yellow down - blue chick??

[pbjmaker]

This chick was hatched with the most buttery creamy down but now it has blue feathers coming in - what gives? I have some other yellow chicks this year but they feather in with mostly buff coloring and some blue and red. Man I have some wonky genetics hiding in my birds.

More Evidence of wonky genetics (blue frizzle cochin hen X white SG)

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

I know what you mean about wonky. I hatched a brown orpington chick that came out of my breeding pen. White rooster,white,blue,black hens. Now its starting to come in black but its head and back are still rusty brown go figure.

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Sounds like you have some WEIRD genetics hiding somewhere in your flock...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Not weird genetics--pretty straight forward, actually. You just don't know the genes your birds carry and how they mesh together.

White in silkies (and showgirls) is almost always recessive white, which hides all colours and patterns that are genetically present. It is essentially and OFF switch. Because white has been bred to white for generations, and all other colours and patterns are not visible, they have not been selected for or against. With the exception of having two copies of the recessive white gene, no two recessive white birds carry the same set of colour and pattern genes. Colouring of offspring therefore is completely unpredictable.

If you remove recessive white from the geneset (by breeding to a non-white bird) you will get all sorts of outcomes, and a 2nd generation will reveal even more. This information about recessive white is covered at least once a week in various posts.

Yellow or creamy down does not necessarily mean a white bird--if can, but it can also indicate other colours. Most simply, it indicates that the bird carries at least one copy of gold, possibly two. It can also indicate that the bird is wheaten based (but not always), and rarely in silkies. There is also a gene for snow white down that silkies sometimes carry. I don't believe it has any relationship to adult colouring, although I do not have a lot of information about this particular gene.

Splash silkies often have creamy down with some yellow. Lighter blues can come from creamy/yellow down.

 

[pbjmaker]

Thanks sonoran - I understood about they recessive white. Someone once explained it was like a white lab coat. When my SG takes his off he must be wearing some really mismatched clothing.

I didn't understand about the yellow down coming up blue. And I am still trying to track down where the other recessive white is coming from. I have two snowy white juvi's but the SG is the only white bird. I do have a splash cochin - but they are a double dose of blue correct? Nothing to do with white?

I think the red is actually coming from the frizzle cochins. One of the hens has some very faint red bleeding through in her neck feathers (maybe like 3 or 4 feathers that you can only see in the sunlight) and I do know that other people who have frizzles related to mine have had distinct red.

I'm glad for you knowledge on the the gold gene. I did think that yellow down meant a gold or white based bird.

Again Sonoran - thanks - you are a wealth of genetics knowledge.

 

[TK Poultry]

splash ameraucanas come out almost white more of a creamy color. and buff colored chickens come out yellow its got to do with the color of the feathers the color of the down isnt much different then the colors of the feathers.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Gold, dominant white, recessive white & blue are all different, unrelated genes. Every bird has two copies of each of these genes (females have only one gold/silver gene), however the alleles (alternatives for a gene) can and do often differ.

Recessive white is only apparent in a bird when it carries two copies of the correct allele: cc, a bird who is Cc or CC will show no traces of the trait. Any of your birds could carry a single copy (Cc) and you will never know it except from his parentage (a white parent) or offspring (white chicks).

Yes, splash is two copies of blue (BlBl), but that splash bird also carries
gold (ss or s-) golden (if male Ss) or silver (SS or S-),
not-recessive white (CC) or split for recessive white (Cc), and
not dominant white (i+i+)

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

I think the red is actually coming from the frizzle cochins. One of the hens has some very faint red bleeding through in her neck feathers (maybe like 3 or 4 feathers that you can only see in the sunlight) and I do know that other people who have frizzles related to mine have had distinct red.

Hi! If they are from here --- no telling what genes this Cochin roo is passing on. I have no idea what his 'genetic make-up' is or what was used to make him.

I'm sorry if my lack of knowledge is messing up things for you. I wish I could understand 'what' he is exactly, so I could better predict what the chicks carry.
Wonky' is a given here.

Lisa​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Pretty boy!

Looks to have some barring going on in his tail?

He looks to be either golden (Ss) or cream (igig) in his hackles and tail. Autosomal red, and definitely blue (Blbl) or splash (BlBl) (although I think blue).

 

[pbjmaker]

Hi Lisa - Nothing is "messed up"- so no apology needed. Just trying to get a handle on who carries what genes. Most of these chicks are crosses with your frizzles and my SG roo. The color combos just fascinate me. I love the ones with the red and blue but they have ALL been boys so far. Until yesterdays hatch it seems I would get one yellow/cream based chicks and the rest would be blue based.

I do have several that are black and they all seem to be pullets, so now I am thinking that they are all from my frizzle girl that is barred - thus solid black = girl.

Wonky is OK here. I just hatched some non- frizzled cochins to seperate out so I can have some predictable birds. But that's not nearly as fun.