What breed is my lovely girl?

[Just Because]

Here she is, the lady I got her off said she was a Rhode Island Red X Blue Leghorn. I didn't know there was a Blue colour for leghorns and also both the RiR and leghorns have yellow legs whereas she has more greyish legs with whitish soles. She also laid her first egg today, a tiny little thing with a cream coloured shell. If anyone can help me figure out what her parents could have been, it would be much appreciated

Here she is with two of her three sisters: an Austalorp at the back who just finished her first laying season, the Araucana splash as i like to call her which is white with the occaisional, almost purple feather. Her other sister is a cheeky Ancona who was a little camera shy, probably because she is starting to moult and is feeling a little self-conscious

I look forward to hearing what you crazy people think she might be!!!

 

[kari_dawn]

wow, how pretty! I didn't think there was a blue leghorn either...maybe they meant a blue andalusian? Where are you located? your region may have an influence.

 

[BlazeJester]

She's pretty fluffy for a RIR/leghorn mix - both tend to have pretty tight feathers. I'd far more suspect orpington somewhere in the mix.

 

[Just Because]

I am in tropical North Queensland, Australia Not sure what the list of breed that have made it up here is, it's hard sourcing good pure breeds, not that I really care whether they're pure bred or not but I am curious as to what was mixed together to make such a pretty bird

 

[BlazeJester]

I don't know if RIR are different there, but a buff orpington mix would explain both the fluffy feathers and the yellowish rather than reddish feathers on her face.

 

[asif]

Very nice choice love to see her

 

[Just Because]

Something else i forgot to mention is that she has slight feathering on the sides of her leg which are that orange colour. As for the RIR up here, you would be hard pressed finding one that is actually the true "red" colour, most bloodlines have been diluted with other breeds throughout time as a result of the remote nature of the place. You can easily drive for hours before you reach the next town which back in the day would have been quite the journey.

 

[BlazeJester]

If she has leg feathers I retract my orpington and replace it with cochin. I was thinking that but didn't see any leg feathers from the picture. If you Google cochins you will see how floofy they are, and they come in all colors. You could probably easily get a buff cochin mix.

Is she a big chicken? Does she weigh more/look bigger than your others?

ETA: come to think of it, I retract the leghorn and replace it with my original orpington. