Need Breeding Advise

[Arenas Chickens]

Here are the boys:

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Here are the boys:

First one is black barred. Black barred x blue barred (your hen is blue barred) will give you 50% blues and 50% blacks. 75% of the chicks will also be barred. However, I am not completely sure that one is a cockerel.

Second is definitely not a barred rock x ameraucana. He looks like an Easter egger x Easter egger or an Easter egger mix. He doesn’t have the barring gene and he isn’t blue. He could be splash (crossed to blue would get you 50% blues) but I’m not sure yet.

 

[Arenas Chickens]

First one is black barred. Black barred x blue barred (your hen is blue barred) will give you 50% blues and 50% blacks. 75% of the chicks will also be barred. However, I am not completely sure that one is a cockerel.

Second is definitely not a barred rock x ameraucana. He looks like an Easter egger x Easter egger or an Easter egger mix. He doesn’t have the barring gene and he isn’t blue. He could be splash (crossed to blue would get you 50% blues) but I’m not sure yet.

i was also hoping they’d both be Roos. I’m sure they are lol

I was assured, and saw the flock, that they both are the barred rock crossed with an Americana. I agree one holds the barred gene waaaay more than the other but does not have the blue legs of his redder brother.

I am hoping that either way if I breed my little unknown hen With them I will have blue laying offspring even if their feathers come all sorts of colors lol

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

i was also hoping they’d both be Roos. I’m sure they are lol

I was assured, and saw the flock, that they both are the barred rock crossed with an Americana. I agree one holds the barred gene waaaay more than the other but does not have the blue legs of his redder brother.

I am hoping that either way if I breed my little unknown hen With them I will have blue laying offspring even if their feathers come all sorts of colors lol

Even if you saw the flock, that doesn’t mean mistakes weren’t made. That cockerel could’ve come from another hen or a rooster that they’ve recently gotten rid of. Maybe they got the breeds of the parents wrong.
What variety of ameraucana did they have?

You will likely get offspring that lay colored eggs, though it’s less likely if that cockerel is a Easter egger mix rather than an ameraucana mix.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I do have a question regarding the bantams?
- My BF says they are “bigger than I expected them to be”. I assume a bantam breed would be very tiny in comparison to a regular chick? He thinks perhaps it has more ‘Cochin’ than ‘bantam’ in them. So the questions are: would that be an accurate statement that a Cochin and bantam would be the make or break of a size difference? And how would you get the ‘bantam’ back into the breed? I assume you would find a true golden laced bantam and breed them but my research isn’t yielding this ‘detailed’ of breeding practices; the breeding in or out of characteristics, with the exception of breeding the father/daughter for fixing or keeping of a breed quality.

thoughts? I’ll attach pictures of the littlins in another post as I am sure my description of my Roos makes for more questions and imaginations

It’s possible they are standard sized rather than bantams. Though cochin bantams are bigger than other bantam breeds, such as sebrights and old English game bantams.
I don’t know exactly how gold laced cochin bantams were bred, but I’d think it would be easier to breed the smallest cochin bantams rather than bring in a different breed. Though it could be done, it would take a while to get rid of all the non-cochin traits while keeping the non-cochin smallness.

 

[Arenas Chickens]

I am assuming from the reply I may have to breed both of them to see whom has blue eggs I reallly was hoping the blue legs were my solid choice

 

[Arenas Chickens]

It’s possible they are standard sized rather than bantams. Though cochin bantams are bigger than other bantam breeds, such as sebrights and old English game bantams.
I don’t know exactly how gold laced cochin bantams were bred, but I’d think it would be easier to breed the smallest cochin bantams rather than bring in a different breed. Though it could be done, it would take a while to get rid of all the non-cochin traits while keeping the non-cochin smallness.

Well they are much smaller than the rest of the birds but still bigger than he expected. They came from a hatchery so I hope they are bantams. Any suggestion what one might breed them with ?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ummmm..... that barred is female

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I am assuming from the reply I may have to breed both of them to see whom has blue eggs I reallly was hoping the blue legs were my solid choice

Blue legs aren’t connected to the blue egg shell gene. It would probably be a good idea to breed them both.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Well they are much smaller than the rest of the birds but still bigger than he expected. They came from a hatchery so I hope they are bantams. Any suggestion what one might breed them with ?

Sounds like they are bantams, just large ones. What would be your goal with that breeding? Would you want something that is smaller but looks exactly like a cochin otherwise, or just something smaller and pretty cochin-ish? For instance, how important would comb type and leg feathering be to you? Or feather color?