White Orpington Genetics

[chipens]

Cant seem to find much info
I have a group of orpingtons and last year i had a blue rooster with blue and black hens, somehow from that I got a hen that is pretty much white? I know blue is dilute and can get various shades but she has no splashes of darker, like others that i hatched last year.
I kept her and put her back to the blue rooster and this year I got another looks to be white like the hen (she's about 2 months old).
- How do white genetics work in orpingtons?
- Are they classed as white or are they still splash? Because from blue parentage?
- Should I keep them in my ment to be blue/black/splash breeding group?

 

[Skyle]

She could be a recessive white, so both your rooster and the mother of the white hen are carriers.
There are two main types of white in chickens: recessive white (c) and dominant white (I). The name itself explains how they work.
Anyway, recessive white covers both red and black (and their diluitions) pigments, while dominant white covers only black ones (and its diluitions).
To get a white hen you must have both mother and father which are carriers, if the carriers don't show the white, then it must be recessive white.

Splash is another thing. The blue (Bl) in chickens is an incomplete dominant gene, so the heterozygous form, called blue (Bl/bl+) looks different from the homozygous form, called splash (Bl/Bl). Usually splash chickens look white with black and/or blue spots all over the body. But splashes can be bred to show less and less spots.

 

[Amer]

She is probably splash, can I see a picture? Splash can be pretty variable, in many breeds you actually don’t get the pretty splashes that are caused by certain melanizers.

 

[chipens]

Here's some photos, excuse her outfit the rooster quite likes her she's also a big dirty as white chickens do

 

[Amer]

Looks like the most white splash I have ever seen. It’s a splash though, she has some black feather shafts.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Here's some photos, excuse her outfit the rooster quite likes her she's also a big dirty as white chickens do

Splash. Look at her tail feathers. She's got a black feather shaft. Give her a few molts, and she *might* show more black (or blue). She's pretty though!

 

[chipens]

I did notice the black feather shaft when I was taking them. So pure whites won't have that? Will be interesting to see if she does get some darker after she moults. I'll have a closer look at the other chick/pullet I've got I'd say it would be her offspring (she's the only splash in the breeding pen) although they'd have the same father, may have been something the rooster carried. The rooster died which really annoyed me he was nice and was right at start of breeding season, I managed to hatch some of his eggs right before he died so I'm hoping there's one nice boy to replace him.

 

[ColtHandorf]

If your birds carried recessive white, they can throw Whites. With the photos you provided, though, it is evident that she is Splash.

This is what Whites would look like.