A unusual gene I never could identify

[bamachicken]

I had this cockerel hatch out of some black Orp eggs a friend in Florida gave me back about six years ago. He had a hen I had seen that was black and white which I will post a pic of her later. Out of the chicks that hatched this cockerel was unusual as he had light colored legs on a black bird. He featherd in black as chick with a few white tips. As he grew he became more white. Here is here photo at about 11 months

I don't know if he had a paint gene or what. He molted and turned black again. I will try and find a pic of him as black.

[bamachicken]

This hen which I believe was his mother was given to me after she had been black and white and then molted out black like this again.


She later molted out with a head like a mottled and some white tips. The next year she molted black again.

[bamachicken]

Here are a few of the offspring hatched from breeding the mother hen to the son


This is the first cockerel I showed a pic of after he molted the first time and started turning black again

[bamachicken]

Another close up of some of the offspring



Here is the original hen that was black and white then molted black and then here is her third year and she began to molt a different type of black and white. More mottled

No one I ever talked to could figure this out.

[lildinkem]

Had the same thing with 3 hens. The first pic is of one who had that Exchequer Leghorn look. Was White with Black spots. When she molted she came back as a Mottled looking hen. I originally thought it was from my Milkey line which I had crossed with one of Christina's males.
Now she looks like this.





Then I bought these 2 Australorp hens. Who have the same look. They came out of a molt with even more White. Sorta cool. You can take them to Black males and they will have all Black offspring. At least that is what happened to my 3 hens.

[gayle]

Julie

Have you ever shown this to Weislow from Denmark.
He is on the coop Forum.
He appears to have a lot of knowledge on Mottling.
But the molting process is differently amazing.

[gayle]

If you take a black bird to a mottled bird the offspring will be all black. But the black birds will be carrying a mottling gene.
Mottling will not appear unless both parent are carrying the gene.
If you breed the black offsprings back to each other or the mottled parent the mottling will appear again.

the mottled gene is recessive to black and recessive to white.

[gayle]

Julie

Here is a breeder of Polish who has supplied some interesting info. Not only the mottling gene but the sex-linked barring gene can have different effect following the molt of a chicken.



www.polishbreedersclub.com/wccuckoopolish.htm

In my experience with the cuckoos (longer than anyone else in the US) I have had two birds be black for a couple of years, then revert to cuckoo later in life. I have had one white crested black out of a cuckoo mating that as a four year old is a very good colored mottled.