What will they make?

[lilwanderer]

If the mother is barred and the father is not, then a barred chick must be a male. So yes, the headspot would mean the chick is definitely male, if none of the possible fathers have barring.


If the chicks have crests, and their mother does not, then the father must be crested.


I'm glad to hear that the current ones are doing well

Well the ones she hatched from me are polish babies then- Mine don't have feathers sticking out their heads (yet).
I have a 3 week old from the maran, not sure about them yet either as i don't see a crest yet.
I've also so far only gotten blue, only one splash as i mentioned. Does that mean anything about the maran hen?
The 3 week old:

I've hatched about a dozen chicks so far- And the ones that died in the egg were blue when I opened them up.

 

[NatJ]

I've also so far only gotten blue, only one splash as i mentioned. Does that mean anything about the maran hen?

I've hatched about a dozen chicks so far- And the ones that died in the egg were blue when I opened them up.

A splash hen should never produce black babies, so that part is working as expected.

If the hen is splash and the rooster is blue, I would expect you to get even numbers of blue chicks and splash chicks (because the splash hen gives a blue gene to every chick, and a blue rooster gives a blue gene to half of them and a not-blue gene to the other half of them.)

A splash hen with a "black" rooster (not blur or splash) should produce just blue chicks.

It is fairly common to get unexpected ratios of chicks (male/female imbalance is the most common one, but it can happen with any kind of genes that "should" be inherited in certain ratios. The more chicks you hatch, typically the closer they come to the expected ratios.)

If you've got a dozen chicks, with only 1 splash and the rest blue, it is definitely a bit unexpected. The splash chick proves that at least one father has the blue gene (blue or splash), but the large number of blue chicks is suggesting that most of them may have a not-blue father. Or the ratios are just being really weird for some reason.

Since you were wondering if the Ameraucana rooster is properly blue, or if he is maybe something else: maybe he isn't blue?

You could try posting a separate queston in the genetics forum, or in the thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-ask-anything-to-nicalandia-thread.1509343/
A photo of the rooster, with either a photo or a description of how many blue chicks coming from a splash hen, might help someone else figure it out.

(I'm suggesting you post the rooster question separately, because "is he blue?" is a relatively simple question, while this thread is dealing with several different points already and is getting a bit complicated. Of course a link to this thread makes sense, for anyone who wants more background to try to figure it out.)

 

[lilwanderer]

A splash hen should never produce black babies, so that part is working as expected.

If the hen is splash and the rooster is blue, I would expect you to get even numbers of blue chicks and splash chicks (because the splash hen gives a blue gene to every chick, and a blue rooster gives a blue gene to half of them and a not-blue gene to the other half of them.)

A splash hen with a "black" rooster (not blur or splash) should produce just blue chicks.

It is fairly common to get unexpected ratios of chicks (male/female imbalance is the most common one, but it can happen with any kind of genes that "should" be inherited in certain ratios. The more chicks you hatch, typically the closer they come to the expected ratios.)

If you've got a dozen chicks, with only 1 splash and the rest blue, it is definitely a bit unexpected. The splash chick proves that at least one father has the blue gene (blue or splash), but the large number of blue chicks is suggesting that most of them may have a not-blue father. Or the ratios are just being really weird for some reason.

Since you were wondering if the Ameraucana rooster is properly blue, or if he is maybe something else: maybe he isn't blue?

You could try posting a separate queston in the genetics forum, or in the thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-ask-anything-to-nicalandia-thread.1509343/
A photo of the rooster, with either a photo or a description of how many blue chicks coming from a splash hen, might help someone else figure it out.

(I'm suggesting you post the rooster question separately, because "is he blue?" is a relatively simple question, while this thread is dealing with several different points already and is getting a bit complicated. Of course a link to this thread makes sense, for anyone who wants more background to try to figure it out.)

I may just do that!
but most of the chicks have little to no beard or muffs- I would think with the ameraucana, I'd get some fluffy cheeks.
He can't be black, if that's what's in question-
I think black would show, but could he possibly be carrying black but not showing it? Although I still think chicks would have muffs and beards if they were his.

 

[NatJ]

I may just do that!
but most of the chicks have little to no beard or muffs- I would think with the ameraucana, I'd get some fluffy cheeks.
He can't be black, if that's what's in question-
I think black would show, but could he possibly be carrying black but not showing it? Although I still think chicks would have muffs and beards if they were his.

You say he can't be "black"

But what I'm wondering: is he "black" (=not blue) while having chocolate or some other dilution gene affecting his color such that he looks similar to blue.

If he has been producing blue chicks from hens that do not have the blue gene, then that would presumably settle the matter.

