Who Are My Parents?

[cluckingheck]

Buckle up, kids, this is gonna be a doozy. I’ll start by introducing the star of the show: Oppy, the chick that’s missing some toes and has the 5 toe gene, ironically. Hatched the 17th by a kindergarten class and sadly was the only one to make it ( power kept going out during incubation ). They gave him back to me and luckily I was able to give him to a broody hen named Boots.

Anyways, I want to figure out the possible mix he is or at least make a fun guessing game out of it. There’s 62 chickens in play ( well, a little less since some are the same breed but you get the point ) and only 7 are roosters.

to get the ball rolling, I’ll introduce the potential dads who are all different breeds:

Maude, Easter Egger

Iggy, Light Brown Leghorn ( has since passed )

Bojingles, Mille Fleur d’Uccle

Drago II, Salmon Faverolles ( he does have a beard, someone apparently likes to over preen him )

Blueberry, Blue Cochin

Tater Tot, BB Red OEGB

Caramel Latte, mix/some kind of wyandotte mix/barnyard breed

NOW comes the hard part: all the potential moms. He apparently hatched from a light brown egg but even that really doesn’t slim the list down because most of my hens lay brown eggs, but I can eleminate all of my Ameraucanas, olive eggers, Easter eggers, and white leghorns. I’ll end up including some breeds that are “supposed” to lay white but y’know how hatchery quality can be sometimes.

Ritz, light Brahma ( doesn’t have feathered feet, though. Hatchery quality )

Audrey, lavender orpington

Pumpkin, buff silkie

Tilly, black sex-link

Junebug, speckled sussex

Glucose, silver penciled Plymouth Rock

Violet, columbian wyandotte & Poppy, mille fleur

Dolly, golden laced wyandotte

Stella, ( beardless salmon faverolles ) & Meryl Cheep ( what they are supposed to look like )

Nevermore, black sumatra

Gladys, blue laced red wyandotte

Nala, hatchery mix. She does have the 5 toe gene

Cookie, hatchery mix as well. Has the 5 toe gene. Can’t remember if she went broody before or after I got the eggs for the kindergarten to hatch, so I’m including her too.

Sparrow, barnyard mix.

Yukon, black australorp

Roxanne, another barnyard mix

Ghostie, the production blue rock ( not the Plymouth Rock )

Babs, blue cuckoo maran

Momo, Egyptian Fayumi

Valerie, barnevelder

Uno, partridge cochin

Maisy, jubilee orpington

Dee, buff laced polish

Nelly, barred rock

Beatrix, blue cochin

Comet, mottled Ancona

Bluey, blue copper Maran

Turkey, barred rock x black sex-link ( Nelly’s daughter )

Miss Prissy, not sure really. Was supposed to be a black australorp but she has yellow skin

Boots, mottled cochin bantam. I’ll add her on because I’m not sure if she went broody before or after either.

Okay, so I think I got all of my hens. I tried to keep my dark brown layers off the list because I knew for sure they laid dark brown.

 

[Silexian]

Your hen Cookie looks to be a Houdan. Which have five toes. Since the only rooster you have that has five toes is your Faverolles. With the chick having dark shanks. It could possibly be your Faverolles rooster with one of your dark shanked hens. With the chick having mainly gray down. I would lean towards your Orpington hen. I don’t see enough Silkie traits to think it would be from your Silkie hen.

 

[Alagirl]

Be honest: You just wanted to show off your flock!

 

[JedJackson]

I think the father has to be either Iggy or Blueberry. The chick has a single comb, yellow skin, and four toes, all of which are recessive genes, so that means rose or pea combs, white skin and five toes are dominant genes and would likely show up in the offspring if one of the parents had them. So that eliminates all but the two males I named. There's always a chance that one of the others could be the father, but it is much less likely.

If Iggy is the father, then the mother must have feathered legs and more than likely four toes and yellow skin. My bet is on Beatrix or Boots, going by color.

So Iggy x Beatrix is one possibility and Iggy x Boots is another. The size of the chick should help determine whether the bantam or LF Cochin was the mother, in this case scenario.

If Blueberry is the father, then the mother probably has some red or buff coloration, again with four toes and yellow skin, and probably with a single comb. So the best fit for the mother in this case would be Roxanne, Valerie or Uno.

So that's five potential crosses. Perhaps when the chick gets older it will be easier to tell which one.

 

[cluckingheck]

Be honest: You just wanted to show off your flock!

That is partly the reason, yes. Lol, but I am also bad at genetics

 

[cluckingheck]

I think the father has to be either Iggy or Blueberry. The chick has a single comb, yellow skin, and four toes, all of which are recessive genes, so that means rose or pea combs, white skin and five toes are dominant genes and would likely show up in the offspring if one of the parents had them. So that eliminates all but the two males I named. There's always a chance that one of the others could be the father, but it is much less likely.

If Iggy is the father, then the mother must have feathered legs and more than likely four toes and yellow skin. My bet is on Beatrix or Boots, going by color.

So Iggy x Beatrix is one possibility and Iggy x Boots is another. The size of the chick should help determine whether the bantam or LF Cochin was the mother, in this case scenario.

If Blueberry is the father, then the mother probably has some red or buff coloration, again with four toes and yellow skin, and probably with a single comb. So the best fit for the mother in this case would be Roxanne, Valerie or Uno.

So that's five potential crosses. Perhaps when the chick gets older it will be easier to tell which one.

He does have 5 toes, though. Every other trait you’ve listed for him is correct. He has both a lack of toes and extra, lol.

 

[cluckingheck]

Your hen Cookie looks to be a Houdan. Which have five toes. Since the only rooster you have that has five toes is your Faverolles. With the chick having dark shanks. It could possibly be your Faverolles rooster with one of your dark shanked hens. With the chick having mainly gray down. I would lean towards your Orpington hen. I don’t see enough Silkie traits to think it would be from your Silkie hen.

I think she’s a houdan mix because she does have feathered legs. It’s hard to tell really, but I got her from Meyer hatchery as the “Cookies and Cream” breed Lisa Steele came up with. Nala, another mix, also has 5 toes.

 

[JedJackson]

He does have 5 toes, though. Every other trait you’ve listed for him is correct. He has both a lack of toes and extra, lol.

The backwards photo of his feet does not show five toes from what I can see.

 

[cluckingheck]

The backwards photo of his feet does not show five toes from what I can see.

 

[cluckingheck]

Here’s a better picture of his feet. One of his extra toes is a little underdeveloped than the other one so it’s way smaller