Is this bird barred?

[Mary Of Exeter]

I noticed this little girl (or guy?) looked different. Is it a red barred bird? It's a mixed up bird, probably from one of my black sex-link hens and one of my various roosters.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

No, not enough to be classified as barred in my opinion.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I don't see any barring in either bird. Which one were you asking about?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

just looks red to me, shows maybe a touch of barring or lacing on the wings and rump. Did it have a white dot on top of it's head as a chick, all barred colors will have that if they are true barred or cuckoos

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

The bird on the left is the one I'm referring to. I honestly can't remember if it had a dot or not. It's been a while and didn't pay much attention.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

I need to post some updated pictures now that they are all a little bit older. I took a very good look at this bird (I'm praying it is a hen but I don't know!) and it's brother. This one has much better barring, in which almost all of its feathers show barring. Wings, chest, back, even the "butt fluff" looks two-toned. The rooster doesn't show it nearly as well, but he does have some on him, along with one strange white and black feather that looks completely out of place. The guy two houses up from us has chickens that are also free ranged, and both of ours often forage in the yard separating us. He has a ton of barred rocks, so I'm thinking they discovered my hens and that is why the barring randomly popped up (since I have no barred or cuckoo birds myself).

 

[BuffaloWings]

I see what you mean about the "red barring". I have a little experience with black sex links. The parent stock of black sex links are a barred rock hen and a rhode island red rooster. Their first generation chicks hatch out to become a barred rooster and a black with maybe a little red in the hackle hens. When you breed sex link to sex link you could actually end up with anything from what looks like a barred rock to what looks like a rhode island red and anything in between. Since you added the "various" rooster blood, you ended up with a little of the barred gene bleeding through. Although you couldn't really call it red barred. Second generation sex links are always cool though. They are always a mystery.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

It looks like some indistinct barring on the rump and wings. SHE is a very pretty bird either way! Barring looks incomplete, but I can see some red barring to her.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I would also say laced, though not much.

 

[Mary Of Exeter]

My main rooster here is RJ, who's momma was a black sex-link, and his dad was a RIR. So he looks almost like your typical RIR.
So if this babies are sired by my rooster, he's more than likely the culprit and the mom could be either black sex-links, or hens that appear to be buff/black mixes (who I'm thinking are sex-linked birds, just not your typical black or red "stars").

There is another rooster (RJ's son) who resembles a leghorn with his size and such, with some interesting looking black leaking through in his hackles, but I don't think he'd be the daddy.

And like I said, the other options are the many BR roosters that greet my chickens every day.



The reason I didn't think it was lacing, or the "laced look" that some RIR hens show, is because I looked at individual feathers when I caught this little girl/guy. Most had two dark bands and two light bands on the feather, like barring.
I played around on the chicken calculator to see if a BR x red hen (or anything else) could even MAKE a red barred bird, and eventually I did end up with some red barred roosters in the offspring. The rooster still appeared black barred, but I guess I made him carry some kind of red gene? Excuse my ignorance on the dominance of chicken colors and color modifiers....I'm still in the process of absorbing it all

But my real question is, is there any way I can improve the barring in their future babies? I would love to have more red barred babies. Would getting some BR's to mix with them be the best way to go?