Identify my Cross?

[tdart]

Hi all,

I'm new to chickens and have been given 4 by a friend. I've identified three of them as Australorps and Barred Rocks, but I have one that looks to maybe be a cross of some sort. Its the upper one in the photo below. She (I think) is black on the head and tail and multi-colored in the body. Very shy and very fast runner. Gray legs and small waddle.

Thanks in advance.

Tyler

 

[Gray Farms]

Need a better pic. Close, clear, and standing broadside.

 

[tdart]

I understand. I'll try to get one today.

 

[donrae]

Much better pics!

I think she looks like a clean faced EE. But, the rooster behind her looks to be a mixed breed bird, so it's quite possible for her to be a mix also. I'm not seeing barring, perhaps some incomplete lacing....but not a rose comb, which she would have if Wyandotte ancestry (Wyandotte being the most common laced breed).

Without more info--like where she came from, potential parents, etc, it's not really going to be possible to identify her ancestry. She's likely a mix of mixes. There's not strong identifying features of a Breed A x Breed B cross.

 

[Kev]

Saw the earlier pics, to be honest I suspect all of the birds are either mixed breeds or crosses. If thats the same bird(in the back of new pic) you think might be a barred rock, it is showing way too much white on neck and will be showing more white on neck and back later on.

It's also possible someone did what's called a sex linked cross.. Barring is one of the sex linked genes, if you breed basically "any color" but not barred rooster over a barred rock hen, the boys will come out with barring and the girls will come out black. It is very typical for the crosses to eventually show color on their necks as they grow up.. much like your birds- white detailing on the girl;s neck and also on the boy;s neck except it's getting obscured by the barring and ends up looking like too much white on neck and later on back.

In other words if all your chicks had the same parents, it's possible all the blacks are girls, and the barred ones are boys. Are the combs and faces similarly big and much redder on the barreds and much smaller and darker on all of the blacks like on this girl?

 

[drumstick diva]

very pretty pullet - mix x mix ?

 

[tdart]

Thanks for your responses so far. I got some more info today from the people we got them from. The rooster is definitely an Amaracauna, so they have that in them. The hen side would be either Australorp, barred rock, buff Orpington, or buff Brahman. Any new ideas with this info? Maybe a guess at egg color when she starts laying?

Thanks again.

Tyler

 

[donrae]

It would help if we knew what color the father is, but....
Not the Brahma. If so, she'd have feathered legs.
Probably not the Orpington, buff tends to hold it's own against most other colors and would show through.

So, either the Rock or the Aussie. Underneath the barring, a Rock is genetically a black bird, just like the Australorp. And since a barred female won't pass the barring on to her female offspring, it would be hard to tell which was the momma here.

The cockerel behind her on the roost definitely had the barred rock momma, though.

 

[Kev]

I don't think it was an Ameraucana rooster, due to the barred bird having clearly a single comb, can't see the comb on the black one.. if it looks the same as his except in miniature.... also both birds don't have the beard/muffs.

The gene for pea comb and beard/muff are both dominant and definitely show in the crosses.

This is where it gets super messy- a huge majority of Ameraucana and Araucanas are in reality Easter Eggers. Basically a mixed up semi-breed bred for "rainbow eggs". A lot of them look roughly like an Ameraucana except in non-standard colors, laying eggs in colors other than blue.

Practically all have pea combs, most have beard/muffs though so if none of the chicks show a pea comb or beard/muffs then it was something else that's the father.. either another roo or the person is simply wrong on the roo being an Ameraucana. Another possibility is the roo is an EE mixed with another breed- this is likely if there was only one rooster and some of the chicks show beards and/or pea combs. Be aware, a lot of people can be rather sensitive about their Amer/Araucana/EE.... due to a long history of misinformation on those birds.

In any case if the rooster was not barred, then all of your barred chicks are males and their mother was the barred rock. The black females could either be out of a barred rock or australorp.

From blue/green eggers mixed with brown eggers, usually expect the eggs to come out in different shades of green.