Help me understand the genes at work in my flock?

[Floof]

I bred my blue ameraucana hen from Cackle with what I was told was a splash ameraucana rooster. He looked right for what they said he was and he was a nice and brave rooster until he died. The resulting chicks have grown into very poorly marked splash ameraucanas (mostly white with a few light grey feathers hear and there, maybe 1 or 2 darker spots mixes in). I bred those to each other and the resulting chicks are solid white. They were very light grey when they hatched and feathered in solid white. Are these pullets just verrrrry poorly marked splash or is it possible that my original splash rooster (that died) was hiding a recessive white gene?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Recessive white is the more common white gene in Ameraucanas, so it is quite possible that some of your birds are carrying the gene and the right two were bred to produce white chicks. Recessive white chicks are often smoky or grayish in color as babies and then feather out pure white.

Do you have any pictures of the original Splash Ameraucana rooster or the poorly marked splash offspring he had?

 

[nicalandia]

I bred my blue ameraucana hen from Cackle with what I was told was a splash ameraucana rooster. He looked right for what they said he was and he was a nice and brave rooster until he died. The resulting chicks have grown into very poorly marked splash ameraucanas (mostly white with a few light grey feathers hear and there, maybe 1 or 2 darker spots mixes in). I bred those to each other and the resulting chicks are solid white. They were very light grey when they hatched and feathered in solid white. Are these pullets just verrrrry poorly marked splash or is it possible that my original splash rooster (that died) was hiding a recessive white gene?

Most likely the rooster was Dominant White as opposed to recessive white.

It sounds like the pattern would be better described as Paint Blue Paint

 

[Floof]

Here is the original rooster

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here is the original rooster
View attachment 3253691

He looks like a splash to me. Any pictures of his offspring you described as poorly marked splash?

Most likely the rooster was Dominant White as opposed to recessive white.

It sounds like the pattern would be better described as Paint Blue Paint

Would dominant white produce grayish chicks that feather in white? I was under the impression dominant white chicks generally were white or yellowish with occasional black flecks if they're paint.

 

[Floof]

He looks like a splash to me. Any pictures of his offspring you described as poorly marked splash?




Would dominant white produce grayish chicks that feather in white? I was under the impression dominant white chicks generally were white or yellowish with occasional black flecks if they're paint.

I know they have a yellow cast to them but it's because of my soil. Everything stains orange here...

 

[Floof]

The resulting offspring is in the top right corner. I've used the poorly marked splash for making blue sexlinks with success. His girls are a softer blue than the original rooster but they do make blue sex links.

When I get home today I'll take some recent pictures of the white pullets.

 

[Floof]

Here are the offspring of the poorly marked birds today at about 5 months old:

Only 2 of their 4 birds survived the summer. One got caught by the neighbors dog and one fell in the duck tank. It's not a huge sample to work with but I don't want to keep hatching from this group if they're not going to give me the right results. If it's recessive white then I might start a new pen and buy some white ams but if they just keep throwing bad splashes then I'll rehome them or only breed him for sexlinks.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That's quite interesting... The first bird definitely looks Splash to me, but middle birds are really, really pale for Splash, and those last birds do look similar to a single copy of dominant white with the specks I can see on some of them... There was another thread recently about breeding Blues together and how it has a cumulative effect on the pigment dilution resulting in paler Blues over time. This seems like an extreme case, and quite rapid as well, but perhaps Splashes can do the same and it has something to do with that?

I think I'll wait until @nicalandia pops back on and see what they say about it. They tend to have more obscure knowledge when it comes to effects of genes and their expression.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I’ve heard that splashes should not be bred together because their offspring will be lighter than the parents. This chart seems to agree with that. I would breed your splashes back to a blue or black ameraucana.