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You have a hen line male, and the hens appear lighter in the hackle than what would be desired for a dark male breeder. Overall I think you have the maings of a good set of pullets, males may surprise you on occasion with a good one but from those three you shoudl expect better females than males.
Thank you for your time and opinion! I really do appreciate it and I mean that. I can't wait to see what they will produce. I really just want something my daughter can show when she gets older if she wants to do that. I also want learn about the birds so we can help her and produce some nice birds for her to show. She loves these little things so I really think she will be interested.
So in saying this is a hen line male are you saying he is too light? Are his marking not right? I really want to know what you are looking at and what to look for in the off spring.
based on the photo, it appears the male has some black in his saddle feathers, and possibly in his hackle not much but looks like its there, this is common in hen line males, his wing Bow (shoulder) red is less than 50% present also very common for female line breeder males, he is small, short, short backed, and very wide in chest. these traits lead to smaller shorter backed females that are wide and carry thier weight in teh breast.
the hens, are smaller, shorter backed and shorter legged than most male line breeder birds, they are nearly absent shafting (most male line breeder females are heavily shafted) female tail primaries are rather clean and appear mostly black (most male line breeder females are heavily stippled in tail primaries)
your hens are a touch light in the hackle, the male you have is very nice and even darker hackled male and should allow you to get some slightly darker hackled females.
