Is this chick wheaten? How did this happen?

[Amer]

I was planning on replacing this roo with his son, another gold necked birchen. He was from a father to daughter cross - Birchen to birchen, can this son also carry the wheaten gene?

He could...

 

[Sic]

My original stock came from greenfire, they don't breed for standard colors/patterns. All of their Bruges flocks are mixed together. So it's not like wysiwyg. So in the process of breeding mine, is discovery. I will be a little disappointed if my young Cockerel is also carrying wheaten but it is what it is.

 

[Sic]

Yeah, the split duckwing wheaten pattern can look duckwing at a glance but with a closer look there are differences.
I wonder if it is heterozygous for Birchen like my chicks are heterozygous for Extended Black. But I really don't know.
(All the chicks pictured are sired by a Buckeye and their mother was supposed to be a blue Ameraucana but clearly she carried duckwing and was an Easter Egger.)

So how does that cancel out the blue gene. Explain it to me in layman's terms please I am trying to increase my blues, but from this breeding I appear to have 4 black (assuming birchen) and one yellow (assuming wheaten). I don't quite understand why your above example did not give you any blue offspring. What am I missing?

 

[Amer]

So how does that cancel out the blue gene. Explain it to me in layman's terms please I am trying to increase my blues, but from this breeding I appear to have 4 black (assuming birchen) and one yellow (assuming wheaten). I don't quite understand why your above example did not give you any blue offspring. What am I missing?

They just didn't inherit it. It's a fifty fifty chance.

 

[Amer]

I'm a little baffled myself, statistically it's only a 6 percent chance to get four blacks out of a bluexblack pairing but my grandparents had four daughters and no sons, and my aunt and four daughters and no sons so it's not improbable.

 

[Sic]

Yeah, the split duckwing wheaten pattern can look duckwing at a glance but with a closer look there are differences.
I wonder if it is heterozygous for Birchen like my chicks are heterozygous for Extended Black. But I really don't know.
(All the chicks pictured are sired by a Buckeye and their mother was supposed to be a blue Ameraucana but clearly she carried duckwing and was an Easter Egger.)

So just to pick your brain a little about the differences...so the offspring that appeared duckwing, get the wheaten from the roo and wildtype from the hen. If I bred the offspring together, I should get theoretically, 50% wheaten/duckwing, 25% wheaten and 25% wildtype, aka duckwing. How do I tell the wheaten/duckwing from the duckwing if they generally have the same phenotype, is it the base color, the underfluff being lighter, or lightening of the black, lacing on the breasts, lack of center black in the hackles, or is there some other way that the wheaten expresses in this combination that I should look for?

 

[Amer]

So just to pick your brain a little about the differences...so the offspring that appeared duckwing, get the wheaten from the roo and wildtype from the hen. If I bred the offspring together, I should get theoretically, 50% wheaten/duckwing, 25% wheaten and 25% wildtype, aka duckwing. How do I tell the wheaten/duckwing from the duckwing if they generally have the same phenotype, is it the base color, the underfluff being lighter, or lightening of the black, lacing on the breasts, lack of center black in the hackles, or is there some other way that the wheaten expresses in this combination that I should look for?

The chick down is the best indicator. Hens with a split base are recognizable imo but once roosters pass chickhood tough luck trying to guess. (Hens have a more blended color than the typical duckwing.)
But as you can see this split chicks do not look fully duckwing
The stripe on top of the head is narrower, the eye stripe a thin black line

the back stripe is divided in two

The down is yellower
I don't know if this is the case for all split base chicks or just the ones I hatched. @MysteryChicken can tell you more
For comparison, pure duckwing chick (ignore the black tailed red, quail, and cuckoo chicks)

 

[Sic]

The chick down is the best indicator. Hens with a split base are recognizable imo but once roosters pass chickhood tough luck trying to guess. (Hens have a more blended color than the typical duckwing.)
But as you can see this split chicks do not look fully duckwing
The stripe on top of the head is narrower, the eye stripe a thin black line
View attachment 4106923View attachment 4106924the back stripe is divided in two

The down is yellower
I don't know if this is the case for all split base chicks or just the ones I hatched. @MysteryChicken can tell you more
For comparison, pure duckwing chick (ignore the black tailed red, quail, and cuckoo chicks)View attachment 4106925

Hmm I only have one picture of them as baby chicks and it's not good quality, but they looked like duckwing chicks to me. I suppose it may be impossible to eliminate wheaten from my flock.