Just hatched out Delaware/Golden Laced Wyandottes. Why do they have an almost chipmunk pattern?

[SweetieChicken234]

Where is this chipmunk type pattern coming from? My Delawares were all yellow or white as chicks and the Wyandottes were black with bits of gold as chicks.

The roo is Delaware and the hens are Golden Laced Wyandottes.

Some of the chicks came out with a bit of red color on the back of the neck too. I don't know if those were the pure Delawares or the Wyandotte mixes.

 

[labelo]

Heavy genetics talk incoming...

I *think* Delawares are E^Wh (Wheaten on the e-allele). Wyandottes are e^b (partridge). Your chicks are therefore E^Wh/e^b.

Normally E^Wh is dominant to e^b, however, it's been noticed that when melanizing genes (like Ml, which the chicks got from the wyandotte parent) are present with E^Wh/e^b or e+, you often get chipmunk-ish chicks. In fact, lots of times that you have mixed e-allele chicks they tend to go chipmunk-ish for reasons not entirely known (this is part of why so many EE chicks are chipmunk). I have what I'm pretty sure are some E^Wh/e^b chicks from a wyandotte x sexlink cross, and they also look sort of chipmunky (though their tones are different, since they are genetically blue/red instead of black/silver like yours, they're 2/4 in this photo).

All that to say, it's normal and what you'd expect from this mix!

Not sure on the chicks with the little bit of red. I'm curious about the (red?) chick under the heat plate in pic 3--is that another breed? It would be really surprising for a Delware roo to produce a red chick, since you'd expect him to be homozygous silver.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Heavy genetics talk incoming...

I *think* Delawares are E^Wh (Wheaten on the e-allele). Wyandottes are e^b (partridge). Your chicks are therefore E^Wh/e^b.

Normally E^Wh is dominant to e^b, however, it's been noticed that when melanizing genes (like Ml, which the chicks got from the wyandotte parent) are present with E^Wh/e^b or e+, you often get chipmunk-ish chicks. In fact, lots of times that you have mixed e-allele chicks they tend to go chipmunk-ish for reasons not entirely known (this is part of why so many EE chicks are chipmunk). I have what I'm pretty sure are some E^Wh/e^b chicks from a wyandotte x sexlink cross, and they also look sort of chipmunky (though their tones are different, since they are genetically blue/red instead of black/silver like yours, they're 2/4 in this photo).

View attachment 3850879


All that to say, it's normal and what you'd expect from this mix!

Not sure on the chicks with the little bit of red. I'm curious about the (red?) chick under the heat plate in pic 3--is that another breed? It would be really surprising for a Delware roo to produce a red chick, since you'd expect him to be homozygous silver.

Wow thanks for this reply!! The chick in pic 3 was from another rooster and hen. I was mostly interested in the Delaware mixes. I had some Delaware x Delaware and Delaware x GL Wyandotte crosses. The plain yellow/white chicks are the regular Delawares but the interesting ones are the white/black marked from the Wyandottes. Further more... I have 1 Wyandotte hen with a single comb(one with a rose comb). It has been very interesting to see the chicks that came from each. The Wyandotte with the rose comb has passed on the rose comb because this is dominant right?

I am very interested in how that red got on the Delaware chick. Those yellow/white chicks are not supposed to have any red.

Is there any specific way to tell the males from females by the markings? I figured probably not because the rooster was silver. All chicks would be silver so no real way to tell by color. I will attach a few more photos because they are cute. I kept only 6. My neighbor took the rest.

 

[labelo]

Rose is dominant, though many wyandottes are heterozygous Rr (my understanding is RR often impacts fertility in roosters, so Rr roos end up breeding more successfully more often, sometimes passing on single combs. So yes--any rose comb chicks came from the wyandotte with the rose comb, though the single combs could have come from either wyandotte if the one with rose is Rr.

The red is a mystery; would be interesting to see if that sticks as the chick gets older.

I'm not familiar enough with autosexing to know if this mix could theoretically autosex.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Rose is dominant, though many wyandottes are heterozygous Rr (my understanding is RR often impacts fertility in roosters, so Rr roos end up breeding more successfully more often, sometimes passing on single combs. So yes--any rose comb chicks came from the wyandotte with the rose comb, though the single combs could have come from either wyandotte if the one with rose is Rr.

The red is a mystery; would be interesting to see if that sticks as the chick gets older.

I'm not familiar enough with autosexing to know if this mix could theoretically autosex.

Wow interesting information on the rose comb. So it's possible she may have passed on a single comb chick also. I found 4 chicks with rose comb and that sounds about right. The rest were single comb.

I know with Delawares you can make sex links. Delaware hen to a red roo.

I was especially interested what the Delaware roo would produce with the Wyandotte so I am anxiously awaiting these chicks to feather in. I am still just barely grasping genetics and I would love to see what happens with the barring and the lacing. I'm guessing incomplete lacing but I just have to see it.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

Updated photos of these chicks at 1 month. The feathering is interesting so far.

 

[labelo]

Updated photos of these chicks at 1 month. The feathering is interesting so far.

Thanks for updating! Very interesting.
I had forgotten (or just learned?) that Delawares carry barring. You don't see it much, because the barring only appears on the part of the bird that is black. So your checks will have both barring and partial lacing, and might end up with some pretty unique patterning!
Here's a thread with some examples of barringxlacing:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/barring-and-lacing-genes.880982/