sport marans:

[NatJ]

My Marans eggs are a 4, maybe, but still a lot darker than my hens eggs with dominant white, so no chance of mix up there.

Good to have that checked!

I think it's either dominant white rooster's long living sperm

I think that is probably it, considering that it makes more sense than anything else that anyone has yet thought of.

or it could be possible that there is a co dominance between white and black. The hen could have one normal dominant white gene and be mostly black, because maybe her dominant black gene is a very strong phenotype/variant. This over powering dominant black variant was passed on to only half of the chicks and the same with the normal dominant white gene. Meaning if I understand it correctly 50% of her chicks could be white?

I have never heard of Dominant White behaving that way. What you describe does sound like a way in which some gene could behave, except that it is definitely NOT the normal behavior of the genes involved. So it would be very unexpected.

If you continue to keep this hen separate from all the males with Dominant White, you could see if she keeps producing chicks like this (which means it is caused by something in the genes of herself or the roosters you want her with), or if the mostly-white chicks quit happening (which would be a strong indicator that the ones in this batch were sired by long-stored sperm from a Dominant White rooster.)

Don't think its silver, based on the fact that it effected both male and female chicks, even seen in the pic posted above.

The one we know for sure has silver is the male who is mostly dark-colored but has some silver on his head and neck.

I think the mostly-white ones are probably not silver, but since I knew that at least one chick did have silver, I was trying to make sure we had good reasons to rule it out as the cause of the other chicks.

 

[Henndrik]

Yes this could just be a BCM hen holding on to old semen, especially since the BCM's roosters did not perform like the white Leghorn's did.

Problem is all my dominant white roosters, have yellow legs/shanks, so the chicks would most likely also have some degree of yellow legs.

But for the sake of interest I'm posting my experience, in case it's actually pure BCM genes doing funny things...

I agree that male chick has sliver, so he got it from his mother, masked by her Extended Black gene, not his father who is copper/gold and since his feet is not yellow, it could not have been my other roosters.

ok so she is not a BCM, but a silver birchen marans?

 

[NatJ]

ok so she is not a BCM, but a silver birchen marans?

She certainly might be. That would explain her son that is showing silver.

 

[NatJ]

Yes this could just be a BCM hen holding on to old semen, especially since the BCM's roosters did not perform like the white Leghorn's did.

Problem is all my dominant white roosters, have yellow legs/shanks, so the chicks would most likely also have some degree of yellow legs.

I might expect to see white legs in chicks from that cross, or maybe some shade of gray or black, but I would not expect actual yellow, given which genes are dominant.

But for the sake of interest I'm posting my experience, in case it's actually pure BCM genes doing funny things...

 

[Henndrik]

As I understand it leg colour is sex-linked and yes yellow legs are recessive, but that would mean if the father of the chicks displayed yellow legs, so he had two copies of the yellow gene. Then his daughters will inherit their leg colour from their father, giving then yellow legs. Since I cant see any yellow on their feet, I can only assume that they are maybe pure Marans and then so their brothers too...

so I thought Id post some update pics.

The red and orange zip ties are my pure bred marker.

pullet1

pullet2

cockerel1

cockerel2

cockerel3

 

[NatJ]

As I understand it leg colour is sex-linked and yes yellow legs are recessive, but that would mean if the father of the chicks displayed yellow legs, so he had two copies of the yellow gene. Then his daughters will inherit their leg colour from their father, giving then yellow legs. Since I cant see any yellow on their feet, I can only assume that they are maybe pure Marans and then so their brothers too...

There are two major genes that affect leg color. One is sexlinked, the other is not.

The sexlinked one is dark vs. light legs. Dark legs are recessive (blue/slate or green/willow). Light legs are dominant (white or yellow).

The other leg color gene is white vs. yellow. For chickens with light legs (sexlinked gene), then the legs actually do look white (dominant) or yellow (recessive). For chickens with dark legs, they look blue/slate with white soles (white) or green/willow with yellow soles (yellow).

Just to make it more confusing, some of the genes that affect feather color will also affect leg color. For example, the genes to make a black chicken will also make the legs darker than they otherwise would be (example: Barred Rock or Black Jersey Giant with genetically "yellow" legs but actually quite a bit of dark color on them.)

If you have Leghorn roosters with legs that are actually yellow, they have the dominant gene for light legs (not dark), and the recessive gene for yellow (not white) legs. So chicks should have light legs (white or yellow), not dark (blue/slate or green/willow).

I think I'm seeing dark legs on all the chickens in the pictures, which would mean their father is not a White Leghorn. A leghorn-mix rooster could have light legs and carry the gene for dark legs, meaning he could produce dark-legged chicks, but it sounds like your Leghorns are probably pure Leghorns rather than mixes, so this would not apply. And even then, such a mixed rooster would be likely to produce about a 50/50 split of chicks with dark vs. light legs, and I do not think I see any light legs at all.

so I thought Id post some update pics.View attachment 4320274The red and orange zip ties are my pure bred marker.
View attachment 4320275
View attachment 4320276
pullet1
View attachment 4320277
View attachment 4320278
pullet2
View attachment 4320279
cockerel1
View attachment 4320280
cockerel2
View attachment 4320281
cockerel3

Looking at the pictures, I think cockerel 1 has both silver and gold (one from each parent). Cockerel 2 definitely has silver, but I don't see anything obvious about whether he also carries gold or not. If he were to be pure for silver, that would mean you have both a rooster and a hen with silver.

For pullet 1 and pullet 2, I see some gold/brown feathers up near their heads. This makes me suspect that they are genetically gold, with black on most of their bodies, then some gene(s) turning most of that black into white. That looks like it would be caused by Dominant White, or possibly Splash (two Blue genes). But neither explanation makes much sense when looking at pictures of the parents.

If you breed those pullets to one of the original BCM roosters, maybe their chicks will shed some light on what is happening?

Have you hatched any other chicks from the same parents as these ones? If so, what colors were they?

 

[Henndrik]

Thank you for taking the time to explain NatJ, its a lot to think about.
I should repeat the mating to see if I get similar results, but haven't yet.
Will take some pics of the other chicks, they are mixed in colour, can only imagine there are lots of genes at play, for the hen is basically black, yet hides that she is also silver and not gold.

 

[Henndrik]

Here is some more pics showing other feather colours, I could not find one with light legs.
I had two roosters in the mix and there were two hens that laid dark eggs, so all the marked chicks are from those two hens.
To make things more interesting I only know who is one of the hens, the other has since lost here pigment and is laying pink eggs like my Australorps, so she is lost in the flock of look a likes since she is clean legged.

pullets:

cockerels: