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I agree, both birds are very beautiful! The cross one looks pullet-ish but do see what you mean by those darker feathers coming out by tail... pretty often, a different color coming up on saddles, wing bow and hackles of white chicks means it's a boy. Separate the feathers on back to look for pin feathers, by this age boys will be starting to show very pointy and super shiny feathers coming out of the pin feathers. If you're seeing rounded, non shiny feathers coming out.. could be a tricky pullet!
OK a couple thoughts, if both are boys: Both are definite lavender carriers. Both will throw a variety of colors, but both will only throw 1/4 lavender chicks with the black NN hen. (with lil Kev you get 50% lav chicks).
Pro for the pure NN: he completely lacks a bow tie, which is uncommon.. from the related birds to your NN, get only one or 2 complete bare necks out of say, 10-15 chicks. Seems rather hard to get but anyways, you will get more of it, eventually from the black hen/Kev and this one. We do not know if the cross bird got "whatever it is" that causes total lack of bowties. Him being very sweet is a plus. All his chicks will be naked necked- but all crosses will have the larger bowties like on the cross bird. On the other hand, he will be spreading the no-bowtie gene(s)....
Pro for the cross: will throw more variety of colors with your various hens. Probably get a wider range of sizes from bantam thru 'large medium'. If he did not get the barring gene, won't get barred anything unless you have barred hens(in that case, all barreds would be boys. Pure NN will produce barreds in both sexes). Barring combined with different colors can produce wonderful looking birds- example barring on a partridge/wheaten/black breast red will look like crele- pretty flashy. Guessing it has dominant white, which represses black very well yet not so well on the browns/reds so if you have brown EE hens, should get some brown/gold/red with white patterning(similar to red pyle). Con: only half of the chicks will be NN (75% with the black NN hen).
Pretty much all I can think of at the moment.. Perhaps hatch another round of eggs from the black NN to get more lavender chicks and then replace lil Kev with either of the stunning specimens above if he doesn't improve his manners? This pairing is your best chance for lavenders- 50% as opposed to 25% with either one of the young boys. (and no lavs with other hens)
Good luck with deciding!
Okay, here's what I'm thinking. Please steer me in the right direction if you see me going down the wrong path!!
The white is looking like a pullet. Her mom is a very large EE, lays a taupe egg. Say I breed her with Lil' Kev next year. She should give me 50% NN and at least 25% lavender chicks? I love the bantams, but would like to be able to free range my flock. I would eventually like to have a few LF lavender hens, then later add some blues and splashes to my flock. I wouldn't mind some bantams as well, but I don't want to completely eliminate my LF. I have to have a mixed flock and I'm limited to about 20 birds. I don't have any trouble finding home for colored egg laying hens so non NN's are easy for me to sell. I have a harder time finding people that want the NN's.
My little NN/EE pullet is healing amazingly well. Next week should be able to put her and Lil' Steve (the barred cockerel) into a temp. pen until I sort things out (Until next spring at least). Thanks!
L'K x WP= All naked necks, because Lil Kev is pure for naked neck. Half of the chicks will have very naked necks like L'K's(those would be the ones pure for NN), half will have bigger bowties like the white pullet's(and the black NN). If you do this, would like to know if you get any total bare necks like Lil Steve.
50% will be lavender, the rest will be lavender carriers. The white pullet probably has Dominant White. DW is not a color, it basically is a gene that stops whatever colors/genes the bird has from showing up visibly. It works way better at blocking black pigments than red/gold pigments though(red pyles are red duckwings with dominant white, for example). Long way of saying that you are supposed to get 50% lavender chicks, but some of that percentage will be "hidden" in solid lavender** chicks that got the dominant white gene(these will look solid white) so the % of lav chicks will seem lower. Also in theory you might get some interesting colored chicks- for example if the chick is going to be a brown patterned EE, but it also happened to be pure lavender(which dilutes all colors to a soft shade) plus one dose dominant white- that potentially would make a multi-colored in pastels(lavender, straw/blond, white) bird.
For LF lavenders, would recommend breeding L'K with LF hens again and keep a cockerel at least(maybe some pullets too).. this cockerel will throw both bantam and almost full LF sizes in both sexes. Bantam bred with bantam cross tend to throw mostly bantam to medium size birds, a few can get reasonably sized but not quite full LF size. Bantam cross bred with LF throw the full range from smallish to LF sizes. Tricky part is getting lavender again... perhaps adding a LF lavender EE or Ameraucana hen will help with your goal? Or have the white EE cross "visit" a LF lavender roo? Her eggs would be fertile for 2-3 weeks afterwards.. would get some LF chicks, hopefully some of them would be lavender pullets also.. 50% NN 50% not.. If you like crazy color variety, a roo that is lavender but not solid- such as porcelain(which is just the mille fleur color with lavender added) or the like would be excellent choice for that pullet.
** solid lavenders are actually solid black chickens, with lavender added. That is why a solid lavender that happens to get dominant white will turn out solid white- it's the "solid black" DW is covering up.