I have never figured out how to post pictures, and with using dial up I don't know if I could anyway.
But here's the deal, and maybe you folks can help me figure out what I have.
The father is an Easter Egger rooster with a bad cross beak. He's the only rooster we have, so we're 100% sure he's the one that did the dastardly deed.
The mother is one of two Barred Rock hens we have. Both parents were about 9 months old when the chick -- whose name is Pierre, named after the New Orleans Saint player Pierre Thomas, was conceived.
Our broody successfully hatched two babies on Dec. 27th, the other one is a Buff Orpington/EE mix, and we are pretty sure she is a pullet. Her name is Drew, named after the New Orleans Saint player Drew Brees.
But at 15 weeks old, Pierre still remains a mystery.
In our first clutch (Sept of 2009), we had three babies that all turned out to be the offspring of the Barred Rock hens/EE rooster.
In that clutch, the two pullets turned out to be solid black hens -- though one has a green sheen to her black feathers and the other has a lovely silver sheen to her black feathers. The one cockerel of the bunch was barred. At birth he had a white spot on the back of his head, but so did the pullet who now has that silver sheen to her black feathers. We weighed the birds each week until they were seven weeks old, and from week 2 until we quit weighing that batch at age 7 weeks -- the cockerel was always just a few more ounces than the two pullets. The cockerel also had a larger comb than the two pullets, and his feet were yellow while the pullets feet were very dark. At age 12 and 1/2 weeks, the cockerel began to emit a sound that was definitely an attempt to crow.
That was what would be expected for EE rooster/BR hen offspring, from what I read on the net, because that combination's babies are usually colored differently at birth.
With the 15 week old mystery chicken, the bird is barred with a "tall and straight" posture that is more in line with being a cockerel than a pullet. And its legs are yellow with just a little bit of dark markings on it, just like the cockerel from the last clutch. It had the white marking on the back of the head at birth that often denotes a male bird, but as I pointed out before, so did one of the pullets from the last clutch. The mystery bird is also a tad bit taller than the BO/EE pullet that was born the same day, and weighs a few ounces more.
HOWEVER, that mystery chicken has made no motions like it wants to crow. And it has not tried to mount the pullet that it lives with 24/7. It is the alpha chicken of the duo and sometimes chases the more timid BO/EE mix around, but that might be because our full blooded Barred Rocks are just more aggressive than our full blooded Buff Orpingtons. I would think that if it were a cockerel, it would be experimenting with sex by now. I know that its father (DaddyRoo) sure was, when DaddyRoo was his age.
DaddyRoo has pointy feathers around the base of the neck, and along his tail region. This bird does not have the pointy feathers around the base of the neck, and his tail feathers are identical in shape and size to his BO/EE pullet half-sister.
Frankly, this bird looks to me to be a full blooded Barred Rock. The comb is just a tad smaller than the fully grown Barred Rock hens. (The BO/EE mix does not have a comb at all, just blond muffs).
I just do not see any signs of its father at all. If I had a BR rooster, I would be sure that the bird is his child. Thing is, I do not have a BR rooster. The only rooster anywhere around is the EE rooster.
If I didn't know better, I would swear that this is a full blooded Barred Rock pullet.
But it is not full blooded, it is a EE/BR mix.
So what do you all think?
Pullet? Or rooster?
But here's the deal, and maybe you folks can help me figure out what I have.
The father is an Easter Egger rooster with a bad cross beak. He's the only rooster we have, so we're 100% sure he's the one that did the dastardly deed.
The mother is one of two Barred Rock hens we have. Both parents were about 9 months old when the chick -- whose name is Pierre, named after the New Orleans Saint player Pierre Thomas, was conceived.
Our broody successfully hatched two babies on Dec. 27th, the other one is a Buff Orpington/EE mix, and we are pretty sure she is a pullet. Her name is Drew, named after the New Orleans Saint player Drew Brees.
But at 15 weeks old, Pierre still remains a mystery.
In our first clutch (Sept of 2009), we had three babies that all turned out to be the offspring of the Barred Rock hens/EE rooster.
In that clutch, the two pullets turned out to be solid black hens -- though one has a green sheen to her black feathers and the other has a lovely silver sheen to her black feathers. The one cockerel of the bunch was barred. At birth he had a white spot on the back of his head, but so did the pullet who now has that silver sheen to her black feathers. We weighed the birds each week until they were seven weeks old, and from week 2 until we quit weighing that batch at age 7 weeks -- the cockerel was always just a few more ounces than the two pullets. The cockerel also had a larger comb than the two pullets, and his feet were yellow while the pullets feet were very dark. At age 12 and 1/2 weeks, the cockerel began to emit a sound that was definitely an attempt to crow.
That was what would be expected for EE rooster/BR hen offspring, from what I read on the net, because that combination's babies are usually colored differently at birth.
With the 15 week old mystery chicken, the bird is barred with a "tall and straight" posture that is more in line with being a cockerel than a pullet. And its legs are yellow with just a little bit of dark markings on it, just like the cockerel from the last clutch. It had the white marking on the back of the head at birth that often denotes a male bird, but as I pointed out before, so did one of the pullets from the last clutch. The mystery bird is also a tad bit taller than the BO/EE pullet that was born the same day, and weighs a few ounces more.
HOWEVER, that mystery chicken has made no motions like it wants to crow. And it has not tried to mount the pullet that it lives with 24/7. It is the alpha chicken of the duo and sometimes chases the more timid BO/EE mix around, but that might be because our full blooded Barred Rocks are just more aggressive than our full blooded Buff Orpingtons. I would think that if it were a cockerel, it would be experimenting with sex by now. I know that its father (DaddyRoo) sure was, when DaddyRoo was his age.
DaddyRoo has pointy feathers around the base of the neck, and along his tail region. This bird does not have the pointy feathers around the base of the neck, and his tail feathers are identical in shape and size to his BO/EE pullet half-sister.
Frankly, this bird looks to me to be a full blooded Barred Rock. The comb is just a tad smaller than the fully grown Barred Rock hens. (The BO/EE mix does not have a comb at all, just blond muffs).
I just do not see any signs of its father at all. If I had a BR rooster, I would be sure that the bird is his child. Thing is, I do not have a BR rooster. The only rooster anywhere around is the EE rooster.
If I didn't know better, I would swear that this is a full blooded Barred Rock pullet.
But it is not full blooded, it is a EE/BR mix.
So what do you all think?
Pullet? Or rooster?
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