[portraitiste]

Hi all,

My chick is a Rhode Island Red rooster... or so I thought... There is something different about him.

I have asked on a separate thread (one of mine) what people think has happened to his colouring, but to no avail so I'm trying another way by starting a new thread on it. By the way, if you read my last thread (4 day old chick sounds wheezy.....), he is now recovered and no longer wheezing.

So, basically, both parents are quite dark RIR's so we have no idea why this chick is turning white when all of his brothers and sisters are turning the normal colours. My boyfriend has reared RIR chicks before and has never seen anything like this...

Could he perhaps be a Rhode Island WHITE throwback? Potentially a gene from the hen's grandparents/great-grandparents etc etc?? Or could he actually be an albino chick as he has no pigment in his beak or legs like the others also...??

Someone please help haha! It's not serious, I'd just love to know what colour he may turn out to be

I have attached a photo of him first (he is the white winged chick) and the second is of one of his sisters but she is also different to the others... She has black/silver on her instead of a redish brown that the other chicks (except for my rooster) have. But she is getting the brown on her wings at least....

The other thing is, my rooster hatched from a brown egg whereas the others hatched from white eggs... so not sure why that is either. And the two pictured are massive, so much bigger than all of the other RIR chicks my boyfriend has!

Thanks in advance!

[suziequeue]

If the white chick's eyes are red then it's probably an albino with no pigment.

Otherwise - must be a throw back.

Chicken genetics - endlessly fascinating. Colour and markings are represented by a number of alleles I expect but I'm no expert.

[doganjo]

I take it no other rooster is involved   

DNA testing for paternity maybe 

[Rosemary]

DNA testing for paternity maybe 

Maybe they stole him?

[in the hills]

Top one looks very white  . Where were the eggs from? RIR eggs are usually termed as brown ..... not like a marans but like the colour from bought free range eggs. Never seen a RIR egg that could be described as white.


Light sussex X RIR is a well known and used cross. Always forget how it goes  . Think RIR cock to light sussex hen will produce white cockerels and brown hens. (Colour sex linked) Could it be that the eggs were from someone doing this cross? Make big, good meat birds and decent layers.


The colouring on the chick below (though difficult to see from the photo) does resemble the first feathering on my utility RIR pullets. They went the more true colour RIR colour as second lot of feathers came in as growers. Couple of friends rear RIR and their chicks feathered in a similar way. A friend with exhibition line had chicks that were "redder" right from the off. Could also sex my utility RIR by colour  as they feathered.

[chrismahon]

We had a strange coloured Leghorn growing twice the rate of its siblings. Even contacted the breeders club with photos and they scratched their heads. Thought it was a throwback then realised we had actually just picked up the wrong egg from the tray and put it in the incubator. Our Chester is a very unusual (and accidental) but quite lovely Buff Orpington and Gold laced Wyandotte cross and we wouldn't be without him.


RIR's are not auto-sexing Portraitiste as they are a Pedigree. So you won't know the sex for sure until they crow. There are other indicators but they are not reliable.

[Victorian Farmer]

I breed roads last May I bought a fantastic road cock from York I noticed some chicks were white .I bred from the hens before so the cock wasent pure .No other answer for it .New cock back to normal .There's so meney crossing these birds to get the numbers up .I have a line that was used by the queens valit  they was that good. Before the second world war the egg numbers was up to 280 mine 250 still work needs to be done .