Can You Tell the Mix in an EE?

@countrysoul4

Nothing screaming roo, yet, on the Wyandotte. Wyandottes are larger birds, so I'm not surprised it is getting bigger than your CL's and OE's.

However, they mature more slowly, so you'll have to continue to watch this one.

Right now, I'm not seeing a large white block on the wing bows nor fleshy, red comb.

SLW lace in slowly, and can look uneven as they develop, but the girls will have lacing while the boys will have black and white color blocks on the back (a lot of white on the back and wings) and only lacing on the chest.

LofMc
oh thank god i hope it stays that way. ok i will look for white on their back and wings. thank u :)
 
Pretty hard to tell parentage unless there is a distinct dominant feature to follow.
Knowing that....
Since the hatchery told you it is an EE, and we'll trust their word, Ameraucana or Araucana should be in the background, preferably one of the parents.

Since it has a pea comb, and a bit of muffing, Ameraucana (or EE mix) was one parent, we'll assume they are a better quality hatchery and actually used an Ameraucana, which would be a smart thing to do if they were intending to pass along blue/green EE color eggs.

You can probably eliminate Cochin as those heavy feathered legs usually pass some down to the offspring. Same with Marans IF French style with leg feathering, although mine seem to have a 50/50 whether or not leg feathers passed down. (We'll come back to BCM later).

You can eliminate Dominque as it does not have a walnut comb. Both pea (from Ameraucana) and rose (Dominque) are dominant, and express together to make walnut. It has a clean looking pea comb, so Dominque is not likely in the background.

Probably not Brahma as that likely would have created leg feathers as those too are fairly heavy in the leg feathering which usually passes down.

So that leaves the Welsummer and Barnevelder and Buff Orp or a Marans American style (without feathered legs or they dropped off in first generation).

Since it is dark legged, I'm thinking the Black Copper Marans as Welsummer and Barnevelder have yellow legs, and Orpington white, BUT leg coloring is very tricky. I've had yellow Barnevelder roo over Cal Grey yellow/black wash hen produce chicks with slate grey legs....so let's look at the feather pattern.

Now it is a red partridge with heavy black lacing/patterning. BCM usually gives all black chicks as the black is pretty dominant. My Barnevelder roo (black body with brown wings, back, considered double laced) will produce red with black lacing over a reddish or partridge hen. The chick also looks a bit like a Barnevelder chick.

So my best guess would be the Barnevelder was used over an Ameraucana or EE, hopefully Ameraucana, which comes in 8 standard colors, a number of which would allow black lacing with red expression. The Buff Orpington is a possiblity too, but I think the legs and overall appearance are too dark, and there is no hint of Orpington in the body...but that is a possibility. Welsummer is a distinct possibility, but it usually throws a chipmunk wild type unless there is a dark color on the other parent, totally possible.

And, I think you may have a rooster. That coloring is very blocky looking, typical of a rooster. Hens will have regular, even color patterning. The comb is still pale, but that may be 3 clear pea rows, which also indicate rooster. Wait and watch. Hopefully the pattern will even out and the comb stay pale....otherwise, you've got a boy.

My thoughts
LofMc (who is breeding Barnevelder rooster over Splash Marans, Cream Legbar, Black Isbar, Red Sex Link, Cal Grey, to produce a colorful egg basket and colorful plummage).


Boy, has this rooster really changed his looks! No more of the barring he had when I started this thread when he was less than 5 weeks old. He is now 18 weeks and I thought I would post some photos so that other "new to chickens" folks like myself can see and understand why it is they often get a "wait and see" response from all the elders on here. I would have never imagined how different he would turn out to look in just 3 more months.

Dexter17weeks01.jpg

Dexter17weeks03.jpg

Dexter17weeks02.jpg
 
@KikisGirls just curious, is his comb still considered a pea comb? I ask because it is WAY WAY bigger and wavier than the pea comb my other 18 week old roo has (the other is an ameraucana and it is the typical flat and straight but distinct 3 rows)
 
@KikisGirls just curious, is his comb still considered a pea comb? I ask because it is WAY WAY bigger and wavier than the pea comb my other 18 week old roo has (the other is an ameraucana and it is the typical flat and straight but distinct 3 rows)
Yes, I'm pretty sure it is.
 
Yes, I'm pretty sure it is.

wow, then that means that pea combs can have very different looks to them! I didn't realize they could look so different. Thanks for edumacating me :eek:

this is what the other one's looks like and why I was confused. This was about 2 weeks ago, but it still looks the same today. Of course this is the roo that had no tail feathers at all until about 4 weeks ago. So maybe he is late to bloom on the comb as well, lol
Periwinkle16weeks.jpg
 
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I agree. Handsome boy.

The red rooster has Buff Orpington vibes in his body shape now....just the way the tail hangs.

But really hard to know as many of the hatcheries are simply using EE to EE to breed EE.

You then get a mix of a mix and any hope of figuring out parentage is lost. You simply are left with vestiges of appearance here and there.

and yes...both peas. With the mixed parentage, the pea combs, which are dominant genetically, get affected by the other comb influencing genes so you see quite a bit of variation. You often can get funk when you breed a pea comb variety to a large comb variety...say EE to Leghorn. Those combs tend to get pretty unruly though technically "pea."

Thanks for updating us. Always fun to see how close we came with our "educated" guesses.
LofMc
 

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