Cockerels? Blue laced or splash?

[MountainMomma359]

8 Week old laced wyandotte. Do we think these are leaning male or female? And how do you tell blue laced or splash?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It seems that if you intended to attach photos they did not come through. Hopefully you get that fixed soon so that we can help you sort this out

 

[NatJ]

8 Week old laced wyandotte. Do we think these are leaning male or female? And how do you tell blue laced or splash?

I think they are both males, judging by how large and brightly-colored the comb and wattles are.

I think the lacing on both of them is probably splash, but they could have a very light blue instead. For how to tell: by looking, by asking someone else (like you did here), sometimes by knowing what colors their parents had, or by breeding them and seeing what offspring you get. (There are charts of what colors you can get by breeding black, blue, or splash in various combinations. For your birds, those colors apply just to the lacing, not to the whole bird, but the black/blue/splash colors inherit the same way regardless of whether they are on the whole bird or just on the lacing.)

 

[MountainMomma359]

It seems that if you intended to attach photos they did not come through. Hopefully you get that fixed soon so that we can help you sort this out

Can you see them now?

 

[JedJackson]

I think these are splash laced red.

 

[JedJackson]

I think they are both males, judging by how large and brightly-colored the comb and wattles are.

I think the lacing on both of them is probably splash, but they could have a very light blue instead. For how to tell: by looking, by asking someone else (like you did here), sometimes by knowing what colors their parents had, or by breeding them and seeing what offspring you get. (There are charts of what colors you can get by breeding black, blue, or splash in various combinations. For your birds, those colors apply just to the lacing, not to the whole bird, but the black/blue/splash colors inherit the same way regardless of whether they are on the whole bird or just on the lacing.)

I think the hatcheries are breeding blue laced to splash laced, and that's why it's difficult to distinguish between the two, because all of the birds have lacing that is fairly pale.

A darker blue is usually preferred for other breeds, and that is created by crossing black to blue. But with this breed, they can't charge as much for the less popular black laced. So they stick with blue laced x splash laced.

That's my theory, anyway. You rarely see really good blue lacing on these Wyandottes.

 

[MountainMomma359]