Araucana chick colours

[Time-Out]

I'm not sure if this ought to go in the chick's section, breed or gender section or here....

I have hatched two araucanas. They are the British standard, so more like the Ameraucanas. The chap said he has lavendar and black hens. The two chicks that emerged look white and chipmunk. He hasn't answered my querstions about the cockerel, so I ask you...

What colour will the chipmunk chick turn into?
Will the white chick be a white araucana?
What do you think the cockerel was?
How come I've got these colours out of lavender and black?


Thanks for any light you can shed on this. I'm completely confuzzled and VERY dissappointed

 

[Illia]

I'm sorry to hear of that.

Either the chipmunk came from different parents or both Lavender and Black are carrying recessive duckwing, either way the chick will mature to look like a duckwing or something similar. It will probably look like what our Easter Eggers in the US look like.

The white one might be a white, might be a Lavender. Have you seen Lavender chicks before? Would you say it is solid pure white or more of a smokey white?


Sounds to me like the breeder has some serious explaining to do. I'm so sorry.

 

[Time-Out]

Thanks Illia.

I have two lavender chicks, that look lavender from last week's hatching. I have put one in next to the two newbies for comparison.



Admittedly, the white looks more of a yellowish-white now it's drying out. It's nowhere near as yellow as my friesians were, though. If the white were a splash, I'd be happier, but it doesn't look anything like the little splash siklie chick I have. It's not grey enough.

So the chipmuck looks to be one of these?: http://www.archieslittlegems.co.uk/blackred.html

 

[Illia]

That one, no. (also the male shown on that website is wrong - Black-Reds should have red secondary feathers) That one (yours) has something else in it too, might not even be a duckwing based chick. That's a lot of dark brown.

The white one might actually be a Wheaten or something. . . . It's hard to say really but whatever the case, either the parents are hiding some recessive genes that pop out now and then with a low percentage rate or you've got a breeder who isn't keeping good organization with breeding or just isn't telling you the truth.

 

[Time-Out]

The seller has come back to me and said "i had 2 cockerels running with my hens 1 lavender and 1 blue/red."

I guess I'll wait and see what these turn into. Thanks for your help.

 

[Illia]

Sounds like they're just breeding for whatever then. If I wanted quality birds that actually bred true I'd skip him.