Help! Cookies and Cream (Black Mottled) Rooster x ? Who is the mom?

[JedJackson]

Both ISA browns and smokey pearls are hybrids that should be heterozygous dominant white, so would have a 50-50 shot of passing the gene on. A chick not inheriting the gene does not rule out either of them as the mother, in other words. From a Black Australorp, I would expect less color leaking through, especially this early on, personally. But, it could still be possible, which is why I didn't rule her out entirely.

Personally, based on how widespread the color leaking is on him, I'd lean the most toward the ISA as the mother. Their genetics tend to impart a lot of color leaking in mixes out of them.

Wouldn't there be more gold leakage from that cross, assuming the dominant white gene wasn't passed down? It's difficult to know for sure what the color genetics are for Cookie and Cream and Smokey Pearls, so that complicates things a lot. But I agree that the barred rock and Cochins aren't contenders.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

If you look closely at the pictures of this cockerel, you can see a yellow tinge to his color leakage that is typical of S/s+ gold/silver split males. That means that he had to have gotten S silver from one parent and s+ gold from the other. Cookies and cream tend to have silver leakage, which would imply they are typically S/S pure for silver. If that is the case, then the cockerel would inherit a silver gene S from the father and must have inherited a gold gene s+ from his mother.

That said, a picture of the father could confirm whether he's carrying gold, silver, or both, at least if he has color leakage as well.

 

[Ashleyboz]

Cookies and cream is a Meyer hatchery 'designer breed' mix that generally is black mottled, often with silver leakage, has a beard, small to medium crest, and some foot feathering, and usually has extra toes.

This cockerel is not the son of a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, as he would be barred, so we can eliminate her right away.

He most likely is not the son of the Cochins, as I would expect more foot feathering in the offspring of that mix.

I'm not sure that it can be narrowed down any further than that with certainty. I think either the smokey pearl or the ISA brown are the most likely mothers in his case. I would expect less color leakage in the offspring from the Australorp in this cross... but I don't think she can be eliminated entirely just on that, so she is still a slight possibility.

Thank you for the response. Exactly what I was looking for. The ISA Browns and Smokey Pearls are giving me paints with this mix.

Wouldn't an ISA brown mother pass down the dominant white gene? My bet is on the Australorp being the mother.

yes. We got paints from that combo. I’m leaning towards that also but some have light feathered feet and some don’t have any at all. It seems like the boys are colored up and the similar girls are black to the australorp speculation. The white Cochins and barred girls will throw black babies too so I’m just trying to get a positive identity at this time lol! I might not!

 

[Ashleyboz]

Wouldn't there be more gold leakage from that cross, assuming the dominant white gene wasn't passed down? It's difficult to know for sure what the color genetics are for Cookie and Cream and Smokey Pearls, so that complicates things a lot. But I agree that the barred rock and Cochins aren't contenders.

 

[Ashleyboz]

So, from my understanding with the Isa browns, and the smoky pearls, we will get White and paints, because the rooster is black model. I think I have them figured out possibly. The Isa Brown roosters are really colored up (as seen in the first picture a few weeks ago so now they are more colored up )with a yellow color to a really dark orange and the hens are a white Paint with a little yellow coming out in their feathers. With the smoky pearls combination of our rooster we have we are having paints like in the second picture. The girls all have black feet and the boys have yellow

 

[Ashleyboz]

If you look closely at the pictures of this cockerel, you can see a yellow tinge to his color leakage that is typical of S/s+ gold/silver split males. That means that he had to have gotten S silver from one parent and s+ gold from the other. Cookies and cream tend to have silver leakage, which would imply they are typically S/S pure for silver. If that is the case, then the cockerel would inherit a silver gene S from the father and must have inherited a gold gene s+ from his mother.

That said, a picture of the father could confirm whether he's carrying gold, silver, or both, at least if he has color leakage as well.

 

[Ashleyboz]

The first two pictures are what I believe are the roosters from the Isa Browns. The rest are the blackbirds. I’m getting with this different pattern and color. The roosters with the certain color have different patterns and are getting really colored up. I’m gonna go feed now and I’ll take a picture.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

So, from my understanding with the Isa browns, and the smoky pearls, we will get White and paints, because the rooster is black model. I think I have them figured out possibly. The Isa Brown roosters are really colored up (as seen in the first picture a few weeks ago so now they are more colored up )with a yellow color to a really dark orange and the hens are a white Paint with a little yellow coming out in their feathers. With the smoky pearls combination of our rooster we have we are having paints like in the second picture. The girls all have black feet and the boys have yellow

After looking up the parent stock for ISA browns, I can confirm now that they and smokey pearls are both heterozygous dominant white, I/i+. What that means is that they only have one copy of the dominant white gene, and thus they can pass on dominant white I to their chicks, or they can pass on not-white i+, with an equal chance of either gene being passed on to any chick. Paired with a not-white rooster like yours, i+/i+, that means that you should get roughly equal numbers of heterozygous dominant white (inheriting I from the mother and i+ from the father) and not-white (inheriting i+ from both the father and mother) in the offspring. In other words, any bird that is primarily white almost assuredly came from one of them based on the other possible hens in your flock... but not all of their chicks will be primarily white.

I remember your rooster from another thread now! He does not appear to have any gold color leaking through, but it's hard to say if he has any color leaking through at all due to the white from mottling in his hackle feathers, so that does not really tell us whether he is S/S, S/s+, or s+s+ for the silver gene, unfortunately.

The shank color is probably coincidental. Your rooster as I recall has light shanks, meaning if he's producing any dark-shanked offspring then he is split for the gene that causes light shanks, Id/id+. That means he could have light or dark shanked offspring of either sex depending on the genetics of the hen he breeds. The cockerel in question, to me, looks like he is Id/id+ or Id/Id for light shanks. He's lacking the depth of slate coloring I would expect on the legs of a bird who is id+/id+, at least as far as I can see from those pictures, and instead appears to just have a dark wash from being E extended black based. So shank color does not really give us any definitive answers, either.

Long story short, the mother was most likely one of the ISA, the smokey pearl, or the Australorp, but beyond that we can't really say for certain which based on the information available.