So many different ways for a chickens to be black and white spotted… how do they all work??

[Amelise]

Splash, paint, exchequer, ermine, mottled, silver spangled…
I was doing research for fun because I find it so interesting how there’s so many different ways for a chicken to be black and white spotted. I think it would be cool to find out what causes all of them.

So I know that splash happens with the BBS genes and having two copies of the dilution gene (It’s still a bit confusing how some splashes are so much more pigmented than others)
I also know that paint is dominant white color over black.

That’s about where my understanding ends. What causes mottled? What defines exchequer from mottled and ermine? How does spangled work?

I don’t know. Either way, I have an increasing desire to collect an Ameraucana of each of these varieties. I may be going insane. (Although I don’t think anyone’s tried to make silver spangled ameraucanas …)
(Wait, I looked it up and there’s a project for them. And they look amazing!)

Thanks to anyone who wants to take the time to entertain my silly questions

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@Amer

 

[Amer]

Mottling is caused by the mottling mutation, which is recssive. Exchequer is simply a different mottling allele.
Ermine Ameraucanas are just paint.
Silver spangled is polygenic and more complicated. It can be either birchen or partridge based. The genes causing the pattern are ginger, melanized, pattern gene, and silver, respectively.

So it can either be ER/ERDb/DbMl/MlPg/PgS/S
Or it can be e^b/e^bDb/DbMl/MlPg/PgS/S

It could be possible to produce in Ameraucanas by initially crossing a silver Spangled Hamburg over a Silver Ameraucana hen, but it would be an uphill battle from their to get both correct combs and coloring.
Silver spangled Thuringians look very similar to what a silver spangled Ameraucana would be (with some obvious differences.)

 

[Amelise]

Mottling is caused by the mottling mutation, which is recssive. Exchequer is simply a different mottling allele.
Ermine Ameraucanas are just paint.
Silver spangled is polygenic and more complicated. It can be either birchen or partridge based. The genes causing the pattern are ginger, melanized, pattern gene, and silver, respectively.

So it can either be ER/ERDb/DbMl/MlPg/PgS/S
Or it can be e^b/e^bDb/DbMl/MlPg/PgS/S

Thanks, that’s super helpful! Any idea what causes the different levels of pigment when it comes to paint and splash? For instance, I’ve seen paint where it’s only a few dark spots, vs ermine which we know is a lot of dark feathers. Also for example, my splash ameraucana is mostly white while there are others that have so much splash they look significantly darker.

(my splash vs a photo I found online)

 

[Amelise]

Silver spangled Thuringians look very similar to what a silver spangled Ameraucana would be (with some obvious differences.)

Just looked it up, that’s a really pretty breed! They remind me of an Ameraucana bantam that’s large and single combed.

 

[Amer]

Thanks, that’s super helpful! Any idea what causes the different levels of pigment when it comes to paint and splash? For instance, I’ve seen paint where it’s only a few dark spots, vs ermine which we know is a lot of dark feathers. Also for example, my splash ameraucana is mostly white while there are others that have so much splash they look significantly darker.

(my splash vs a photo I found online)

There are melanizers that can increase the amount of splashing. The splashes are where the melanin managed to break through despite the dilution.
Splashes that come from more strongly patterned blues are likely to be more strongly splashed.
Genes can compound and if darker birds are bred they will produce darker offspring.
Paint is caused by one copy of dominant white.
Splash is caused by two copies of blue. So of course they look different.

Just looked it up, that’s a really pretty breed! They remind me of an Ameraucana bantam that’s large and single combed.

Well, Thuringians can be bantam as well.
But yes.