enough when little to reach his true size as an adult. Back when yellow hen was the only one with silkie genes (but we also had the pavlovs) we had a bunch of leg feathered chicks , some of these were teeny tiny silkie mutt looking hens and the other was this absurdly massive grey and yellow rooster with blue skin.

What happened there?

 

[JedJackson]

Hmmm, well Jersey Giants should come only in black or white, or a mix of the two which could give you splashes and blues. Any other color would indicate mixing.

Mixing a pure color to any breed with buff, red, partridge, wheaten and other similar colors can produce lots of yellow or red leakage in the offspring, especially the males, since it tends to show up in the pointed, male sex specific feathers such as hackle, back and saddle feathers. It's just a matter of genetics. So your brown hens, your yellow silky hen, your pavlovskaya hen could easily produce such offspring when crossed with a solid colored bird, and if your naked neck has red or buff in her plumage, so could she.

 

[Sneebsey]

Your Jersey Giants ought to be Extended Black based on their e-locus, and this means that the black pigment is pushed across the entire body; the bird is completely black, or a dilution of black. I believe Jersey Giants come in Black/Blue/Splash and Recessive White varieties.

As @JedJackson states, when mixing an Extended Black based bird with a bird of a more colourful e-series, such as Wheaten, Partridge and Duckwing/Wildtype, where the groundcolour (either silver or gold) shows prominently in the plumage, the offspring will show leakage of varying levels. The yellow you are seeing is gold leakage, whilst the red is from the Mahogany gene, which enhances that gold.

 

[chickensins]

It only seems odd that one hen should be mothering so many, and the eggs seemed larger than the smaller breeds?

Any idea if one of the adult daughters could somehow have a gene from say the yellow half silkie hen that only showed up in males ? or maybe something that could only “overpower” jg colors in males ?(since yellow hen is well, a yellow hen but has no jg blood)

 

[chickensins]

Oh well nobody really know the family tree of theese birds beyond one parent (genuinly the only time in recent memory we have known both was when the silkie mutt was the only possible mother to something with leg feathers) but the red rooster we presumed was a new hampshire red was satan incarnate (and the brown hens his daughters) and the red colored roo is quite agressive so it wouldnt suprise me if they were related.

What about comb tho? Flyr had an embarassing little baby comb with a split, those ones have big unsplit combs.

Edit; what really weirds me out is the size tho. Flur came from a bad place that might not have fed him enough to reach his true size and back when yellow hen should have been the only one with silkie genes he had some leg feathered offspring , some of these were teeny tiny hens and the other was this absurdly big grey and yellow rooster with blue skin.

 

[Sneebsey]

The leakage is more noticeable in males as they generally have more colour than a female with the same genetics would. If you take a look at a clean duckwing pair, such as Light Brown Leghorn, you will see that the cockerel shows much more gold, which is then able to break through the black.