Specific breed, or is he a mutt?

[lauramacf]

Hi all,

I finally got some chickens (YAY!) and have been slowly filtering out the roosters (sniff, sniff), finding them new homes as they start to crow. Out of five birds, so far I've confirmed 2 roosters and suspect 2 more. I'm not sure I'm going to have any chickens left when all is said and done.

This guy is an awesome dude, he is gorgeous and full of personality,I've got an ad up in the auction section here and will probably post on Craigslist if that doesn't work because he crows day and night and I worry the city I live in will be coming after us soon. But the question often comes up when I'm out there talking about him: what kind of rooster is he?

His breed has been a mystery ever since we got him, I've searched high and low for images online that might help me identify it to no avail, so I'm assuming he is a mutt. Even so, if anyone has any ideas of what breeds might have been crossed that would be cool. He was found wandering in the city as a tiny chick, so we have no information about where he came from. He is about 3 months old, if I could keep any of my birds it would be him . . .

Any ideas? His name is Lulu, by the way . . .

 

[farmerChef]

possibly a leghorn/RIR cross?

I say RIR because of the red earlobes and red leakage, and White leghorn because to the white feathers and large comb.

You could post pictures of your other chickens and we could tell you rooster/hen and possible breed/cross also.

 

[lauramacf]

What is "red leakage?"

And maybe I will post pictures of the others a bit later, I have one other that is probably a mix that is the primary rooster suspect (iridescent tail feathers are coming in), I would still like to know what breed/breeds it is, and also a light brahma that is a bit suspicious in the gender area.

 

[farmerChef]

the red on his shoulders and in his hackle(neck) feathers

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
I'm not going to try to guess parentage.

Chicken color genetics is interesting. There are a whole lot of different genes that control colors and patterns. A whole lot of different ones. How they go together can really change the appearance of the chicken. Some genes are dominant over others but some genes are partially dominant, not completely. And there are diluter and melanizer genes that can change how they interact.

With some specific crosses, the theory says a certain color or pattern should dominate, but practice is often different from theory. For example, this rooster is, in theory, supposed to be solid black. The gold you see is leakage because practice does not always follow theory.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Looks like a red sexlink rooster to me.

Red sexlinks are a cross that is sexable at hatch, hen chicks are red and rooster chicks yellow. The hens feather out into a red bird with a bit of white in the neck and tail and sometimes wings and the roosters are white to cream coloured with red on the shoulders/back and green or green and white mixed tail(so looking like your roo).

 

[lauramacf]

Quote:
That's it! I did a google search (funny, I wouldn't have ever clicked on "Red Sex Link" as an option since he wasn't red, but d'oh, it's so obvious now!) It makes perfect sense--he was thrown out at a day old because he was clearly a rooster, and also why he seems so unusual, I mean, there aren't many of them around, are there? Anyone getting Sex Links is definitely getting them so they WON'T have this rooster problem. Mystery solved! Thank you FancyFowl!

Edit: finished up a sentence I left hanging!