Breed identification

[Amazonlover]

Hello,

Hoping I can get some views from this knowledgeable community. I got this baby chick the day she was born, April 12, and she was sold to me as a blue laced red Wyandotte. Now that she is 11 weeks old, she’s looking more like a golden laced Wyandotte to me-thoughts? One of the photos I’ve posted is from a couple of weeks ago, and one is from the other day.

 

[Tookie]

She is a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte! It can be hard to tell, but if you look up Golden Laced Wyandotte you should see the difference. GLW have black, and BLRW have blue. You can see the blue in her feathers.

 

[allosaurusrock]

She’s a funny bird for sure.

The lacing on her feathers is either a very dark blue or black. With the blueblacksplash gene, you may not know if you’re getting a blue, a black, or a splash until you’ve grown the bird out a bit. This is not the fault of the breeder, that is just how the gene works. Hard for me to tell with the lighting in the photos. I’m leaning towards dark blue. But her being a gold laced black is still not out of the question.

I do think she looks more golden than red. From my understanding, red is just the gold gene with enhancers on it. Genetics are funky, I think it’s not impossible that she came from some degree of BLR stock, but ended up without the enhancers. I’m not familiar with the genetics of red/gold/buff enough to give you a very good answer to that.

If you look at her comb, she does not have a Wyandotte “rose” comb. She has a single comb.

Breed standards are not super important to most people, but I think it is worth mentioning that she is a poor representation of the breed. The single comb can be a sign of a more recent outcross (as BLR are a newer variety). I cannot tell you, definitively, if you were sold a poor quality BLR or GL Wyandotte. She very may well exist in the space between the two varieties.

 

[Hobbychicks123]

Whatever she is, she’s beautiful!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Who sold you that chick? Do you know anything about the parents?

I pretty much agree with Allosaurusrock. Wyandotte should have a rose comb. That is a single comb. Since Rose is a dominant gene neither of her parents were pure Wyandotte. Can't be with that single comb.

The comments on the Blue/Black/Splash gene are right on. It is a partially dominant gene. The way it works unless you cross a splash with a black you don't know what you will get.

There is one gene pair that determines if they are silver or gold. Silver is dominant so that chick is pure for the gold gene. There are different modifiers that determine what shade of gold or red. That one looks like it has the modifiers to show gold, not dark red.

I think the chick has Blue Laced Red Wyandotte in its ancestry but it also has other genetics. What other genetics I don't know. It is not a breed but is a mix. Unless you plan to show it or breed it as a purebred I don't consider that important though some people do. Due to genetic diversity mixes are often very good chickens.

 

[Bertram]

I would call that gold laced, but she's got a single comb so she can't be a pure Wyandotte.

 

[Amazonlover]

Hahahaha, thanks @Hobbychicks123 @allosaurusrock and @Tookie, I think she’s beautiful regardless of what breed she is