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Maybe butcher the first dozen offspring from a given pair, then decide whether to hatch more from that pair? Or hatch a bunch of offspring from a given bird, then butcher that bird and decide if it was tender, which tells whether to keep its offspring (tender) or whether to butcher them too...

It rules out the later no-pigment stages. I agree, it does not tell whether this chicken would have gone on to develop de-pigmented areas at a later time if it were still alive.

I thought the point was: this chicken did NOT fluoresce any color. That means he did NOT have a complete lack of pigment. So that means he did have some pigment (rules out every no-pigment condition, at least for this chicken at this time.)

For the Marans: were they from the same line of Marans? If they all came from the same hatchery in the same year, then were raised in different parts of the country, that would be stronger evidence that environment has an effect. But if they were from different breeding lines, it could just...

Unless the summer hatches were fairly late in the summer, I think you are probably right to treat it as a genetic difference rather than a time-of-year difference in what age they start to lay.

How does that compare with the hatch dates of the older ones, that began laying at 5-7 months of age? I mean the birds mentioned in this bit:

Were they all raised at the same time of year? I have noticed that pullets who grow up during the long days of spring & summer will generally lay earlier than ones hatched later in the year who grow up with mostly decreasing day length and short days as they are maturing. So depending on when...

I have been watching, but I haven't had anything worth saying recently.

Thanks for explaining! I wonder if the chickens need some specific combination of genes to show the feathers like that, or if maybe it works for most chickens but there might be some specific genes that can mess it up. 🤔 (I'm thinking of how male saddle feathers are useful for sexing in most...

Do you look for things common to all chicks, or do you have to do it differently for some chicks than others?

That's the group you originally sexed as having only one cockerel, right? I think your sexing method was not very accurate on this batch.

I've been watching, but didn't have anything to say.

In that case, probably any of the options would work, until you can get the distilled water you prefer to use.

Distilled water is probably a better choice if/when you can get it. But if you don't have distilled water, I don't know whether the mineral water or the tap water would be better. I think the mineral water is going to leave deposits in the incubator. Depending on the style of incubator, this...

If there is a reason you're not using normal tap water, does that same reason apply to the purified mineral water?

Oh, that makes sense. I hadn't realized that she was still actively growing feathers at the present time.

Can feathers change color after they have grown? I thought they got their color as they were being formed, and could not change after that. If feathers cannot change color after growing, then her appearance will only change when she molts, and will stay constant in between molts, no matter what...

No allele of the barring gene would be passed from mother to daughter, because that locus is on the Z sex chromosome. A hen gets her W chromosome from her mother, and her Z chromosome from her father. So if the mother/daughter pair both have it, either the father carries it too and the daughter...

I meant the kind of discussion where each side is presenting their view, and showing why they think it is right (which fits under my dictionary definition of "argument.") But yes, "discussion" might be a better word to use, since the word "argument" is more often used when people are getting...

To me, that does not at all explain how it could be a "possibility." But I'm going to quit arguing about it, because it's pretty clear that neither my opinion nor yours is going to change at this point. Hopefully the breeding test will sort out what's going on, although if this trait only...