Mystery colors in new hatch batch

[dreamofwinter]

I haven't had much luck finding answers via search so I hope no one minds me asking here.
I hatched a batch of chicks yesterday, and have some unexpected colors in the bunch, based on what the Chicken Genetics calculator predicted. I'm very much a newbie when it comes to chicken colors.

Cockerels are: Chocolate Orpington (most likely), Black Orpington (maybe), Lavender Orpington (least likely as he's a late bloomer and very low ranking) - photos below
Hens are: Buff Orpington, Barred Rock - I assume purebred but they are hatchery stock (McMurray)

My questions are:
- where did these gray chicks come from? Is it possible they are blues and that my Black or Lavender cockerels are actually Blue?
- Am I right that the Barred Rock mixes should be sex-linked, with male chicks showing a head dot?
- Also, am I correct that the Chocolate Orp crosses should be sex linked with female chicks being a brown color?

Of eight hatched, I have two gray/silver, one very black, one a more normal black with light underside, and four in varying shades of brown. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high but with four browns and no head spots I'm hoping this is a mostly-pullets batch. We desperately need some girl power around here!

Here are some photos:

Photos of dads:

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Your Black Orpington is actually a Blue Orpington, so that's where your blue chicks came from.

Yes, your chicks fathered by your Chocolate Orpington should be sexlinked, pullets chocolate and cockerels black. And your Barred Rock hens' chicks should also be sexlinked, pullets with no head spot and cockerels with a head spot. I don't know how well the chocolate sexlinking will show up with a Buff Orpington mother, however, as those chicks tend to be somewhat brownish when the non-Buff parent is not chocolate, too. The chick pictured in the quote below looks similar to the non-chocolate Buff Orpington mixes I've seen, for example. Blue chick down also tends to muddy the appearance of the head spot, so sometimes it's hard to tell if one is present or not. Keep an eye on those chicks to be sure. But sometimes you do just get lucky with the ratio of males to females in a hatch. Fingers crossed that's the case for you!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Chocolate Orpington (most likely), Black Orpington (maybe), Lavender Orpington (least likely as he's a late bloomer and very low ranking) -

Beautiful birds!

I agree your "black" Orp is actually blue.. But I do also think your "lav" might just be light blue.. Test mating is easy enough, unless someone else can explain.. but LAV should be lav not with darker head and wings.. in MY experience. I'm certainly not an expert but do enjoy the learning and coversation.

 

[dreamofwinter]

Exciting! So, the Black and "Lavender" both came from hatching eggs I bought last summer. The Black was labeled as Black, and the Lav was labeled as Mauve. So light blue would make a lot more sense! These two cockerels have been on the maybe-keep, maybe-not list, but now I'll keep them around a little longer to see how these chicks turn out. The Chocolate, despite his youth, is an excellent flock leader and gets to stay regardless.

Of the brown chicks, two are quite dark brown, one is very red, and one has that sweet mask. I guess we'll see. The black chicks have no head spots. Maybe I did luck out - time will tell.

Thank you all for weighing in. It's fascinating and I suspect is just the beginning of a lifelong journey/obsession in seeing what colors are out there.

 

[3KillerBs]

I can't help sorting the chicks out, but this fellow is definitely blue -- quite nice blue.

 

[dreamofwinter]

I can't help sorting the chicks out, but this fellow is definitely blue -- quite nice blue.

thanks! He is quite black up top, but all that smoky down definitely makes him look blue. I had wondered if he might be a dark Blue, since all the Black Orps I've seen are black top and bottom, not lighter like Ollie. I had been thinking of giving him away, but I'm thinking now he'll stay, especially since I've built some rooster huts and he can no longer spar with the others and harass the ladies. He's only 7mo old so I'm confident he'll be a nice guy once he gets past this - his underlying temperament is good.

 

[dreamofwinter]

Me again. Does this look like barring? I'm not sure what it would look like crossed with a chocolate roo. The chicks don't have a head spot (never did) but someone mentioned above that that might not show true with these crosses.
This is one from the hatch mentioned earlier in the thread, and I'm giving some of the babies to a neighbor today. I'm hoping to not give him all boys if I can help it!

Thanks!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That doesn't look like barring to me; the barring gene causes white stripes through the feather, not any other color and without that fine speckling you're seeing in your chicks' wings. This is barring on chocolate in a young chick's wings. You can see it's sort of blurry as compared to barring on a black background, but there are distinctly whitish lines going through his feathering.

What I believe you're seeing in your chicks is gold color leakage; most likely these are from your Buff hens, so no real way of knowing if they're male or female yet.

 

[dreamofwinter]

Wonderful, thanks! That's exactly what I was wondering.
The chicken calculator tells me that the Chocolate roo/Buff hen cross will yield chocolate pullets and black cockerels (unless my roo is dun based chocolate which, honestly, I have no idea about).
Regardless, still no white heads or white barring anywhere in the bunch. I will keep my four favorites and send the other four to the neighbor, guilt-free!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Shoot, you're absolutely right, chocolate is sexlinked recessive! So any of the chicks from the Buff hens with your Chocolate rooster should be sexlinked in that the males are black with gold leakage and females are chocolate with gold leakage. My apologies for missing that!