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Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 10:20 pm
by Skinny rooster
Just wondering but if a person had a Barred Rock rooster and used him on white leghorn hens, would the chicks grow up looking Barred Rock?
What about a white leghorn rooster and you used him on barred rock hens? Would the hens come out black with barred brothers or does the white colour change everything.
Enquiring minds need to know?

Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 10:46 pm
by WLLady
Depends on the white. If he (or she) is dominant white everyone will be white. If not then barred dad will give all barred kids and barred moms will give barred boys and unbarred girls-silver basd sex linked.
In my experience white leghorn is dominant and everything is white. Until you cross kids and you get colours/barring with the grandkids as you get away from dominant white
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2016 9:35 pm
by Skinny rooster
You were just the lady I was looking for lol. I thought that. A friend gave me eggs one year and they were white leghorn eggs but the rooster was a Barred Rock. All the chicks turned out white, I was checking because I thought maybe him rooster was not pure.
But!?! I could get sex link hens from a buff, black or red leghorn rooster on Barred Rock hens right? I wonder if those leghorns lay as good as the white?
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:09 pm
by Skinny rooster
What happens if a blue Orpington rooster breeds a lavender Orpington hen, what will the chicks be?
If a buff Orpington rooster breeds a lemon cuckoo Orpington hen, are the chicks all sex-link? Same for lavender Orpington rooster over lavender cuckoo Orpington hen? Are the chicks sex-link?
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 9:47 am
by Farrier1987
If a blue Orpington rooster breeds a lavender Orpington hen, what will the chicks be? They will be Orpingtons, some pullets, some cockerels. You can't get a barred rock or a leghorn from this cross.
This is pretty much the extent of my genetics knowledge, but I am glad to share it.
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:29 am
by WLLady
is your blue orpington "self blue" or blue from blue/black/splash breeding?
if he is self blue, that is the same as lavender and the self blue x lavender will get lavender. 100% of the chicks.
if he is blue from blue/black/splash the first generation you will get 50% black (girls and boys) and 50% blue (girls and boys), all of which will be split for lavender (carry one allele of the lavender gene). You then would have to breed kid to kid or kid back to lavender to get the lavender to come back out.
A buff orp over lemon cuckoo orp....geez. there's more than one way to make a lemon orp....BUT if i assume that the genetics are similar to both the buff and lemon you should get all barred males and non-barred females (so barring sex linking), but all the chicks would probably be buff coloured.
the lavender boy of lavender cuckoo-same thing with the barring, all the boys will be barred and the girls won't. but the chicks will all be lavender colour. so IF there are no modifiers to affect the head spot from the barring, then you should be able to tell girls from boys, BUT they aren't true sex links in that the chick down colour will not differ between the male and female offspring, only the head dots from the presence (or absence) of the barring.
I think.
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:10 pm
by Skinny rooster
Lol @Farrier you gave one answer for two separate questions!!! Hahaha, efficient but not helpful.
WLLady, I panicked when you said you may be going for surgery so had to get those questions out. I am not sure on the ancestry of the parent birds and I don't trust the knowledge of the people who have them so you were very helpful in explaining things that could go wrong. Regarding sex link, I think if a person separated the chicks spot and no spot, after three weeks, results should show. Yes I'm plotting something.
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:20 pm
by WLLady
LOL. well, surgery is probably delayed by at least a month, so you still have time. ;-P
the problem with head spots and light down colours on chicks is sometimes it's hard to see the head spot. especially on the wheaten down background. Wheatens tend to be whitish or very light yellow-white. a white spot on a white chick...well. yeah.
i have wheaten based rhodebars and i can see the head spot on those because the chicks are a solid burnt orange colour, so head spots on wheatens ARE visible provided that there are modifiers that take the solid light down and turn it some other solid colour. I am not an orpington expert, so i'm not even sure if they are wheaten based (i think they are though...at least i remember my buff orps being solid colours as chicks) so your lavender and buffs might be really hard to see a head spot. with the blue (as long as they are not self blue aka lavender) and blacks you should be able to since the down colours should be darker....
Would really love to get robbies input, but not sure that she is cruising the forum much anymore.....sigh
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:08 pm
by Killerbunny
Sorry your surgery is delayed, bummer.
Yet another feather colours question!!!
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 2:55 pm
by Jaye

that's really disappointing.