I'm not an expert in chicken genetics.... but how did I get such different varieties??

[alpacasandchicks78]

I have a group of 3 chicks that hatched. They were from either a sapphire sky or amercuana hen. My chicks are white, blue with a white dot on it's head and brown with gold flecks.

Potential daddies were/are silver leghorn or brown leghorn with rose comb (we know the brown chick is the brown leghorn because that particular rooster has a rose comb and so does the brown chick). What did I hatch out mix wise and does our friend have an unknown rooster in her flock?? (Hers is much larger than ours.)

I know they are easter eggers or amercauna mixes but I've never seen the variety. Is it even possible to to get a pure white chick out of all that??

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

You're going to want to get some good quality pictures of the birds (each individually). People are going to ask for them since they can't give accurate info without knowing what the birds look like.

I'm pretty new to chicken color mixes myself. But I'll address the blue chick with a white spot on the head.
The sapphire sky hen is likely the one who produced that chick, and it's a cockerel.

Looking up the "sapphire sky" chicken, it appears to be a Legbar crossed with a bird that's either blue or splash. It has the crest and barring from the legbar.
Barring is really difficult to see on certain colors, such as blue. A barred/cuckoo blue hen also won't show the barring as well as a rooster.
Hens can pass barring only to the sons.
I don't know if your hen is blue, or splash, but both would give the possibility of blue offspring with your roosters.

But, if your ameraucana hen is barred and blue or splash, then either of your two hens could be the mom.
(She may or may not be considered an easter egger. APA SOP only allows certain colors and features with ameraucana. But some people are trying to get new colors/patterns accepted.)

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

And, there are several things that could explain a chick hatching white. With my limited knowledge of colors, and what info you gave, I'm not sure why one would be solid white unless it's a color they grow out of, or there are different genetics at play.
If both parents carry recessive white, or if one parent is dominant white.

I've read on here that hens can produce fertile eggs weeks after they've been separated from a rooster. If there was any other rooster that could have interacted with the flock, that's another possibility.

 

[sean_wonder]

APA SOP only allows certain colors and features with ameraucana. But some people are trying to get new colors/patterns accepted.)

I think Splash was added to Ameraucana SOP in 2023!

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I think Splash was added to Ameraucana SOP in 2023!

Really? That's pretty recent!

To be honest, I only started looking into chicken colors/patterns about a year ago, maybe two? (in preparation for getting my own flock) and I didn't really look enough into SOP or APA stuff.
>.> most my info for that stuff was... from on here

but for producing a splash bird, you need 2 copies of the blue dilution gene. Which means either 2 blue parents, 1 blue parent and 1 splash parent, or 2 splash parents.
And I think that if you keep breeding splash x splash, they get lighter.

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

You're going to want to get some good quality pictures of the birds (each individually). People are going to ask for them since they can't give accurate info without knowing what the birds look like.

I'm pretty new to chicken color mixes myself. But I'll address the blue chick with a white spot on the head.
The sapphire sky hen is likely the one who produced that chick, and it's a cockerel.

Looking up the "sapphire sky" chicken, it appears to be a Legbar crossed with a bird that's either blue or splash. It has the crest and barring from the legbar.
Barring is really difficult to see on certain colors, such as blue. A barred/cuckoo blue hen also won't show the barring as well as a rooster.
Hens can pass barring only to the sons.
I don't know if your hen is blue, or splash, but both would give the possibility of blue offspring with your roosters.

But, if your ameraucana hen is barred and blue or splash, then either of your two hens could be the mom.
(She may or may not be considered an easter egger. APA SOP only allows certain colors and features with ameraucana. But some people are trying to get new colors/patterns accepted.)

I've seen the sapphire sky males with the white dot, so I'm pretty sure that's a roo. I'm not sure what townline mixes with the legbar but I'm thinking possibly blue plymouth rock because of their rooster photo. They're not giving up their secret. I'm sure of two parents now because our friend has a sapphire sky hen. I wonder if there's a recessive gene like mentioned downthread for white chicks that the silver leghorn passed on. They're already being well loved on we just weren't expecting that much diversity. It's quite possible that the brown leghorn mix chick came from her Americana from the brown leghorn rooster. He has a rose comb and so does the brown chick.

 

[alpacasandchicks78]

And, there are several things that could explain a chick hatching white. With my limited knowledge of colors, and what info you gave, I'm not sure why one would be solid white unless it's a color they grow out of, or there are different genetics at play.
If both parents carry recessive white, or if one parent is dominant white.

I've read on here that hens can produce fertile eggs weeks after they've been separated from a rooster. If there was any other rooster that could have interacted with the flock, that's another possibility.

Maybe a recessive gene?? A person up thread mentioned it being a possibility. They're well loved and today I also learned my bsl chick I thought was put in the wrong bin because she's got so much leakage can actually not be all black except the red completely confined to the chest. I am used to bsl roos looking like barred rocks and this little chicky definitely hit some genetic lottery. The thought on the white chick immediately went to asking the egg donor if she had a white leghorn rooster and she said she had to send him to freezer camp and the hens to a farm that didn't mind if the girls chowed down a few eggs here and there but that was a couple years ago. They're not eating eggs anymore to my knowledge because resetting their environment changed that. Rooster chowed down a couple eggs and the hens decided it was okay to join in. I should specify she would've preferred to re-home the room if possible but the egg eating was a concern that he'd go after everyone's eggs no matter where he was.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I might have been both the replies (I posted one then thought of something after >.< Apologies for any confusion I caused)

I know somebody with a few black sex links they got at the same time (last year? Two years ago?), and some are almost all black, and others have tooooons of red/gold (not sure which color). It's gorgeous.

Definitely don't want an egg eater in a flock. I added some ceramic nest eggs (never used them before) to my nests just to hopefully prevent these young'uns from developing that habit. Don't know if they're working. 4-month old pullets just started laying and I'm checking several times a day.
My surprise cockerel also likes to check out the nests for some reason.

If you post about your chicks later, it will be exciting to see what colors they end up as.