As regards the chicks having muff/beard or not: good point, but since both roosters have the gene for it, I don't think we can use that to be certain about which father they have.

If you can tell comb type on the chicks, that could clear up who the father is. If they have the Polish father, the actual color genetics of the Ameraucana would not matter in this case.

If the mother has a single comb, and there are only two roosters, then any chick with a pea comb must have the Ameraucana father, while any chick with a split/V/double comb must have the Polish father. Crested chicks also must have the Polish father. I think there is a pretty good chance of figuring out the father of each chick as they grow a bit more, which will at least tell which rooster is producing those unexpected numbers of chicks that inherited the not-blue gene.

 

[lilwanderer]

You say he can't be "black"

But what I'm wondering: is he "black" (=not blue) while having chocolate or some other dilution gene affecting his color such that he looks similar to blue.

If he has been producing blue chicks from hens that do not have the blue gene, then that would presumably settle the matter.

As regards the chicks having muff/beard or not: good point, but since both roosters have the gene for it, I don't think we can use that to be certain about which father they have.

If you can tell comb type on the chicks, that could clear up who the father is. If they have the Polish father, the actual color genetics of the Ameraucana would not matter in this case.

If the mother has a single comb, and there are only two roosters, then any chick with a pea comb must have the Ameraucana father, while any chick with a split/V/double comb must have the Polish father. Crested chicks also must have the Polish father. I think there is a pretty good chance of figuring out the father of each chick as they grow a bit more, which will at least tell which rooster is producing those unexpected numbers of chicks that inherited the not-blue gene.

none have a v-comb or a pea comb-
Just looked at them a minute ago, the 5 I have appear to all have that split double comb looking thing. Guess the ameraucana isn't in the picture.
This made me check the Crele baby the maran has- "He" must belong to the polish also as he has a major split comb, gunna be a wild one when grown. .
Hard to tell in pictures, if you look closely you'll see the huge split, the maran's babies barely have a split.

 

[NatJ]

none have a v-comb or a pea comb-
Just looked at them a minute ago, the 5 I have appear to all have that split double comb looking thing. Guess the ameraucana isn't in the picture.
This made me check the Crele baby the maran has- "He" must belong to the polish also as he has a major split comb, gunna be a wild one when grown. .
Hard to tell in pictures, if you look closely you'll see the huge split, the maran's babies barely have a split.

Well, I guess that settles WHICH rooster is causing the puzzle

 

[lilwanderer]

Well, I guess that settles WHICH rooster is causing the puzzle

Well, no one seems to be saying anything on my other post in that thread you shared. So I'm back to you-
Now that i know who the father is it's not a big deal, although I'd still like to have a better idea on why he's producing so much blue.
-
But I have a new question, if none of the parents have a tint of yellow in their feet, why do I have a chick with yellow feet?
Like, really yellow, besides the shank area thats a darker brown/grey.
The particular chick is also growing dark feathers, some spots look almost black, all the others chicks are a more obvious grey/blue.
This probably has nothing to do with anything, but this chick I also would have expected to be lighter as it had/has a lot of white down on its face and down its body underneath, and like a lot of the black penguin chicks, it's first few feathers are white like theirs would be. (Which it'll probably/more than likely lose after its juvenile molt)
All my others are solid blue, except my oldest that has just a little white on the face. They also have either slate grey feet, or the grey shanks with pink toes.
Pictures of the particular chick added for reference of course.

 

[NatJ]

Well, no one seems to be saying anything on my other post in that thread you shared. So I'm back to you-
Now that i know who the father is it's not a big deal, although I'd still like to have a better idea on why he's producing so much blue.

The other thread is a bit patchy, sometimes it gets lots of responses and sometimes not many (probably depends on who is how busy at what time.)

Yes, now that we know he is not the father, it doesn't matter as much.

But I have a new question, if none of the parents have a tint of yellow in their feet, why do I have a chick with yellow feet?
Like, really yellow, besides the shank area thats a darker brown/grey.

Yellow skin is recessive to white skin (usually visible on the soles of the feet, regardless of what other colors are on the tops of the feet and on the shanks.)

If both parents have white skin, but carry the gene for yellow skin, then yellow skin is expected to show up in about 1/4 of chicks.

Dark vs. light skin is controlled by a different gene.
"Light" skin gives white or yellow shanks & feet
"Dark skin" gives slate/blue (white skin) or willow/green (yellow skin)

The genes for some feather colors will also make the skin on the shanks darker or lighter (so black chickens often have black shanks, blue chickens often have slightly-lighter shanks, splash or barred chickens often have lighter-yet shanks. The blue gene and the barring gene dilute the shanks as well as the feathers.)

