He doesn't look like a hen. He looks like a young cockerel. The red tone on his shoulders is a male only color pattern. He's gorgeous, BTW.
If Pegasus is going to look even slightly like him, keep lookout for that red tone in the same general area. The blond tones won't come in until he starts growing his hackle & saddle feathers, @12 weeks.
I think the basic pattern is black breasted red, with crowwing (THINK meaning im guessing as those color combos are a lot more difficult to figure out without an expert breaking them down for the learning), but the blonde tones make me think he's got silver hiding under that (tends to take the gold into lighter tones), so he could throw silver babies with a silver based hen.
Wow, that’s a lot. I wish I could say that I understood most of that, but that would be a lie. I get the gist of it though.
When should I start looking for the red?
This photo was taken last September, when he was around six months old I think. He’s over a year old now.
He and his brother (the RIR looking one) are both very sweet. I thought that if a rooster is aggressive, those genes can get passed down to their cockerels, but I guess not. The RIR is a Pastel and BBQ.
I’m hoping that since they are both sweet and they are Pastel’s sons, that maybe Pegasus will be sweet as well since I am treating the girls differently,
If he’s sweet when he’s older and Pastel is still a jerk, I’m going to keep Pegasus as long as he is good to the girls.
Oh, about my Polishes, I have a question.
I’m worried about putting the two Roos, Athens and Nemesis, in with the big girls and Pastel. I don’t want the big chooks to hurt them, but I know that they need to learn manners.
Athens is a good rooster - he doesn’t eat before the girls, and he attacks my hand (I’ve started petting the polishes the way you told me to.) But Nemesis is the first one at the bucket and shoves the little girls out of the way, which I know for sure he needs to learn manners.
I just really don’t want the big girls or Pastel to hurt them.
