# BC cock and white hen = red baby?



## g0ldenb0y55 (Dec 23, 2008)

My BC cock and white hen pushed out a blue and red baby. Could the red be from the white hen. I know for sure that the cock is 100% BC going all the way down to his grandparents. The white hen was an unbanded stray that joined my flock about a month ago and i don't know anything about her. Any thoughts would be appreciated.


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## lance_harmon (Oct 18, 2008)

Yes the white can mask any color.


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## jbangelfish (Mar 22, 2008)

*Ash red or recessive red?*



g0ldenb0y55 said:


> My BC cock and white hen pushed out a blue and red baby. Could the red be from the white hen. I know for sure that the cock is 100% BC going all the way down to his grandparents. The white hen was an unbanded stray that joined my flock about a month ago and i don't know anything about her. Any thoughts would be appreciated.


I'm assuming you are referring to ash red, which would have to come from the hen. Most whites are homozygous grizzle ash reds that have been bred to become white, they are still ash red underneath. If this is the combination that you have, all young should be grizzles, and the cocks should be ash red, hens blue. Eye color on these whites is usually orange or normal colored.

Recessive white can hide any color and any number of other factors. These are the bull eyed whites. Any young from a recessive white will be split for recessive white. You can figure out the base color of these by test matings such as you have made.

A recessive red would be the result of both parents carrying the gene. This is less likely as recessive red is not as common in homers but there are getting to be more of them. Both types of whites are pretty common in homers.

Bill


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

If it's ash-red, it would have to come from the hen, as ash-red is dominate to blue 
And in that case, you'd have a sex-linked mating, so all blue babies would be hens, and all reds, cocks.


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