More colour confirmations on mixed-breeds

[Canadian Wind]

Are their feet feathered? I see one foot along the edge of the picture I quoted here that looks like it's not feathered to me, but it's hard to tell with a partial view like this. A pure Cochin should always produce chicks with foot feathering. There are multiple genes for foot feathering and I believe at least two of them are dominant or partially dominant, so first generation cross of a pure Cochin will always have some foot feathering. How sure are you that she's the mother? Any pictures of her?

I also can't tell if it's the lighting or not, but some of these chicks look like they don't have any blue genes, which isn't possible with a splash parent as all chicks will inherit one blue gene from that parent. And several of them don't appear to have E extended black which a Splash Cochin should be pure for and thus all offspring should inherit as well... I feel like either your Cochin isn't a pure Cochin or someone else has to be the mother.

Not all of them are feathered, but some are. I'm not really concerned if the mother is pure or not, but she looks pure to me.

She's the one in the background on the right.

Please ignore the remnants of a coop in the back, a tree fell on it. No chickens were harmed, thank goodness!

There is always a possibility that another hen found the nest that Pepper had made, and I may have tossed in a few other eggs too from the flock (I didn't write it down and am kicking myself for it now).

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Based on what I can see of her, you definitely have another hen contributing here. She does not look like a mix to me in that shot, at least. Not knowing what the red mixed breed possible father looks like, I'd also lean toward the EE being the father based on the many pea combs I see in the bunch (though I do see a pullet with a single comb).

None of them have a feather coloration that is pure to assign an actual name for any of them. I'd just call them all barnyard mixes, personally.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Based on what I can see of her, you definitely have another hen contributing here. She does not look like a mix to me in that shot, at least. Not knowing what the red mixed breed possible father looks like, I'd also lean toward the EE being the father based on the many pea combs I see in the bunch (though I do see a pullet with a single comb).

None of them have a feather coloration that is pure to assign an actual name for any of them. I'd just call them all barnyard mixes, personally.

I unfortunately don't have any pictures of my EE roo on the laptop (my desktop is dead right now, like the roo), but here's the other possible father. Although I doubt it's him, the two Cochin I have were quite attached to the EE.

I doubt he's the father though, as he lives up to his name, Big Red. I think he's too big to have mated with the tiny Cochin.

Those are some of the hens that could have contributed to the nest, too.

 

[Canadian Wind]

So just went and checked, and all of them have feathered legs except for Mr. Paint-Bucket-Disaster.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Fascinating... Any other hens with feathered feet? I'm assuming the Easter-egger rooster was clean-legged as well?

The red rooster looks like he has a rose comb or maybe an incomplete walnut or cushion comb, is that correct? Do you know what he's a mix of?

 

[Canadian Wind]

Fascinating... Any other hens with feathered feet? I'm assuming the Easter-egger rooster was clean-legged as well?

The red rooster looks like he has a rose comb or maybe an incomplete walnut or cushion comb, is that correct? Do you know what he's a mix of?

Only other hen (apart from my two splash Cochin) with feathered legs is a Partridge OE, and I know for sure none of her eggs were in there, lol! I did have a blue Cochin roo, but I doubt he fathered any of these babies. The EE roo was clean-legged, yes.

As for this red roo, the consensus on his breed mix was: PUREBRED MUTT! I've been trying to figure out his comb, too. Not quite cushion or strawberry or walnut.

Oh wait! Found a picture of the EE! Looks like he had a rose comb! Poor Edgar the Egger... I miss him, he was such a character.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hmm, then either the father and some of the mothers have a recessive leg feathering gene they're carrying, or the Cochin isn't as pure as she looks... How strange!

That's a heterozygous pea comb on the EE rooster, P/p+, which is why it stands up away from his head like that. The rose comb gene is fully dominant, so always produces a comb that's sort of flattish and close to the head. Some modifying genes might make them spikier or taller, but will not make them look like what your EE rooster had. The other rooster most likely has a bit of both rose and pea comb genetics in him to get that look to his comb, either R/r+ P/p+ or R/R P/p+. Either way, that means we can't necessarily rule out either of them as the father then as we don't know if the red mix is R/R or R/r+, though it's still much more likely for the EE rooster to produce a bunch of pea combed chicks than it is for the red mix assuming I'm right about his comb genetics.

Mixes involving mixes are just so hard to clue out! Long story short, your chicks don't have any feather patterns with specific names.

 

[Canadian Wind]

Hmm, then either the father and some of the mothers have a recessive leg feathering gene they're carrying, or the Cochin isn't as pure as she looks... How strange!

That's a heterozygous pea comb on the EE rooster, P/p+, which is why it stands up away from his head like that. The rose comb gene is fully dominant, so always produces a comb that's sort of flattish and close to the head. Some modifying genes might make them spikier or taller, but will not make them look like what your EE rooster had. The other rooster most likely has a bit of both rose and pea comb genetics in him to get that look to his comb, either R/r+ P/p+ or R/R P/p+. Either way, that means we can't necessarily rule out either of them as the father then as we don't know if the red mix is R/R or R/r+, though it's still much more likely for the EE rooster to produce a bunch of pea combed chicks than it is for the red mix assuming I'm right about his comb genetics.

Mixes involving mixes are just so hard to clue out! Long story short, your chicks don't have any feather patterns with specific names.

And thus why I prefer Muscovy genetics, lol!!! I've been learning more about rabbit genetics too, but chickens is just way too complicated for this old brain!

Thank you so much for all your detailed help. I really appreciate it! I'll just enjoy the rainbow surprises that I get.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, chickens are complicated! To be fair, though, they've been domesticated a lot longer than most other common fowl, so there's been more time for us to find all these confusing genes and mix them all together.

Glad I could be of some help, even if I wasn't able to give you all the answers!