Splash Orp Hen or Roo?

[hokankai]

This little bugger has been giving me the run around all along. SUPER friendly baby. Loves to hop onto my arm! I thought roo from the very beginning, and a local gal vent sexed it as male at 2 weeks old. However, it is part of a BBS cuckoo orp project and has NO barring on the splash feathers. Males should be either single barred or double barred according to the genetics of the project. Also, no pointed saddle or hackle feathers to be seen, mounting behavior, crowing, etc.

Here's the baby at 12 weeks old now.

 

[mshuntjump]

pullets, but they are not orpingtons. Orps have a single comb and white legs.

 

[Happy Chooks]

pullets, but they are not orpingtons. Orps have a single comb and white legs.

Not true. Blue, black and splash orps have slate colored shanks. Though the OP did state that they were part of a project, so they already know they aren't pure Orps.


To the OP. I think your Splash is a cockerel and the blue is a pullet.


Here is a splash Orp pullet at 8 weeks.


And a Orp cockerel at 8 weeks.

 

[Brandi Leigh]

I am guessing both are pullets.

 

[hokankai]

Yes it is a project Orp, with Dominiques used to get the barring.

If it's a cockerel why doesn't it have barring at all? All the other siblings were double barred (males) single barred (male or female) an solid (female, like the blue).

Also when should I see pointed feathers coming through?

The other weird thing is that this baby never squabbled as a chick. The boys were always rowdy and sizing each other up whereas this little one never did. No dominance displays at all, even in adolescence.

 

[hokankai]

The baby was not that pink at 8 weeks and is now 12 weeks old. My POL pullets started to pink up around 12 weeks, and the blue Orp is pink now too. Wattle and comb development are not as prominent as the boy you posted

Not true. Blue, black and splash orps have slate colored shanks. Though the OP did state that they were part of a project, so they already know they aren't pure Orps. To the OP. I think your Splash is a cockerel and the blue is a pullet. Here is a splash Orp pullet at 8 weeks. And a Orp cockerel at 8 weeks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yes it is a project Orp, with Dominiques used to get the barring.

If it's a cockerel why doesn't it have barring at all? All the other siblings were double barred (males) single barred (male or female) an solid (female, like the blue).

Also when should I see pointed feathers coming through?

The other weird thing is that this baby never squabbled as a chick. The boys were always rowdy and sizing each other up whereas this little one never did. No dominance displays at all, even in adolescence.

Yours has a rose comb, so it will not get as pronounced as my pure Orp cockerel. It may indeed be a pullet, but the tail feathers look cockerel like to me.

I'm not familiar with the project you are participating in.

If you put a blue rooster over a dominique, you would not get a splash bird. You would get blue and black birds. To get the splash, you would have to either use a splash/blue combination, splash/splash combination, or a blue/blue combination. What birds were used in this mating?

 

[hokankai]

I can't remember what stage of the project this was, but when I hatched for the lady she wanted all the double barred boys to use towards next years breedings. Next years breedings will yield single barred females and double barre males.

They were doing a similar project with AMs too.

 

[minihorse927]

I am going with both being pullets. I just do not see the cockerel in the splash.

 

[hokankai]

The tails of both look the same. I had a butt pic of them both but didn't post it