What colors can I expect?

[NatJ]

She has a natural yellow tint that makes her look dirty in places. The grey one has me puzzled. The black one is beginning to turn a mahogany on its wings. Because the SP hen adopted a few of my RIRxRIR eggs I’m curious if one of theirs? I know extremely little about genetics. Learning more everyday. Thanks for responding!

Some of the chicks are definitely a bit puzzling. It may become more clear as they grow older.

The only possible father is a Rhode Island Red, right?
And the only hens are RIR and Smoky Pearl?
(Trying to check the most basic things first, because sometimes the obvious answer is something I forgot to ask, like another breed of chicken!)

 

[PrairiePeckers]

Some of the chicks are definitely a bit puzzling. It may become more clear as they grow older.

The only possible father is a Rhode Island Red, right?
And the only hens are RIR and Smoky Pearl?
(Trying to check the most basic things first, because sometimes the obvious answer is something I forgot to ask, like another breed of chicken!)

Yes, correct on all.

 

[PrairiePeckers]

The black is turning more red. The grey…I don’t know what it’s doing lol

 

[NatJ]

The black is turning more red. The grey…I don’t know what it’s doing lol

I think I see what the grey is doing.

One of the Smokey Pearl hens must have a recessive gene that allows a chicken to show some pattern of black and other colors (not just the gene for black all over.)

So I think the grey chick is showing a pattern of some sort. I can't say yet whether it's a Columbian pattern or something else.

With a red father (has the gold gene), the only way to get a chick that shows a pattern of black and WHITE (silver gene) is if the hen is genetically silver. So whichever Smoky Pearl hen is the mother of that chick, she is genetically silver, and the chick is a sexlink male. (Gold rooster x silver hen = sexlinked chicks, with gold daughters and silver sons.)

If you get any other chicks with a black-and-silver pattern, they will be males as well.

If you get any with a black-and-gold pattern, we won't know for sure if they are males or females until they grow old enough to tell by other methods: the Smoky Pearl hens might all be silver, or some of them might be gold, and we just can't tell because the gold or silver is hiding under the other coloring they show.

For the chick that is showing red, I'll hold off on predictions until it gets a bit older, because I don't know what else those Smoky Pearls might be hiding!