Fancy feathered rooter- what breed do you think he is?

yep that's a boy.

The mother most likely the Rainbow- however none of the roosters listed are good candidates, unless the game rooster has a pea comb.

It cannot be the barred rock rooster- if he's pure as alleged then 100% of his chicks will start out black/white barred, just like the pullet next to him in second picture- could believer her as being BR over Amer hen.

if the game rooster is crele , then it could be him over brahma-he could have gotten the pea comb gene from her, but he is too clean legged making that not very likely.

If game is crele and has pea comb then it could be RIR, rainbow, comet, buff orp, or turken.

If game has yellow legs it has to be a white legged(skinned) hen as the mother. Yellow legged crele game roo would limit the choices to buff orp and sussex with orp being more likely.

 

nearly the exact same colouring of my Basque roosters, the only huge difference is the head

 

I don't know. He looks cool, though.

 

I'm confused with this. I know all offspring of a pure barred roo will be barred, but I thought mixing him with different hens could add color to the basic black and white.
Here's where my thoughts are coming from.......a pure roo passes on a barring gene to each offspriing. A bsl roo passes on a barred gene to half his offspring. I know the bsl roo can have chicks other than the classic black and white barring, so why can't the pure roo? Am I missing something? This is asked in honesty, from a desire to understand more about barring. I'm not being sarcastic or a smart alek!

My thought was the barred rock roo, cause none of the other roos fit. It was my basic process of elemination!
I can't see his comb that well. I wonder if it's not a pea comb but a mixed comb?
I don't think momma is the braham--no feathered legs.
I don't think momma is the comet, he'd have more white.
I don't think the momma is any of the straight combed breeds, going on the theory that dad is the barred rock, if momma were straight combed the little guy would be also.
I really don't see any ameraucana traits.
I guess I'm leaning toward the wyandotte, but I don't know enough about leg color, etc to know if that would be possible.

Yep, he's a boy. He's going to be quite striking when he grows up!

 

x2 i am thinking barred rock dad....

 

donrae- glad you asked! the real reason BR as father not likely is because they are pure for the E(black) gene. It's 'very dominant'. Let's say you take out the barring out of him, he would be a solid black chicken. This rooster over any of those hens would still produce 100% half E birds- hatch out with black down(but also in this hypothecial case, any barred chicks would be male.. however they still would start out black/white).

Another example of E dominance over other colors is black sex links, a lot of them are RIR roo over BR hens. So far all BSL roosters I;ve seen were barred with white in the pyle areas, indicating BR are possibly mainly or all silver based.. another reason to doubt the BR being father of this cockerel- he's not silvery or "golden". BSL hens get their brown from their RIR fathers being pure for gold(silver is sex linked).

Going back to pure BR father plus if they are really silver, then all of the chicks would be barred, all pullets would be black/white- even if they leak, it would be white, no gold. Only some cockerels would manage to show some gold coloring when they get their rooster feathers but even so, it would be mostly confined to pyle zones(that's why I say 'start out b/w' or start out with black down).

Now, if the BR was really a BSL, there would be a chance of him being the father because BSL roos out of RIR and BR would be half silver half gold, meaning they can throw offspring with gold coloring... and also because BSL are not pure for E- they have the Wheaten gene from their RIR father, they can throw chicks that are not black with say, a rainbow(which are very likely wheaten based) or buff brahma or.....

leg color- his legs look white which would rule out BR or BSL bred with brahma as yellow leg/skin is recessive. Have to have at least one white legged/skinned parent.

Comets IIRC are cross with of a white bird with production reds, so they are not pure for dominant white, so half of their offspring would get white the other half not(if bred to a bird lacking dominant white).

If that game rooster is not crele but has white or slate legs and pea comb, I'd be very tempted to guess it's him and the rainbow hen.

Hope this is clearer than mud.

 

My guess would be the English Game bantam as daddy. I don't think it was the silkie, no feathers or extra toe.
Momma might be the Dixie rainbow

 

Thanks for the education! I've been dipping my toes in on some of the genetics threads and am picking some up. I'm a horse person first and have a decent grasp of basic color genetics from that, but I think I'm older now and the brain isn't learning new stuff as easily as it did 20 years ago!

I wonder why Australorp roosters aren't more common for making black sex links? Would that throw solid black hens and remove the leakage from the roos?

 

No problem, I do wish being able to write much more concisely- less reading!

That's a very good question why so few breeds are used for production in USA. Maybe limited resources? not really able to maintain high producing lines in multiple breeds so have to concentrate on a selected few...? Perhaps the main market are the large egg producers, who don't care about appearences at all(I'm guessing)... and/or creating a 'product' for backyarders are not profitable so it's not considered in US? If you ever find out, I'd be interested in learning from you.


p.s. got my start in pigeons as a kid- was very curious and deliberately crossed breeds and colors and noticed there tended to be inheritance patterns in the colors or features(crests/leg feathering etc).. got to the point I could 'imagine' a specific type and combined the breeds to make that, and succeeded(many colors had me puzzled though). That was before I read anything on genetics.. the genetics chapter in high school biology textbook was a light bulb moment... After that moved onto chickens then peafowl... all purely as hobby.

I don't know horse genetics but am sure it helps you learn with chicken genetics... the problem with chickens is there are several 'bases' (E, ER, eWh, eb, e+)and so many genes that can combine to give very different patterns and colors. Is horse color genetics 'simpler' or just as complicated?