For ths particular chick, I think it has:
--some black on the shanks because of the genes for black feathers (even though it then has the black in its feathers turned to blue)
--yellow skin (recessive gene carried by both parents)
--probably genetically light skin, but I don't trust myself on that when it's got dark areas from the black-feather genes.

The particular chick is also growing dark feathers, some spots look almost black, all the others chicks are a more obvious grey/blue.

Probably just a dark blue, but I don't know for sure. Some blues can be so dark they are almost black.

This probably has nothing to do with anything, but this chick I also would have expected to be lighter as it had/has a lot of white down on its face and down its body underneath, and like a lot of the black penguin chicks, it's first few feathers are white like theirs would be. (Which it'll probably/more than likely lose after its juvenile molt)

I agree that it probably has nothing to do with the other points you mentioned, but it's interesting anyway.

All my others are solid blue, except my oldest that has just a little white on the face. They also have either slate grey feet, or the grey shanks with pink toes.

Those chicks would be showing the white skin gene.
The ones with slate gray feet might have genetically dark skin, or they might just have unpredictable amounts of dark in the skin from the genes for black feather colors.

Pictures of the particular chick added for reference of course.

Yes, that does really help.
And it's fun to see cute chick photos, too

 

[lilwanderer]

The other thread is a bit patchy, sometimes it gets lots of responses and sometimes not many (probably depends on who is how busy at what time.)

Yes, now that we know he is not the father, it doesn't matter as much.


Yellow skin is recessive to white skin (usually visible on the soles of the feet, regardless of what other colors are on the tops of the feet and on the shanks.)

If both parents have white skin, but carry the gene for yellow skin, then yellow skin is expected to show up in about 1/4 of chicks.

Dark vs. light skin is controlled by a different gene.
"Light" skin gives white or yellow shanks & feet
"Dark skin" gives slate/blue (white skin) or willow/green (yellow skin)

The genes for some feather colors will also make the skin on the shanks darker or lighter (so black chickens often have black shanks, blue chickens often have slightly-lighter shanks, splash or barred chickens often have lighter-yet shanks. The blue gene and the barring gene dilute the shanks as well as the feathers.)

For ths particular chick, I think it has:
--some black on the shanks because of the genes for black feathers (even though it then has the black in its feathers turned to blue)
--yellow skin (recessive gene carried by both parents)
--probably genetically light skin, but I don't trust myself on that when it's got dark areas from the black-feather genes.


Probably just a dark blue, but I don't know for sure. Some blues can be so dark they are almost black.


I agree that it probably has nothing to do with the other points you mentioned, but it's interesting anyway.


Those chicks would be showing the white skin gene.
The ones with slate gray feet might have genetically dark skin, or they might just have unpredictable amounts of dark in the skin from the genes for black feather colors.


Yes, that does really help.
And it's fun to see cute chick photos, too

Interesting- with the dark feather thing- with the chick being fathered by the the polish who we have recently realized is producing all these blues, do you think that could mean anything?
Like, he carries so much blue he also produces really dark blues? Or is it just some sort of coincidence.
Also a question about Penny's babies. So you said the boys from her and the polish would be the only ones with dots on the head. So this is a boy:

Does that mean its sibling here is a female?
Thought this one was cool as it's all black besides some stripes on one side of the face. Cool markings lol. And it already appears to have some green sheen showing up.
Also is the black coloring normal from that cross?

Also yet another blue produced by the polish and the maran. Really wish they'd hatch me another splash. .

 

[NatJ]

Interesting- with the dark feather thing- with the chick being fathered by the the polish who we have recently realized is producing all these blues, do you think that could mean anything?
Like, he carries so much blue he also produces really dark blues? Or is it just some sort of coincidence.

Probably just a coincidence. I've seen photos from other flocks, where blues hatch in a variety of shades from very light to very dark, with just one rooster and a few hens.

Also a question about Penny's babies. So you said the boys from her and the polish would be the only ones with dots on the head. So this is a boy:

Penny would be the crele-colored hen, right?
Yes, that chick would be a male.

Does that mean its sibling here is a female?

As long as you are sure of the mother, then yes that one is female.

Thought this one was cool as it's all black besides some stripes on one side of the face. Cool markings lol. And it already appears to have some green sheen showing up.

Also is the black coloring normal from that cross?

Yes, that would be normal: some blacks and some blues, and obviously some browns as well (based on the male chick.)

Also yet another blue produced by the polish and the maran. Really wish they'd hatch me another splash. .
View attachment 3713362

You say that's from the Maran. I didn't think she was barred.

But I think I see a light spot on the head of the blue chick. If neither parent has white barring, then none of their chicks should have barring.

Maybe it's just a trick of the lighting in that photo