Unexpected color on chick

[NatJ]

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Thank you so much for your continued input, genuinely! I am having a lot of fun and learning quite a bit along the way.

And I'm having fun seeing how they grow, although of course I have a few responses like "the chick did WHAT? I thought we had that figured out correctly!"

The ayam cross boy may have yellow feet under a dark cover due to his melanism, and the possibly khaki boy has pink feet under the gray overlay on his, so I do not think we'll be able to reliably sex chicks that way given a few of the pullets have yellow legs, one has green legs, and some have blue legs (and same for the boys).

I agree, if you have all possible leg colors in males and in females, sexing by leg color is not going to work.

I don't think we'll have much luck with early to tell sex characteristics in general; one of the older chicks we assumed was a boy due to slow feathering and feathered feet (pointing to brahma) has not gotten a red comb or wattles at this point and chicks three weeks younger than him(?) have, so that one's gender is up in the air.

Brahmas do have a reputation for being slow to mature, so I agree about that one still being up in the air: could be female, could be a male that is maturing much more slowly than some of the other chicks.

Anyway here are some group pictures I got! Per the last image, I have some questions. She is the other sibling to the one barred boy we have. I'd assumed she was a girl and I still am on the fence because her comb is small and quite pale whereas her brother's is reddening up and huge at this point.
But is that whiteish barring I'm seeing coming in on her wings there? It doesn't look like the other one's barring if it is, and it isn't on all the feathers, only a few recent ones.

Hmm, I don't know what to think on that one. I think I do see lighter areas running across the feathers.

Maybe that one will become more clear in time? (At least as regard sex, which may then tell us for sure if the chick inherited the barring gene or not.)

 

[Worm94]

And I'm having fun seeing how they grow, although of course I have a few responses like "the chick did WHAT? I thought we had that figured out correctly!"

Yeah there've been a couple that have me scratching my head too for sure! Of the three who displayed chipmunk or close to chipmunk patterns that were nearly identical as fluffy chicks, one is primarily black with orange/buff coloring coming in(regular blue feet), one is blue/buff patterning(pastel blueish feet), and one is mostly orange with a little black (bright green feet).

That all-red fluff chick? Black and buff. The sweater vest one? Lots of black feathers on a white background, like a more intense columbian. Also the only one with pink feet-- just, totally pink feet.

Then there's the barred chick, and the sister(hopefully) that I was asking about ; as far as I remember at least the sister started out with yellowy white fluff with a dark brown/black stripe along her back. Now she's got a buff neck and red and blue feathers on the rest of her body!

Maybe that one will become more clear in time? (At least as regard sex, which may then tell us for sure if the chick inherited the barring gene or not.)

If it isn't barring, then she's a girl but-- but I don't know. She's pretty skittish and in my limited experience with my birds, the more skittish they are the more likely they are to be pullets (with some exceptions, like most of the brahma mixes). But she isn't a brahma, so that's out. If she somehow has barring and is still a hen, I don't even know what I'd do. If she's a boy that comb is awfully pale at her age.

We have black, blue, and white chicks too; of the white ones, the one with the least black specks of feathers altogether, almost none, is the boy. I think he came from the barred hens because of his size but if he's barred I'm definitely not seeing it for a good long while since he's so white.

There's a good few with melanistic combs too, ranging from small completely black birds (from a mystery tiny black hen with blue legs and golden neck pattern and our ayam cross) to the bigger white ones with paint splashes of black (though not all of them have that melanism).
We've also got one with that same buff and blue coloring but it's almost pastel on her and I have no idea how she'll look as an adult. I need to get a picture, really I need a bunch more here soon to keep up with them.

 

[HorseDad]

A melanistic chick, we know the parents were the ayam cross and a mixed hen of undetermined origin who also had some melanism going on (she's black with a gold neck and faint coloring on some of her feathers).
This pattern below here is interesting! He's one of the Brahma crosses. The other boys look fairly similar for the most part but have distinctly different decorative colors coming in.

Here's a nice little group pic with a majority of them. There's a nice very light buff hen there and two buff and blue boys, all Brahma crosses too.

Of the birds who displayed silver colors plus chipmunk pattern plus that one sweater vest looking chick, they all turned out to be boys and Brahma crosses. If that pattern continues we have at least one way to sex a few at hatch!

Maybe that one will become more clear in time? (At least as regard sex, which may then tell us for sure if the chick inherited the barring gene or not.)

Well she is now four months and a week approximately and definitely a hen! I am borrowing my friend's phone and account to write this because my technology has been malfunctioning, hence no updates for so long. But I have a lot of pictures!! So here they are. Apologies for the messy post, I am still figuring out mobile.
Anyway we know who all the boys are now!
Banded them with yellow, just to keep track.
Below is one of the pullets who had that chipmunk pattern as a chick.

This is the one who's five months next to the biggest cockerel we have (same age as the rest of these birds). He's definitely from the large cuckoo hens and it shows. The one next to him is probably a hen at this age! Which is nice, we had assumed she was a boy for the longest time but she's shown no signs.

 

[HorseDad]

This is our very yellow girl, though the camera makes her look a lot more orange/red than she is. She's a lot more yellow in person.

 

[HorseDad]

A better picture of Dumpling, our big cockerel

 

[NatJ]

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Well she is now four months and a week approximately and definitely a hen!

Good to know the answer to that mystery!

I am borrowing my friend's phone and account to write this because my technology has been malfunctioning, hence no updates for so long. But I have a lot of pictures!!

