Any guesses on these roosters?

[RM44]

This guy above was sold to me as a "black sex link" chick (which I was told was definitely female - LOL.). As a chick, he was solid black with a yellow dot on his head and his legs were black. As a grown rooster he now has pinkish legs and very pink webbing in his toes, and silver/black lacing on his chest. Is that a "pea comb"? I am unfamiliar with what a pea comb would look like on a rooster? He has a sweet, curious disposition and he has a medium build.




This guy in the 2 pics directly above was presented to me as an EE also. When he was a chick he was black and white mottled, but now he has more color. He has yellow legs. Is that a rose comb? I thought that EEs had to have pea combs? Maybe I am wrong. Again, my first time with roosters. I know what a rose comb looks like on hens, but not on roosters. He is a large rooster with a mean disposition, especially since I put him in the isolation chamber (separate pen).



The guy above was also sold to me as an EE. He is a small chicken, but his comb looks more like the rose comb on my hens.





Finally, this guy in the two pics above was sold to me as an EE. As a chick he was solid gray (the color of his belly in this pics), but as you can see, he grew to be black, with gray belly and splashes of red around his hackle feathers. Does he have a pea comb? He is a large rooster with a flighty but non-aggressive (to humans) disposition for now. He is very aggressive towards the other roosters.


I realize that all of these chickens are probably mutts. I don't mind. We are going to process the extra roosters and I get to keep one. I want to keep one that will carry the blue egg gene, and one that will produce pretty little mutt babies. I crossed a solid white Bresse rooster with a Dominique and they are really ugly babies, so next time I am hoping for a better looking mutt. (The Bresse/Doms look like dalmations with dirty feathers.)

Any help you experts can lend would be appreciated. D-day is tomorrow for these guys and I must choose wisely.

 

[familyfarm1]

I would say he was an EE mutt to.

This fellow looks like a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Very handsome roosters!

 

[popsicle]

The top one could be the result of breeding two black sex links--which won't give you sex-linked chicks. Or somebody may have been trying to breed their own sex links and chose the incorrect combination. With the white/pink legs, maybe they used Marans, and the funky comb makes me think maybe Easter Egger--so maybe he is from an auto-sexing Olive Egger project that went wrong?

The comb on the second guy makes him look like he could be a redcap cross?

I agree with familyfarm1 on the other two.

 

[RM44]

Very interesting theory Popcicle, because the person I got them from did fancy herself a "black sex link creator" and specifically boasted that she had created her very own black sex link chickens. I think you are absolutely right that she probably either bred two of these together, or didn't know what she was doing. That makes total sense.

If I want a blue egg gene, which of the 4 above should I keep? Thoughts? Does the grey/black one have a true "pea comb"? Does the blue gene only occur with pea combs or can other combs still carry the blue egg gene?

 

[StarMeKritten]

Very interesting theory Popcicle, because the person I got them from did fancy herself a "black sex link creator" and specifically boasted that she had created her very own black sex link chickens. I think you are absolutely right that she probably either bred two of these together, or didn't know what she was doing. That makes total sense.

If I want a blue egg gene, which of the 4 above should I keep? Thoughts? Does the grey/black one have a true "pea comb"? Does the blue gene only occur with pea combs or can other combs still carry the blue egg gene?

There are blue laying breeds that have non-pea combs, but ameraucana mixes are the most common easter eggers. Of your roosters, the blue one (last photos) is probably the most likely to carry the gene for blue eggs. The beard, pea comb, and dark colored legs are all common traits in easter eggers. He may only carry one copy of the blue egg gene but that would still give you offspring that have a 50/50 chance of laying colored eggs. I have an EE rooster that looks alot like him. Mine is an EE/ orpington cross.

As far as the black sex link chicks go, she may have created some black sex links.. but it's the males that will hatch with a white spot on top of the head! The second one looks like he might be a red sex link rooster. Red sex links are created using silver females (in this case i assume using silver laced wyandotte hens) with a red rooster. The females will be red and the males will be silver.

Editing to add: Black sex link males will be barred. I don't see any barring in the photo of the first one... but maybe it's just not visible in from the front. If he doesn't have any barring, he's probably not a black sex link at all.

 

[donrae]

I find it hilarious that someone sold you a chick with a white head spot claiming it was a black sex link pullet. The white head spot is the hallmark of a male black sex link chick--it's the very characteristic you look for to sex them. Don't ever do business with that person again.

The first bird is a mixed breed, and probably a brown egg gene.
The second bird is also mixed breed, no idea where that comb came from but probably brown genes also.
The third bird is a silver laced wyandotte. Brown genes
The last bird would be your best bet for blue or green egg genes. I can't see the comb really well, but a good pea comb in a rooster should have three rows easily visible.

What hens would you be using?

 

[BantamLover21]

nevermind, accidental double post.

 

[BantamLover21]

I find it hilarious that someone sold you a chick with a white head spot claiming it was a black sex link pullet. The white head spot is the hallmark of a male black sex link chick--it's the very characteristic you look for to sex them. Don't ever do business with that person again.

The first bird is a mixed breed, and probably a brown egg gene.
The second bird is also mixed breed, no idea where that comb came from but probably brown genes also.
The third bird is a silver laced wyandotte. Brown genes
The last bird would be your best bet for blue or green egg genes. I can't see the comb really well, but a good pea comb in a rooster should have three rows easily visible.

What hens would you be using?

x2 on this.

 

[Wyandottes7]

I find it hilarious that someone sold you a chick with a white head spot claiming it was a black sex link pullet. The white head spot is the hallmark of a male black sex link chick--it's the very characteristic you look for to sex them. Don't ever do business with that person again.

The first bird is a mixed breed, and probably a brown egg gene.
The second bird is also mixed breed, no idea where that comb came from but probably brown genes also.
The third bird is a silver laced wyandotte. Brown genes
The last bird would be your best bet for blue or green egg genes. I can't see the comb really well, but a good pea comb in a rooster should have three rows easily visible.

What hens would you be using?

X3

 

[RM44]

You guys are THE BEST! Thanks for understanding my love of the mutts and for sounding as excited as I am about my silly birds. I bought what I thought was a Dominique hen but she looked funny to me. Her comb is almost non existent and her body shape is more "bullet" than blocky. She laid her first egg a few weeks ago and it was a beautiful sky blue. That prompted me to keep a blue egg gene. I will cross this black rooster with her and with a blue laced red wyndotte and with some RIR mutts that lay brown eggs. I am hoping for some olive eggs, some blue eggs and some green. And some pretty chickens of course. And some beefy roosters (Pardon the beef reference) for the babies that don't lay and that we will have to process . Am I asking too much? I will take some pics of the female participants tomorrow.