Mixed breed fun. What do you think?

[NewJourney]

We have a little cockerel I call Mo. We hatched him from our own eggs.

I know he is half Polish. He is sired by Hans, our mixed breed beauty. I believe him to be Black Copper Marans x Gold Deathlayer. Some people in another post I made about him don’t believe he’s BCM because of the comb type.

Our other rooster that COULD have sired our chicks is a White American Bresse. So, definitely not the father. lol

Here is the chicken in question:




Here is his papa:


Possible momma is either Rocky our SL bearded Polish or non-bearded White created Blue (not pictured).



What do you think Moe’s genetics is? Does it help us fine tune our estimate on Hans our lovely mixed breed boy?

 

[CascadiaRiver]

Why couldn't it have been the bresse? Single combs are recessive, so the mom was anything but a single comb they likely wouldn't have the single comb. What are all of the possible hens?

 

[JedJackson]

I see no reason to doubt the parentage you stated. The father definitely has Deathlayer ancestry with that comb, and he could well have a black Copper Marans as the other parent. Rose combs are usually dominant over single combs when the two are mixed together.

The boy in question would be silvery if the silver laced Polish was the mother. I think it has to be the white crested blue Polish. Blue is a dilute of black, so offspring of crossing the father with a blue chicken would be 50% black and 50% blue. He just happened to land on black.

 

[NewJourney]

Why couldn't it have been the bresse? Single combs are recessive, so the mom was anything but a single comb they likely wouldn't have the single comb. What are all of the possible hens?

He came from a Polish egg. Our two Polish eggs are white and super light-tinted off-white. They are the pointiest eggs we've ever seen. And they always hatch a day earlier than the others.

But in the interest of this game... The other hens could be an Easter Egger, Buff Orpington, White American Bresse, Buff Brahma, Black Copper Marans, White Rock, Starlight Green Egger, Prairie Bluebell Egger, White Laced Red Cornish (though none of the Cornish eggs have ever been fertilized when I incubate them). We have two of each except for the EE (1), PBBE (1), SGE (1) and the Cornish (4).

The only hens we have with crested genetics are the two Polish. We had no cockerels or roosters with crests, until now - with Mo.

None of our flock has a cushion comb except for Mr. Hans (and now Mo).

I think all of our flock members have either straight or rose combs, besides our mixed breed home-hatched birds. But I hadn't paid much attention to that, until very recently since I'm very interested in learning more about Hans because he's such an amazing rooster.

He's a great dad (not aggressive to babies at all), great with his hens (showing them he thinks a great nesting spot will be, staying with hens that have trouble laying eggs (like one of my BCM lays rough eggs which take longer to come out), shows babies that hatched how to eat and drink, and genuinely cares for them, hops on to mate quickly, without digging into their backs, mates properly very quickly and hops off without causing them harm, etc. He is never aggressive to us or the hens, he's watchful, and he genuinely likes us (his human caregivers) and doesn't try to "protect" his hens from us. He's friggen awesome.

Because of this, I really want to try to figure out how to make more of him if possible. I don't want to inbreed my chickens though. I want to try to re-create a version of him down the line so that when he's gone we can still have great roosters around.

As you may be able to tell - we've had bad roosters in the past... lol... Quite a few of them to be honest.

I've never had Gamebirds of any kind (other than our WLR Cornish) and there's something about Mo's legs that scream "gamebird" to me, but is it simply because of the Polish genetics??

Hans doesn't have the super long skinny legs like Mo, so I'm confused as to where that came from. Our Polish don't look like they have tall skinny legs like a gamebird either.

Oh, and Mo's legs have feathering much like his father, Hans. The Brahmas are our only feathered leg hens out there. White American Bresse don't have feathered legs.

 

[NewJourney]

He came from a Polish egg. Our two Polish eggs are white and super light-tinted off-white. They are the pointiest eggs we've ever seen. And they always hatch a day earlier than the others.

But in the interest of this game... The other hens could be an Easter Egger, Buff Orpington, White American Bresse, Buff Brahma, Black Copper Marans, White Rock, Starlight Green Egger, Prairie Bluebell Egger, White Laced Red Cornish (though none of the Cornish eggs have ever been fertilized when I incubate them). We have two of each except for the EE (1), PBBE (1), SGE (1) and the Cornish (4).

The only hens we have with crested genetics are the two Polish. We had no cockerels or roosters with crests, until now - with Mo.

None of our flock has a cushion comb except for Mr. Hans (and now Mo).

I think all of our flock members have either straight or rose combs, besides our mixed breed home-hatched birds. But I hadn't paid much attention to that, until very recently since I'm very interested in learning more about Hans because he's such an amazing rooster.

He's a great dad (not aggressive to babies at all), great with his hens (showing them he thinks a great nesting spot will be, staying with hens that have trouble laying eggs (like one of my BCM lays rough eggs which take longer to come out), shows babies that hatched how to eat and drink, and genuinely cares for them, hops on to mate quickly, without digging into their backs, mates properly very quickly and hops off without causing them harm, etc. He is never aggressive to us or the hens, he's watchful, and he genuinely likes us (his human caregivers) and doesn't try to "protect" his hens from us. He's friggen awesome.

Because of this, I really want to try to figure out how to make more of him if possible. I don't want to inbreed my chickens though. I want to try to re-create a version of him down the line so that when he's gone we can still have great roosters around.

As you may be able to tell - we've had bad roosters in the past... lol... Quite a few of them to be honest.

I've never had Gamebirds of any kind (other than our WLR Cornish) and there's something about Mo's legs that scream "gamebird" to me, but is it simply because of the Polish genetics??

Hans doesn't have the super long skinny legs like Mo, so I'm confused as to where that came from. Our Polish don't look like they have tall skinny legs like a gamebird either.

Oh, and Mo's legs have feathering much like his father, Hans. The Brahmas are our only feathered leg hens out there. White American Bresse don't have feathered legs.

The good news is that I'm seeing Mo breed (looks successful) with our Cornish! I don't know that I've ever seen a successful breeding from any of the roosters with our four Cornish. This fall I plan to incubate some of the Cornish eggs to see if I can hatch any out, and what they will grow up to look and act like.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I see no reason to doubt the parentage you stated. The father definitely has Deathlayer ancestry with that comb, and he could well have a black Copper Marans as the other parent. Rose combs are usually dominant over single combs when the two are mixed together.

The boy in question would be silvery if the silver laced Polish was the mother. I think it has to be the white crested blue Polish. Blue is a dilute of black, so offspring of crossing the father with a blue chicken would be 50% black and 50% blue. He just happened to land on black.

Agreed!

Also, I would not breed the silver laced polish, she has a slight crossbeak.

 

[NewJourney]

Agreed!

Also, I would not breed the silver laced polish, she has a slight crossbeak.

I agree, we don't have any plans to hatch any more chicks from her. Her cross beak is a problem, though thankfully not as bad as some others I've seen online. I trim it a few times a year. Even when it's at its worst she doesn't lose weight, nor have noticeable problems eating/drinking or preening.

She's currently raising a baby chick with another hen who is raising a slightly older chick. Neither appear to be mixed with Polish, yet. She's such a good momma. I'm so proud of her! I never imagined my little Rocky would become a momma wanting to hatch and care for babies. It's a beautiful thing.

Side note: I've got 6 week old chicks I need to figure out what to do with. I am told they are Barbu D'Uccle x Silky. I got them from a friend who hatched them from her flock. It appears I have 3 cockerels and maybe 1 pullet. They are all posturing and acting cocky though, so I wonder if the comb on the one suspected pullet is just delayed in pinking up... I know it's not the same chicks as the original post, but here they are - since they are mixed breed as well.
The one in the middle facing the camera here is the one I suspect COULD be a pullet.
This one is the largest of the three.


