Why didn’t she inherit the bars?

[TinyRaptorDodos]

Okay I posted about this before but the bars still haven’t come in when all the others have, she came from two chickens I got that were supposed to be cuckoo Marans but they lay light brown but still somehow turned out silver, any ideas? Do chicks occasionally not inherit bars? If so how rare would this be considered?

 

[NatJ]

Terminology-- the "bars" on a Cuckoo Marans are the white parts, not the black parts. The barring gene adds white bars on a chicken of any color (black, brown, mixed, or white.)

I can't tell in the photo whether the chick is really white, or if it is a light gray shade.

Either way, the parents probably carry a recessive gene that causes this. The chick inherited the gene from both parents, which causes it to show that color.

If the chick is actually white, "recessive white" is the name of the gene involved.
If the chick is light gray, it probably has the "lavender" gene, although I think there are a few other rare genes that can also cause light gray shades.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

Terminology-- the "bars" on a Cuckoo Marans are the white parts, not the black parts. The barring gene adds white bars on a chicken of any color (black, brown, mixed, or white.)

I can't tell in the photo whether the chick is really white, or if it is a light gray shade.

Either way, the parents probably carry a recessive gene that causes this. The chick inherited the gene from both parents, which causes it to show that color.

If the chick is actually white, "recessive white" is the name of the gene involved.
If the chick is light gray, it probably has the "lavender" gene, although I think there are a few other rare genes that can also cause light gray shades.

She’s a silver like color

 

[NatJ]

She’s a silver like color

If she's silvery instead of white, she might have the lavender gene or some other dilution gene.

In any case, if you are sure she came from those parents, her color must be caused by some recessive gene. That's the only way the parents can carry it without showing it themselves.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

If she's silvery instead of white, she might have the lavender gene or some other dilution gene.

In any case, if you are sure she came from those parents, her color must be caused by some recessive gene. That's the only way the parents can carry it without showing it themselves.

The only other two she could be from is a black sex link or a cinnamon queen but I got two cinnamon queens hatched and one black sex link and all of those eggs are from one day so both of my CQs and my one BSLs eggs hatched so it was just hers left, if that makes sense

 

[NatJ]

The only other two she could be from is a black sex link or a cinnamon queen but I got two cinnamon queens hatched and one black sex link and all of those eggs are from one day so both of my CQs and my one BSLs eggs hatched so it was just hers left, if that makes sense

If the Cinnamon Queen has a white tail, then she could easily be the mother of an almost-white chick. There is a gene called Dominant White that turns black into white. So the chick would be black with white barring (from the Marans father), with the black turned into white (by the Dominant White from the Cinnamon Queen.) The "white" sometimes leaves a bit of gray or even some black feathers here and there in crosses like that.

But if you are completely sure of which chick came from which egg, and which egg came from which hen, then of course that explanation won't do.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

If the Cinnamon Queen has a white tail, then she could easily be the mother of an almost-white chick. There is a gene called Dominant White that turns black into white. So the chick would be black with white barring (from the Marans father), with the black turned into white (by the Dominant White from the Cinnamon Queen.) The "white" sometimes leaves a bit of gray or even some black feathers here and there in crosses like that.

But if you are completely sure of which chick came from which egg, and which egg came from which hen, then of course that explanation won't do.

Unless one of them laid two eggs in one day I’m pretty sure it’s Basils, they are dominant white though

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is possible for a hen to lay two eggs in one day. A hen is supposed to release one yolk at a time and release no more than one in any day, but sometimes their system doesn't work just right. If she releases two yolks at about the same time you can get a double yolked egg. If they are released further apart each yolk can produce its own egg. Sometimes the second egg is thin-shelled because the hen may not produce enough shell material in a day to fully support two eggs and sometimes the eggs may have marks on them from sharing space, but not always. That is one possible explanation of what happened.

Another possibility is that those two barred chickens are not pure for black. Their genetics are somehow mixed It has nothing to do with the barring, they both should be pure for black and that black should be dominant.

I don't know which is more likely. @NatJ does that rooster look about the same shade of black as the hen to you? If he has two barred genes like he is supposed to he should be lighter in color, more silvery, than the hen. If he is not lighter, that would imply he may not be pure.

 

[NatJ]

@NatJ does that rooster look about the same shade of black as the hen to you? If he has two barred genes like he is supposed to he should be lighter in color, more silvery, than the hen. If he is not lighter, that would imply he may not be pure.

I'm not sure whether he's got one copy of barring or two. I figured it didn't really matter, because the chick is missing black, not missing the white barring. So I didn't think much about it. I agree that if he is a mix of some sort, he is more likely to be carrying other unexpected genes.

I would think the chick has a different mother (Cinnamon Queen with Dominant White).
But if that is not possible, then I think the rooster & hen must have some recessive gene that causes this color of chick (recessive white or lavender or some other dilution gene.)

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

I'm not sure whether he's got one copy of barring or two. I figured it didn't really matter, because the chick is missing black, not missing the white barring. So I didn't think much about it. I agree that if he is a mix of some sort, he is more likely to be carrying other unexpected genes.

I would think the chick has a different mother (Cinnamon Queen with Dominant White).
But if that is not possible, then I think the rooster & hen must have some recessive gene that causes this color of chick (recessive white or lavender or some other dilution gene.)

I’m not fully positive on what breed the rooster and hen are, I adopted them as cuckoo Marans but they have brown, wrong size and wrong comb size for that along with laying light brown eggs, im pretty sure I marked the egg because I got it right after I saw basil in the nest but I guess if paprika or cayenne rushed over to lay an egg there and kicked basil off the nest that could be it