blue orpington rooster bred to white hens

[lisamariev]

Hi,
I am a newbie to chickens and I am currently incubating/hatching 30 eggs for a friend. She bred her blue orpington rooster to her white hens. Does anyone know what color chicks this will produce?
Thanks,
Lisa

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

It depends on the genetics of the hens? Do you know which breed they are?

With some hens, you might get all white chicks. With some, you may get some blue and some black, no whites at all.

This assumes the rooster and hens are "pure" genetically. If they have some recessive genes hiding behind some dominant genes, you could get other things.

 

[lisamariev]

The hens are also orpingtons. I do not know the genetic background on the hens or rooster, but I doubt they are pure blue or pure white. My friend is on vacation without access to internet, so I can't ask her. She has black, blue, white and splash and I know she likes to try different breeding combinations. I realize I will know in 2 weeks (they've been incubation for 7 days now), but curiosity and anticipation always seems to get the best of me Thanks for your input.

 

[hinkjc]

I know typically white Orpington carry the barring gene or black under their recessive white. So you could see blue, black, blue barred and black barred if this is the case with these and being they are crossed to a blue rooster.

 

[lisamariev]

Thanks hinkjc,
I know in her last breeding, (a black rooster on white hens), she got blue, black, white, splash, 1 blue barred and a couple black barred. It sounds like this could be a similar mix.

Thanks so much for your input.
Lisa

 

[lisamariev]

The chicks hatched yesterday/today and I am very pleased that I got 26 chicks from the 29 eggs that went into lock down. It looks like we got 9 blue, 7 black and 10 black barred

 

[chickenlover237]

cool congrats!

 

[CMLR]

Just curious - in searching old threads for something else entirely I came across this thread. If you get "barred" chicks from this cross are they "cuckoo" colored?