Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Help!

[merrily-meredy]

Hello,
I discovered BLR Wyandottes and found a breeder very close to me! I purchased 2 - three month old black BLR (a cockerel and pullet), and then 4 straight run chicks. One of the chicks is a splash and the breeder thought these a rooster which would be good for breeding. WELL fast forward a few weeks and now several of those 4 chicks are looking like roosters. I do not need several roosters! Help! I’m attaching pictures of said wyandottes. Also help tell me which color (blue or black) they are and WHICH roosters I should keep for breeding purposes.
Pictures 1 & 2 - 3 month olds
Pictures 3,4,5&6 are the 4 chicks (1 splash, 2 black and 1 blue??)

 

[RiverOtter]

It looks like you have at least 2 black pullets, so if you're just breeding for yourself, I'd keep the splash to give you blues.

Please Note; Show breeders will be HORRIFIED by that thought, because it is supposed to give you the "wrong" blue, and/or you'll get inconsistent shades of blue, so if you're planning on having a show flock, all I can say is study the standard, breed for type and only breed blue to blue, in which case you'll need more birds.

 

[merrily-meredy]

It looks like you have at least 2 black pullets, so if you're just breeding for yourself, I'd keep the splash to give you blues.

Please Note; Show breeders will be HORRIFIED by that thought, because it is supposed to give you the "wrong" blue, and/or you'll get inconsistent shades of blue, so if you're planning on having a show flock, all I can say is study the standard, breed for type and only breed blue to blue, in which case you'll need more birds.

I had read where breeding blue to blue was best for developing the blue color.
So do you think there’s only one pullet in the smaller chicks?

 

[RiverOtter]

I'm not 100% sure that the others are roosters, but only the left bird in pic one and pic 5 made me go, "yes, those look like pullets by the combs"
The others all have bigger, redder combs and wattles, which at that age makes me think "I dunno, maybe a rooster"
Very scientific and accurate, I know.

But if that's the case, you are stuck on breeding blue to blue ... because no blue girls. So, if you're a die-hard for showing, you'd want to keep the blue rooster, get 50% blues and 50% blacks, but theoretically (now, I breed blue, I LOVE blue and personally, I find blue to blue gives me the most variety in shades, and black to splash gives me more consistency, and splash to blue will give you wild, flashy, splashy blues and heavy-marked splashes that make show people and want-a-pretty-flock people faint, for totally different reasons ... but I don't breed BLR, so it could well be very different) will give you a more consistent shade of blue.

But black to splash will give you ALL blues, and then you can just choose the most consistent trio or two from there and start with those. That's what I would do, but again, I am a blue junkie and haven't yet thrown the lacing gene in with it (although as soon as I have more room for chickens I'll be getting a BUNCH ;D ) so take it for what it's worth

 

[merrily-meredy]

I'm not 100% sure that the others are roosters, but only the left bird in pic one and pic 5 made me go, "yes, those look like pullets by the combs"
The others all have bigger, redder combs and wattles, which at that age makes me think "I dunno, maybe a rooster"
Very scientific and accurate, I know.

But if that's the case, you are stuck on breeding blue to blue ... because no blue girls. So, if you're a die-hard for showing, you'd want to keep the blue rooster, get 50% blues and 50% blacks, but theoretically (now, I breed blue, I LOVE blue and personally, I find blue to blue gives me the most variety in shades, and black to splash gives me more consistency, and splash to blue will give you wild, flashy, splashy blues and heavy-marked splashes that make show people and want-a-pretty-flock people faint, for totally different reasons ... but I don't breed BLR, so it could well be very different) will give you a more consistent shade of blue.

But black to splash will give you ALL blues, and then you can just choose the most consistent trio or two from there and start with those. That's what I would do, but again, I am a blue junkie and haven't yet thrown the lacing gene in with it (although as soon as I have more room for chickens I'll be getting a BUNCH ;D ) so take it for what it's worth

Well the breeding information helps a lot! I love the look of the splash so I wanted to keep him anyway. I am not wanting to raise show quality birds although these birds are from show quality breeding. I just wanted some blue colored BLR chickens and a splash but my chicks ended up having black ones too.

I am so new to chickens that the roo/hen comparison gets me! I have seen pictures of hens with very red combs and wattles just like roos, but theirs are smaller. So I had hoped that I couldn't be so unlucky that I had 3 roosters out of my 4 small chicks! But as you say - it appears that only the two black ones with absolutely no wattles are certainly pullets. I just hoped that some of the other 3 with wattles might still be girls if theirs weren't as red.... *shrugs*

Back to the breeding though - I know I want to keep the splash cause he's pretty, so I could just keep him and my 2 black pullets and rehome the other roosters (two blues) because I don't need 2 roos with only 2 pullets right? Also I have 2 banty roosters and I have two sons so I feel like i'm overrun with boys

 

[RiverOtter]

You ARE overrun with boys!! LOL
This is me:

Except they're all teenagers!

You could always keep a blue rooster, and breed him to the splash rooster's daughters.