Recessive White breeding true or not results

[Guest]

A while back I asked a question about why I ended up with a few white chicks from a pen of black & blue birds last year.

I have been test breeding them, and so far all chicks feathered out white.

Interesting, at least to me, is they hatched blue with a cream spot over their backs and a tiny one on the top of the head.

Sue

[Mike Gilbert]

How old are the chicks?   Any chance of putting up some photos?   They could be very light splash, or they could be recessive whites.   Or both.

[Guest]

Sue,

Recessive white chicks can be a gray color if they are extended black. It is not unusual for recessive white down to also have pheomelanin (red pigment) in the feathers.

What are you test crossing the white birds with?

Tim

[Guest]

I bred the roo to the hen, and so far have 4 chicks and one has a small feather with a smudge of black, so they are definietly extended black.

Can I breed it out? I would like to be able to only hatch pure whites from them.

Also, does that little black smudge, make it a splash?

Sue

[John]

white chicks from a pen of black & blue birds

This is why most of us agree not to cross varieties unless you have a game plan to improve a variety and dispose of the chicks from the cross that aren\'t needed.  
Sure, you can cross black with recessive white, lavender and some other varieties and end up with chicks that may look like show quality blacks.  But, they will not breed true because of the recessive genes.

a tiny one on the top of the head

Wheatens hatch with a small dark spot of stripe on their heads.  Maybe your birds are split at the E-locus with extended black and something else that is masked as the chicks feather out.

[Guest]

You have nothing to fear, I\'m experimenting and will not say any resulting offspring are \"true\" Ameraucanas.

But is seems the person I bought my stock from obviously had some mixed genes in there...

I\'m not trying to start a new variety, just playing with what I\'m getting.

Sue

[John]

obviously had some mixed genes in there

I think the word \"obvious\" is a good one in this discussion.  Many of the recessive genes that come back and haunt us after years of hiding are not obvious.  

[Guest]

You do not want to breed out the extended black. White birds are white because they are extended black and silver under the recessive or dominant white. Recessive white can also be gold but dominant white birds are silver. The extended black covers any red pigment that may show (autosomal or sex linked) and the recessive white prevents the addition of black.

It is weird that you are only getting white birds. You should be getting some black chicks in the mix.

Tim

[Guest]

Tim

I guess the real test will be when I breed the F2s to themselves and their sire, to see if I still only get white. Maybe black will show up then.

That won\'t be until fall if they start laying this year.
If I can can get them all together, I\'ll take a picture.I was going to move the black parents on, but maybe I should\'t.

If anyone on this list is going to the Show in Syracuse June 1st, I entered the rooster.

Sue

[Mike Gilbert]

If the sire is black the chicks can\'t be splash.   They have to be recessive white.   Breeding the pullets back to their black sire should yield about half white chicks and half black chicks.  Mating white to white will yield 100% white.
It is very common for recessive white to have a few feathers with black on them.   Unless the black is in the tail or wing feathers, most folks would just pull them out prior to showing if it is just one or very few.

[Guest]

I meant the chicks from this year, back to their sire, the 1st white rooster hatched last year. So that would be the F2s back tothe F1 rooster and to their brothers/sisters or the F1 hen.

No black feathers in tails or wings.

Sue