What color of chicks could I be looking at? (Pictures with parents)

[Flutterbee]

So my hen, Edna, is currently sitting on a clutch of eggs (we're on day fourteen or fifteen now) and I'm beginning to wonder what the babies will look like. The mothers are both Golden Comets and the father, my rooster Gilman, had a Buff Orpington for a father and a Spotted Sussex for a mother. Yes, that's him beside my other hen, Myrtle. He flipping towers over both of them like nobody's business.

 

[Ridgerunner]

About the only thing you can be sure of is that they will be some shade of red. It could be dark or it could be pretty light, probably a combination. Both chickens are crosses and when you breed crosses you can get a whole lot of possibilities.

There is no telling what parents are in the background of your Golden Comets. They could be two standard breeds crossed or they could be based on the commercial egg laying hybrids. Golden Comet is just a marketing name, it really doesn’t say much about the parents’ background. If you got them from a specific hatchery you might be able to tell more by looking at that hatchery’s website. But in any case the hen will have only gold, no silver, so the chicks will inherit gold. There is no telling what other marking and colors could be there. If the hen’s tails are white you could get some white pattern markings but the odds are you will see black pattern markings from her side, if any.

The male is a cross of two red birds so it will also contribute gold, not silver. He's a pretty orange, isn't he? That means no white from him. The Buff Orpington part of him will contribute some things modifiers to some of his chicks that can do strange things, but with his mixed genetics only some chicks will get that. With his genetics I’d expect him to contribute a mix of mahogany, dark brown, Columbia, diluters, black pattern feathers, and who knows what else. He’s the one that will probably give you some pretty light red chicks as well as some dark red chicks. It should be a pretty mix.

The chicks will not show the speckling of the Speckled Sussex. The gene that causes the speckling is a recessive gene so the chick would have to get it from both parents. The hen will not have that so the chicks won’t show speckling in the adult plumage. Sometimes you can see some speckling in juvenile plumage, but not in the adult.

Some chicks will probably be chipmunk striped at hatch but some could be solid red, and they could be about any shade of buff or red. Enjoy your mix when they hatch and enjoy how they feather out. You can get some real surprises between down color and final feather color too.