This chick has an interesting pattern..

[Shipgirl]

Looks partridge. Also has a headspot, so it'll grow up Barred too.

In a different light

 

[Shipgirl]

Barring is something I have experience with. Gonna be pretty bird.

It’s supposed to be half australorp half ameraucana. Wondering where the barring came from? the ameraucana the seller has is not barred.

 

[Shipgirl]

Those are Easter Eggers.

There must be a Barred chicken in their flock, to get barred babies.

Must be!

 

[Shipgirl]

I can tell you, that the parent may not be Ameraucana, the chick has no beard. Beards are a dominant trait that will pass on 50% of the time. But it could be still part Ameraucana, & not be bearded.

What barred birds do they have?

The seller says they are the Columbian Wyandotte/australorp mix

 

[Shipgirl]

Yes, Solid roo X Barred hen produces sex linked offspring, all barred chicks would be Male.

Yeah, I thought they were the prettiest chicks, so of course they’d be male. I’ll take update pics as they grow and see what they turn out like.

 

[Shipgirl]

Usually, a chick with a Cuckoo Marans father would be mostly black (plus white barring, plus possible leakage of other colors.)

But that hen has the Dominant White gene, that turns black into white. That's why she's got a white tail and bits of white in other places, rather than having them be black like some other chicken breeds. If the chick would otherwise be mostly black, Dominant White turns it white (plus white barring, plus possible leakage of other colors.)

That would make a mostly white chick, but the chick in the photo appears to have a large amount of gold or buff color in the feathers. Genetically speaking, that doesn't make sense if the rooster is a Cuckoo Marans.

Weird. This one I know for sure the lineage because this one is from my grandma. The only roo is the marans. The hen I don’t know what it is. Just guessing a red hybrid of some sort.

 

[Shipgirl]

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

The pics I added last are the only chickens that are in that area. He’s supposed to be pure cuckoo marans, but he wasn’t from an hatchery- got locally so you never know. All his chicks with the cuckoo marans hen turn out like they should.

 

[NatJ]

Might need to do an experiment

If you can identify who lays which eggs, I would do the experiment with the eggs from the Red Sexlink (brown with white tail) and the Columbian-colored bird (white with black at the neck and tail.)

If you are able to track which chicks came from each of those hens, it would be even more informative than if they were mixed.

 

[Shipgirl]

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

The marans is the only in the pen, he was purchased from Murray McMurray hatchery as a cuckoo marans.

the only thing I can think of is maybe the hen is one of the others? There is the Colombian, the ameraucana, the cuckoo marans, and I think an Easter egger in there too. No other birds introduced.

The red hen: dozen hatching eggs were purchased from a local co-op. She was one that hatched out. Assuming she’s a red sex link of some sort, so we really don’t know her origins.

 

[Shipgirl]

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

There are some silver laced Wyandotte’s she got recently- but those are separated.