Sapphire gem and barred Plymouth rock rooster

[alexanye]

The 2 red chicks are from different parents. I incubated them, I have 3 flocks all with their own roo

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Interesting...

Sometimes the head spot is really hard to see, and if they inherit blue that can make it extra hard to see the spot. This is a pure Barred Plymouth Rock chick I raised and you can see she barely had a spot on her head as a chick:

She did feather in barred, however:

But... Some of your chicks without obvious head spots don't appear to have inherited barring somehow, based on their juvenile feathering. Can you post pictures of the rooster and hens that produced these chicks? That may answer some questions, here. Also, what breeds are in your other two flocks?

 

[alexanye]

Interesting...

Sometimes the head spot is really hard to see, and if they inherit blue that can make it extra hard to see the spot. This is a pure Barred Plymouth Rock chick I raised and you can see she barely had a spot on her head as a chick:

View attachment 3107867

She did feather in barred, however:

View attachment 3107875

But... Some of your chicks without obvious head spots don't appear to have inherited barring somehow, based on their juvenile feathering. Can you post pictures of the rooster and hens that produced these chicks? That may answer some questions, here. Also, what breeds are in your other two flocks?

I will get some pictures, we have another Plymouth rooster, and a rode island red rooster. The red had to be separated from his hens temporarily because he doesn't currently have enough and they were being overbred. We have more that will be added to his flock soon so he van have some girls back. He's a really nice roo, just heavy and hard on his girls backs because of it.

The other Plymouth boy is in with 3 cinnamon queens, 2 RIR, and 2 Plymouth hens.

The RIR roo was a surprise from a pullet run. He had the 3 of red chickens above, after letting them heal we put them in with the Plymouth roo who isn't as wide or hard on his girls backs.

The 2 red chicks, I'm not 100% on which coop I pulled the eggs from that is why I'm not asking anything about their genetics

 

[alexanye]

These are the chickens who's babies were talking about.

 

[alexanye]

Interesting...

Sometimes the head spot is really hard to see, and if they inherit blue that can make it extra hard to see the spot. This is a pure Barred Plymouth Rock chick I raised and you can see she barely had a spot on her head as a chick:

View attachment 3107867

She did feather in barred, however:

View attachment 3107875

But... Some of your chicks without obvious head spots don't appear to have inherited barring somehow, based on their juvenile feathering. Can you post pictures of the rooster and hens that produced these chicks? That may answer some questions, here. Also, what breeds are in your other two flocks?

Also, this chicken turned out beautiful!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, that explains a lot! Your rooster is not pure Barred Rock. He only has one copy of the barring gene, as evidenced by how darkly colored he is. So, he'll only pass that gene to half of his chicks, but not based on sex; his sons and daughters have an equal chance of inheriting the gene from him.

That means from this cross you can expect roughly 1/4 barred, 1/4 black, 1/4 blue barred, and 1/4 blue chicks in equal numbers of both sexes.

I didn't keep my Barred Rock roosters for terribly long so I don't have very many good pictures of them, but here's one so that you can kind of see how lightly colored the males are when pure for the gene. The wideness of the white part in their barring is determined by whether they have one or two copies of the gene. A male pure for barring has two copies, so he has wider white bars, while a male who is not pure for the gene has one copy of it and thinner white bars, making him look darker like your bird.

 

[alexanye]

Ah, that explains a lot! Your rooster is not pure Barred Rock. He only has one copy of the barring gene, as evidenced by how darkly colored he is. So, he'll only pass that gene to half of his chicks, but not based on sex; his sons and daughters have an equal chance of inheriting the gene from him.

That means from this cross you can expect roughly 1/4 barred, 1/4 black, 1/4 blue barred, and 1/4 blue chicks in equal numbers of both sexes.

I didn't keep my Barred Rock roosters for terribly long so I don't have very many good pictures of them, but here's one so that you can kind of see how lightly colored the males are when pure for the gene. The wideness of the white part in their barring is determined by whether they have one or two copies of the gene. A male pure for barring has two copies, so he has wider white bars, while a male who is not pure for the gene has one copy of it and thinner white bars, making him look darker like your bird.

View attachment 3107976

Thank you so much! I'll get a picture of my other Plymouth roo. He is supposed be be pure, but from tractor supply so

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

If he's from TSC, he's very likely an intentional mix of some sort. Perhaps an Easter-egger or Olive-egger of some sort, as it looks like he has a pea comb gene. His daughters may even lay bluish or greenish eggs!

Sorry he wasn't what you expected him to be! Hopefully your other boy is what you paid for, but Tractor Supply is pretty notorious for these kinds of mix-ups.

 

[alexanye]

This is the other Plymouth. He is also a very nice bird. This is the one from TSC.

That mixed rooster above is absolutely my favorite though. He was a gift from a friend. He is the sweetest thing, and he is very nice to his hens. His name is Teddy.

 

[alexanye]

If he's from TSC, he's very likely an intentional mix of some sort. Perhaps an Easter-egger or Olive-egger of some sort, as it looks like he has a pea comb gene. His daughters may even lay bluish or greenish eggs!

Sorry he wasn't what you expected him to be! Hopefully your other boy is what you paid for, but Tractor Supply is pretty notorious for these kinds of mix-ups.

I'm honestly not upset. I knew what I was getting into with TSC birds. Ideally I'll breed my own now and trade with others locally but after the risk of the flu dies down. Probably no more from tractor supply unless I rescue a pastey chick.

They are just 10 minutes away, it's convenient and chicks are just so stinking cute