The cockiest is the black one with a tiny tail (probably inherited a Silky-type tail?). The one that won't shut the eff up crowing in the mornings is the blue one.. So far, the others don't crow. I'm shocked The black one hasn't crowed yet. He was the first to mature.


The black one had the stereotypical cockerel feathering pattern (wings feathered in slower and were shorter than the rear end, with the tail feathers being super delayed in growing). The other three all feathered out like pullets with very long quick growing wings and much longer tail feathers growing first.

It shocked me when I heard crowing and it wasn't from the black chick. They are all chest bumping a lot acting a fool. So since little guy (smallest of the group and has a red comb) has cross beak I won't be keeping him. It appears mild so far. I just trimmed it this morning.

I'm considering keeping little black chick because he hops on top of my foot often throughout the day. But I wonder if he's going to become a little jerk when older since he's already showing such strong confidence and dominance traits. IDK...

Oh how cute IRL I see the blue one is developing red wattles.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I agree, we don't have any plans to hatch any more chicks from her. Her cross beak is a problem, though thankfully not as bad as some others I've seen online. I trim it a few times a year. Even when it's at its worst she doesn't lose weight, nor have noticeable problems eating/drinking or preening.

She's currently raising a baby chick with another hen who is raising a slightly older chick. Neither appear to be mixed with Polish, yet. She's such a good momma. I'm so proud of her! I never imagined my little Rocky would become a momma wanting to hatch and care for babies. It's a beautiful thing.

Side note: I've got 6 week old chicks I need to figure out what to do with. I am told they are Barbu D'Uccle x Silky. I got them from a friend who hatched them from her flock. It appears I have 3 cockerels and maybe 1 pullet. They are all posturing and acting cocky though, so I wonder if the comb on the one suspected pullet is just delayed in pinking up... I know it's not the same chicks as the original post, but here they are - since they are mixed breed as well.
The one in the middle facing the camera here is the one I suspect COULD be a pullet.
This one is the largest of the three.
View attachment 4170087

The cockiest is the black one with a tiny tail (probably inherited a Silky-type tail?). The one that won't shut the eff up crowing in the mornings is the blue one.. So far, the others don't crow. I'm shocked The black one hasn't crowed yet. He was the first to mature.
View attachment 4170088

The black one had the stereotypical cockerel feathering pattern (wings feathered in slower and were shorter than the rear end, with the tail feathers being super delayed in growing). The other three all feathered out like pullets with very long quick growing wings and much longer tail feathers growing first.

It shocked me when I heard crowing and it wasn't from the black chick. They are all chest bumping a lot acting a fool. So since little guy (smallest of the group and has a red comb) has cross beak I won't be keeping him. It appears mild so far. I just trimmed it this morning.

I'm considering keeping little black chick because he hops on top of my foot often throughout the day. But I wonder if he's going to become a little jerk when older since he's already showing such strong confidence and dominance traits. IDK...

Oh how cute IRL I see the blue one is developing red wattles.

The black one looks like a bantam cochin. I wouldn’t be worried about his behavior unless he starts acting confrontational.

 

[NewJourney]

The black one looks like a bantam cochin. I wouldn’t be worried about his behavior unless he starts acting confrontational.

Oh interesting. A bantam Cochin! He’s certainly cute.

 

[NewJourney]

The black one looks like a bantam cochin. I wouldn’t be worried about his behavior unless he starts acting confrontational.

I just asked my friend if she has any bantam Cochins and she said no she doesn't. I do know he is part Silky as evidenced by his feet coloration and extra toes.

My friend replied: I have a white Cochin, but the only bantam is a Barbu D’Uccle and a black silkie.

I believe in North America Silky chickens are considered bantams. I will have to assume he's a Barb D'Uccle x Silky. I cannot imagine he would be a Cochin x Silky considering his tiny size.