Why are all of my chicks hatching white!?

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

If you don't have any other roosters, yes. If you have a rooster out of the leghorn that you already have, you can breed him to those hens and get other colors.

He's not full Leghorn, he's an ideal 236 (crossbreed specified for resistance to certain diseases and high egg laying capabilities)

 

[NatJ]

What are the chances of the Son carrying the barring Gene of his barred Rock mother?

From a Barred Rock mother, the son has 100% chance of carrying the barring gene

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

Hopefully your recent batch of chicks has a cockerel you can keep? Your rooster would accept one of them in the flock better than a rooster that's not related. (they'd fight)

I've actually got a couple of Boy's, they don't really fight but occasionally they will "dance"

 

[RoosterHuggerLiz]

From a Barred Rock mother, the son has 100% chance of carrying the barring gene

Awesome! How would that work? If I were to cross the Roo with let's say an RIR would that leave a possibility for a chick with barring over the red?
(I'm still learning so please bear with me)

 

[troyer]

Awesome!! I've got a broody hatching some chicks right now so if one ends up as a cockrell I'll put the old boy to retirement and keep his son with my main flock!! What are the chances of the Son carrying the barring Gene of his barred Rock mother?

He will be barred.

 

[McChooky]

Barred rocks are an auto-sexing breed.So are Welsummers. (The latter lays a speckled egg)

 

[NatJ]

How would that work? If I were to cross the Roo with let's say an RIR would that leave a possibility for a chick with barring over the red?

How the barring gene works:

Barring is on the Z sex chromosome. Males have ZZ, females have ZW (yes, backwards of how mammals do it.)

The barred hen gives a Z chromosome to her sons (with barring), and a W chromosome to her daughters (cannot carry barring.)

The son has two Z chromosomes: one from his mother (with barring) and one from his father (probably does not have barring.)

When that son produces chicks, he gives one Z chromosome to each chick. About half the chicks get the one with barring, and the other half get the one with no barring. The gender of the chicks will be determined by whether they get Z or W from their mother, so when the father has barring it can appear in either gender of chick.

So yes, that son could produce chicks with white barring.

But you will not get barring on RED chicks from that rooster, because he is pure for black (gets the dominant E gene from both his father the Ideal 236 and his mother the Barred Rock.) Because he is pure for E, he must pass it to every chick he sires, so they will all be black. Half of the chicks will also get Dominant White from him, and half get barring, so the total distribution of chicks should be like this:
25% black with white barring
25% black with no white barring
25% white with white barring
25% white with no white barring
(The whites will look alike, but whether they have barring will affect what chicks they can produce in the next generation.)

If you use a cockerel who has a Rhode Island Red mother, he will not have barring (unless the Ideal 236 rooster carries it-- and we have no way to tell if that white rooster also has white barring.)

But the son of a Rhode Island Red mother will not be pure for E (which makes chickens all black.) He will be E / E^Wh. The E (=all black) comes from his Ideal 236 father. The E^Wh is called Wheaten, comes from the Rhode Island Red, and allows a chicken to show some red as well as black.

So a rooster who is E / E^Wh will pass E to half his chicks (black, or turns white with Dominant White). He will pass E^Wh to the other half of his chicks, causing some to be red-and-black and others to be red-and-white (because Dominant White turns black into white, but leaves the red alone.)

The black & red may not quite match a Rhode Island Red (red with black tail), because there are some other genes involved in how the colors are arranged. But the basic colors should be present, rather than just producing black chicks or white chicks.

If a rooster has Ideal 236 for his father, RIR for his mother, and is mated with a red or gold hen, his chicks should be:
25% black (E, no Dominant White)
25% white (E with Dominant White)
25% red-and-black (E^Wh, no Dominant White)
25% red-and-white (E^Wh with Dominant White)

If you use a rooster with a Buff Orpington mother, you will get something similar to what the Rhode Island Red gives (but likely with gold rather than red.)

 

[NatJ]

I probably should have mentioned this before, but there's a chicken calculator you can play with too:
http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

You can change the genes in the dropdown boxes, and it changes the little picture of the chicken. It can also be used to figure the expected offspring from a particular pairing, but I haven't really messed with that aspect-- I just play with the genes & the pictures.

Ideal 236 would have:
E / E ("Extended Black," makes the chicken black all over)
I /I ("Inhibitor of Black," usually called Dominant White)
We do not know what genes he has at any other spots, because we cannot see their effects.

Barred Rock hen would have:
E / E ("Extended Black," makes the chicken black all over)
i+ / i+ (Not Dominant White. The lowercase letter shows it is recessive, and the + shows it's the default in the wild junglefowl ancestor of chickens.)
B / - (Barring on the only Z chromosome she has, nothing on the W)
We don't know what other genes she has, because we cannot see their effects.

Their son would have:
E / E (Extended Black)
I / i+ (Dominant White, but carries the recessive that allows black)
B / b+ (Barred, but carries the recessive for not-barred)

Rhode Island Red probably has:
E^Wh / E^Wh (Wheaten instead of Extended Black)
Co / Co (Columbian: affects how the black & red are arranged on the chicken)
Mh / Mh (Mahogany: makes gold into a darker red shade)
i+ / i+ (not Dominant White)

Buff Orpington probably has:
E^Wh / E^Wh (Wheaten instead of Extended Black)
But I'm not entirely sure what combination of other genes are restricting the black, and changing the gold to a buff color.
Probably Di or Cb lightening the gold, maybe with Mh making it buff instead of cream, probably Co or Db or both restricting the black so far it disappears.

 

[Capricoco]

If you want to study the genetics of chicken colors, you could start here:
http://kippenjungle.nl/sellers/page0.html
There's a link to page 1 (genetics in general), page 2 (discussion about some chicken genetics), and page 3 (a table of genes, which is most useful after you understand the basics of how genes work.)

(Note: chicken genetics are complicated. That means some people find them a fascinating puzzle, and other people find them annoying and frustrating.)

For your particular rooster, there are two main genes involved.

He's got the dominant gene E that makes a chicken black all over. There are several recessive genes that allow shades of red in various arrangements on the chicken, but E is dominant over them.

He also has the Dominant White gene, that turns black into white. It affects all black on the chicken. (On an all-red chicken, it would have no effect. A red-and-black chicken would become red-and-white. But because these chicks get the all-black E gene, they all look white.)

Your Barred Rock hen is passing the gene for white barring to all of her sons, but of course you don't see the white barring on a white chicken

As @troyer said, you could use one of his sons with your current hens and get more colors. I would suggest a son from one of the red or gold mothers, not from the Barred Rock, to get the widest variety of colors.

Actually, the white barring does show up. Here’s what it looks like;

 

[Capricoco]

Awesome!! I've got a broody hatching some chicks right now so if one ends up as a cockrell I'll put the old boy to retirement and keep his son with my main flock!! What are the chances of the Son carrying the barring Gene of his barred Rock mother?

They’ll carry it. This is what that’ll look like;