Thanks for updating! It's nice to see how so many of them look now that they have grown this much more.

 

[Worm94]

Thanks for updating! It's nice to see how so many of them look now that they have grown this much more.

well, I've definitely learned a lot along this whole adventure-- and I appreciate all of your wisdom so so much
If it is alright though, I have a couple questions about two of my birds even now I still don't fully understand how the one up there happened. Her mom's a cuckoo barred black hen, her dad has to be the blue (with a lot of leakage) rooster because of the fact her feathers are blue and I dunno where else she'd get it.
Her dad's feet though, are white/pink with a dark overlay, and her mom's feet are yellow with the same. I dunno how she got that solid pearly blue on her feet.
And where'd all that red come from, and how come her neck is more buff than her body? I think the others I kind of get, to an extent.
The blue and buff brahmas seem obvious, and having read a little more on chicken stuff I understand roughly how and why some of those roosters we hatched turned out silvery blue and white instead of any other colors.
Even Mr Dumpling up there, I understand. He's blue like his dad, with one copy of the barring gene and a whole lot of leakage (and maybe autosomnal red?).
And then there's the one brahma chick I don't really get either to be honest, and it's because I'd sort of assumed she'd be buff and blue -- except she's almost yellow and blue. Like her gold(?) got diluted further, somehow.
And she is a brahma cross for sure, if the feathered feet didn't tip me off the comb would, and her father also has to be the blue boy because neither my EE nor my ayam have that dilution gene.
But how the heck did she turn out so light?
and what's it all mean, about my mysterious blue rooster? And what those cuckoo barred hens could be hiding? And I suppose one of my hatchery brahmas has secrets too, of course.
Once again thank you immensely though, for having helped me figure out so much along the way!!

 

[NatJ]

I still don't fully understand how the one up there happened. Her mom's a cuckoo barred black hen, her dad has to be the blue (with a lot of leakage) rooster because of the fact her feathers are blue and I dunno where else she'd get it.

That makes sense. And since the hen gives barring to her sons but not her daughters, it makes sense that this pullet has no barring.

Her dad's feet though, are white/pink with a dark overlay, and her mom's feet are yellow with the same. I dunno how she got that solid pearly blue on her feet.

Probably the sex-linked recessive gene for dark feet. It's on the Z sex chromosome (so a daughter inherits it only from her father) and recessive (so he can carry it while showing the light feet caused by the dominant gene), with the father's feet also showing the dark overlay that is can be caused by the genes for black feathers (although his feathers are then diluted to blue.)

White vs. yellow skin is controlled by a different gene, with white being dominant over yellow. Dark feet with white skin look blue, dark feet with yellow skin look green, so she is showing the white skin inherited from her father, not the yellow skin she also inherited from her mother (recessive.)

And where'd all that red come from, and how come her neck is more buff than her body? I think the others I kind of get, to an extent.

All that red: recessive gene from each parent, probably E^Wh Wheaten. The mother would be showing E (Extended Black), and I really don't know what to say about the rooster (I scrolled back to look at him again). If you look in the chicken calculator, you will notice that Wheaten roosters are colored very differently than Wheaten hens.

The different color on the neck is pretty common in Wheaten colored chickens.

And then there's the one brahma chick I don't really get either to be honest, and it's because I'd sort of assumed she'd be buff and blue -- except she's almost yellow and blue. Like her gold(?) got diluted further, somehow.
And she is a brahma cross for sure, if the feathered feet didn't tip me off the comb would, and her father also has to be the blue boy because neither my EE nor my ayam have that dilution gene.
But how the heck did she turn out so light?

Probably something different about how many copies of which dilution gene. Gold/red/buff in chickens comes in many shades, and I don't know all the factors that control them. Mh (Mahogany) turns gold to red, and both di (Dilute) and Ig ("Inhibitor of Gold," aka Cream) can turn gold into a much lighter shade, and I've seen speculation that buff may have both Mahogany AND one of the genes that dilute gold, so at this point I've just settled for not understanding it fully.

and what's it all mean, about my mysterious blue rooster? And what those cuckoo barred hens could be hiding?

I'm thinking the rooster and at least one of the hens have E^Wh (Wheaten), or one has that and one has some other gene recessive to Wheaten.

I'm not sure what ELSE they may have!

 

[Worm94]

Well I did go ahead and run on over to the Chicken calculator to input the Wheaten stuff and what do you know? I feel rather silly for not having checked that sooner but it makes sense.
I've gotten two wheaten pullets from my barred hens so far, one silver and one gold so I guess I can mark down that they're carrying it for sure and because I've confirmed the dad for one, that might as well mean he's the dad of both (or that the silver wheaten came in from the EE but-- well, I'm not gonna worry about that for now ).

White vs. yellow skin is controlled by a different gene, with white being dominant over yellow. Dark feet with white skin look blue, dark feet with yellow skin look green, so she is showing the white skin inherited from her father, not the yellow skin she also inherited from her mother (recessive.)

I see! She does have that light skin too. That is so cool, the feet genetics are going to be a whole other thing I'll have to learn about. I've been reading up on them too, they're more complex than I initially thought. So is everything with chickens, it seems!

If you look in the chicken calculator, you will notice that Wheaten roosters are colored very differently than Wheaten hens.

The different color on the neck is pretty common in Wheaten colored chickens.

Yes they do look a whole lot different! And I see that now, about the neck color.

I really don't know what to say about the rooster (I scrolled back to look at him again).

That is fair, I think maybe I'll give up on solving him and just accept and admire the chicks he puts out! Thank you again!!