Why Different Colors?

[mossy_oak23]

I am VERY new to raising chickens but I have 6 crosses between cornish and araucana and 3 of them are jet black, 1 orange, 1 black with brown, and one almost a grey with brown. If they are all the same cross between the breeds why would they have such a vast range of color?

 

[silkiechicken]

They are probably a big range of colors because white can hide other colors. Chicks from the same two parents can be different colors even.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Colour and breed are not synonymous--almost every every breed comes in many colours, and most colours/patterns come in multiple breeds.

Are these birds full or half siblings, or simply the same cross, but not related?

 

[DTchickens]

Another thing to take into consideration is the Araucana comment, say if they came from a hatchery they're probably EE's which being crosses may throw a lot of colors and never breed true. Crossing them over a cornish could for sure throw a variety of coloration's from the genetics in the EE.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
Post pictures of the parents and the offspring.

Tim