Possible Crosses from BO Roo

[kristeninprogress]

I have 8 chicks that are supposed to be pullets. There's only one that I believe might be a Roo. (S)he is a Buff Orpington. If she is in fact a he (and friendly), I wouldn't mind keep him around for my other girls. BUT I also don't want to be hatching out crosses that don't make sense, and I wouldn't want to be getting too attached in that case.

So out of curiosity, what would I be getting with the following hens and a Buff Orpington roo?:

Barred Rock
Sapphire Gem
Barnevelder
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Easter Egger

 

[DobieLover]

I have 8 chicks that are supposed to be pullets. There's only one that I believe might be a Roo. (S)he is a Buff Orpington. If she is in fact a he (and friendly), I wouldn't mind keep him around for my other girls. BUT I also don't want to be hatching out crosses that don't make sense, and I wouldn't want to be getting too attached in that case.

So out of curiosity, what would I be getting with the following hens and a Buff Orpington roo?:

Barred Rock
Sapphire Gem
Barnevelder
Silver Laced Wyandotte
Easter Egger

Mutts! Who cares!? If you are not a breeder and you don't mind mixed breeds, go for it. But you will need to have a plan for the cockerels you will end up with.

 

[kristeninprogress]

Mutts! Who cares!? If you are not a breeder and you don't mind mixed breeds, go for it. But you will need to have a plan for the cockerels you will end up with.

I care. I don't have anything against "mutts", but I do have limited resources, and I want to make the most out of what I put in. Either way, I have several months to make a final decision, but like I said, I'm curious.

As for cockerels, I'm not opposed to culling. While my flock and lot is small at the moment, I hope to start homesteading in the near future, and the chickens will play a huge role, both for eggs and meat.

 

[CountryFlock]

It seems like buff orpington mixes have a lot of color leakage so expect that.

Buff Orpington to:

Barred Rock: Sexlinked chicks where females are mostly black with some leakage. Males are barred with some possible color leakage.

Sapphire Gem: Half offspring on average will be blue with leakage, other half will be black with leakage.

Barnevelder: With this expect a lot more color and pattern. Expect buff lacing too, you can get Spangling, half lacing. Do you have a Silver barnevelder or gold?

Silver laced Wyandotte: Pretty much the same as above but the males would have one silver gene resulting in yellow hackle. (A mix between silver and gold). Possibly easily sexed at a young age?

Easter egger: Id expect a mostly buff chicken with almost anything. I’m not sure what kind of genes your EE is expressing so I’m not sure. Possible beard in the offspring, green/brown eggs.

 

[kristeninprogress]

It seems like buff orpington mixes have a lot of color leakage so expect that.

Buff Orpington to:

Barred Rock: Sexlinked chicks where females are probably mostly black with some leakage. Males are barred with some possible color leakage.

Sapphire Gem: Half offspring on average will be blue with leakage, other half will be black with leakage.

Barnevelder: With this expect a lot more color and pattern. Expect buff lacing too, you can get Spangling, half lacing. Do you have a Silver barnevelder or gold?

Silver laced Wyandotte: Pretty much the same as above but the males would have one silver gene resulting in yellow hackle. (A mix between silver and gold). Possibly easily sexed at a young age?

Easter egger: Id expect a mostly buff chicken with almost anything. I’m not sure what kind of genes your EE is expressing so I’m not sure. Possible beard in the offspring, green/brown eggs.

Thank you! Our Barnevelder is gold. After getting some sleep on it, I'm tempted to try every cross but a Sapphire Gem cross, I think. They seem like fun possibilities!