Show me your bielefelder crosses.

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

This is definitely a tough one! Since it seems to be the only option, I’m thinking that Solo’s father is the bielefelder, and one of these two hens has the silver gene and is the mother:

I do think he is barred, it’s just weird how minimal it is.

I only hatched 1 egg from each of my mixed breed hens. Their moms are “known” based on which egg the chick hatched from. I’m pretty diligent, but a misidentified egg or an incubator mix-up is always possible. If I mixed up which chick came from which egg, I think this one is the only possibility:

Keebler:

I believe Keebler came from Garri:

Their personalities are similar: chill, laid-back. Their combs are similar: straight but small and tight to the head. This is the first chick Garri had with (I believe) the Biele rooster. Keebler’s size and coloration are why I assume the Biele father.

Do you think it's more likely that Keebler came from the black w/ gold hen? And that Solo could have come from this blue hen? It doesn’t make sense for any other mix ups because the pea combed chick had to come from the pea combed hen and the rose combed chick had to come from the rose combed hen.

Or is Solo not actually barred? He shed these feathers this morning. That little pointy one is (I’m pretty sure) from his hackles. Looking at the feathers individually, I'm not so sure I'm seeing barring.

Last thought- is it possible my Bielefelder rooster carries the silver gene but doesn’t express it? Or is that not a possibility? Chicken genetics are so fascinating and yet so confusing to me!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I only hatched 1 egg from each of my mixed breed hens. Their moms are “known” based on which egg the chick hatched from. I’m pretty diligent, but a misidentified egg or an incubator mix-up is always possible. If I mixed up which chick came from which egg, I think this one is the only possibility:

Keebler:
View attachment 4154490View attachment 4154491
I believe Keebler came from Garri:
View attachment 4154492
Their personalities are similar: chill, laid-back. Their combs are similar: straight but small and tight to the head. This is the first chick Garri had with (I believe) the Biele rooster. Keebler’s size and coloration are why I assume the Biele father.

Do you think it's more likely that Keebler came from the black w/ gold hen? And that Solo could have come from this blue hen? It doesn’t make sense for any other mix ups because the pea combed chick had to come from the pea combed hen and the rose combed chick had to come from the rose combed hen.

Or is Solo not actually barred? He shed these feathers this morning. That little pointy one is (I’m pretty sure) from his hackles. Looking at the feathers individually, I'm not so sure I'm seeing barring.

View attachment 4154505View attachment 4154506

Last thought- is it possible my Bielefelder rooster carries the silver gene but doesn’t express it? Or is that not a possibility? Chicken genetics are so fascinating and yet so confusing to me!

A gold chicken can’t carry the silver gene without expressing it. Weirdly enough, a chicken who is pure for the silver gene can still have “gold” color— it’s just not sex-linked gold, it’s autosomal red. Stanley is one example of a chicken who is pure for silver but has a lot of autosomal red.

Keebler has barred hackles and the blue gene, so the father has to be bielefelder, and the mother has to be one of the blue hens.

I do think Solo is barred.