Any idea what breed(s) he is?

[malndobe]

I was sold this chick by a breeder as a BLRW. Which he obviously isn't. Any idea what he might be? The breeder in question has a bunch of different breeds, but it's also possible he was hatched from eggs she purchased elsewhere, at different times I was told he was from her own breeding, then later he was from someone elses eggs.

I'm guessing Orpington x BLRW just because he was supposed to be a BLRW but reminds me of my Orp. He's a big boy, at 2 months was almost twice the size of the BLRW chicks I did get with the same hatch date. He also feathered in faster than the BLRWs. Not sure on weight.

He was a "chipmunk" looking chick, looked just like the BLRW chicks that were darker blue as they feathered out.

4.5 months old


For comparison, a 6 month old Jersey Giant hen with 4.5 month old Muttly

3.5 months old

3.5 months old

6 weeks old


As a side note, how do you rotate photos you have uploaded?

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

New Hampshire red I'm assuming... Or NHR x orp. What other breeds does the breeder have?

I'm saying New Hampshire or New Hampshire x orp

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Not a NHR, with those speckles on his back.

I think he's a mixed breed.

As far as the photos, you can't rotate them once they're uploaded to BYC. You have to do your rotation before the upload with a photo editor.

 

[BantamLover21]

Looks like a mixed-breed to me. I agree with you that he appears to be a New Hampshire Red/BLRW cross.

 

[donrae]

He's a mixed breed, and may be several breeds mixed. With that straight comb he doesn't have any wyandotte in his ancestry, I'd say something like Orpington and some red bird. He has the rounder shape of an orp, and the light skin. He's a nice looking rooster and if you want to hatch chicks, his cockerels should make wonderful table birds!

 

[Mathew544]

He looks just like my buff brahma roosters except for the comb and the lack of feet feathers. I wonder if brahma is mixed in there somewhere?

 

[malndobe]

As far as the photos, you can't rotate them once they're uploaded to BYC. You have to do your rotation before the upload with a photo editor.

That's the weird thing, they were rotated correctly before I uploaded them, the upload process turned them.

He's a mixed breed, and may be several breeds mixed. With that straight comb he doesn't have any wyandotte in his ancestry, I'd say something like Orpington and some red bird. He has the rounder shape of an orp, and the light skin. He's a nice looking rooster and if you want to hatch chicks, his cockerels should make wonderful table birds!

My plan is to leave him in with my layer flock, and butcher any cockerels from him. He matured really fast so I'm hoping he'll produce offspring that are table ready early.

I'm curious about the comb comment. This is another of the birds I got from the same breeder as a BLRW. I can get better photos of him, but he's got all the lacing, leg color, etc but he has that same straight comb as Muttly.

 

[malndobe]

What other breeds does the breeder have?

Orpington, Maran, Barnvelder, Wyandotte, Ameraucana, Easter Egger, Brahma

It's possible he's not actually from their breeding though, initially he was sold that way, but later when the questions were raised about his heritage I was told he was from a batch of eggs they bought from someone else. So it's anyone's guess what he might have in him.

 

[donrae]

Yeah, I was thinking about that, too. Wyandottes can throw straight combs, even good stock has a straight comb now and then from my understanding. Rose combs are somehow linked to decreased fertility, so straight combed stock is introduced every so often to boost fertility. So, could have a straight combed wyandotte in there somewhere, in theory, but I'm just not seeing wyandotte build or shape in that bird. Muttley, I like it!

If I had to pick from the breeds you said, I'd say orp and marans. But I'll bet he came from some other stock, so you'll really never know. He looks like he'll do great for what you want, though!

 

[malndobe]

A few more updated photos of Muttly, he's turning out to be a beefcake of a Rooster. I did some playing around with the chicken genetics calculator and he could be a BLRW mix, his laced parent would have had to have incomplete lacing, but that's not unusual in BLRW, and it doesn't take very much to take a bird that looks reasonably BLRWish (ie a poorly bred one), cross it with a New Hampshire and end up with a Muttly

He was 5.5 months in these photos. He has the tiniest hint of blue/black at the tips of some of his feathers in his body, that's the only remnants of his original color as a chick.