What Breed and Color is this Guy?

[Celizwalsh]

I posted this acouple minutes ago in the breeding and genetics section but after looking around I think this section is where I am supposed to post this. Oops

Well I was curious if anyone knows what breed and color this guy is? He is about half the size of an adult cochin hen and has feathers on his feet and legs. He lives on a large horse farm where the owner gets some hens and roosters at auction, some are drop offs at the farm, and some are born on the farm from the adults. So I think he may just be a mixed breed of some sort. The reason I am curious is I think he is gorgeous and would like to get a hen with similar coloring when I start my own flock this spring.
Thanks!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Does he have feathers on his feet, maybe and Old English Game / mix if not. Think he would be called splash with some red leakage?

 

[Wyandottes7]

He's definitely a mix of some sort. As Kelsie2290 said, he might have some Old English Game in him. The coloration is splash with leakage, or possibly a mix of splash and some other color.

 

[Celizwalsh]

Thats pretty interesting! I googled old english game rooster pics and I can definately see some similarities. Is there any way to get this color in a purebred hen like an orpington or does it only happen by chance/from mix breeds?

 

[donrae]

You can get splash in several breeds, but a hen or a well-bred splash rooster won't have that red coloring, that's a sign of mixed breeding.
Off the top of my head Marans, Orpingtons, Ameraucanas, cochins, and Andalusians come in splash--maybe not all accepted colors for the breed, but easy enough to find with a little searching.

Splash is basically a double dilute of black, so any bird that comes in blue can come in splash. Splash laced red wyandottes are very pretty birds, if you're looking for eye candy.

 

[Celizwalsh]

Ok so I googled it to try to understand the genetics of the splash color a bit and if I am not mistaken I would have to find someone who breeds for the blue color in a hen. Then there would be a 25% chance of getting a splash, 25% of getting a black, and 50% of getting a blue. Now if that is correct then is there any way for a breeder to tell while they are chicks that they will be a splash when fully grown?

 

[Kelsie2290]

Some hatcheries do carry various breeds in splash, Ideal has OEGs in splash, Cackle has OEGS, Rosecombs, Cochins etc but they probably will not have the leakage that roo has. Splash is a true breeding color so if both parents are the chicks will be. In chicks you can usually tell because the splash chicks are usually really light colored compared to the blues or blacks, but it isn't always 100% sure as day olds. Blue to blue gives you the 25/50/25% color odds, so even hatcheries that don't specifically offer splashes will usually have them in anything they offer in blue because of the way they set up their breeding pens, ie, I've gotten a lot of splash laced red wyandottes from blue orders.

 

[1muttsfan]

He looks like he could be a lemon splash, basically that is a Brown Red bird with blue dilution. Any breed that has Brown Red can be diluted to lemon blue or lemon splash - bantam cochins and game birds both come in that color variety. The hens in my avatar are a Lemon Blue and a Brown Red bantam cochins.

 

[donrae]

An experienced breeder should be able to tell which chicks are splash, they'll be a kind of dirty light grey looking color. Blue chicks are usually a medium smoky grey. As stated, if you find someone breeding splash to splash, all the offspring will be splash.

 

[Celizwalsh]

Thanks for all the info everyone

now I will have to either look for someone who breeds splashs or order a blue and hope for the best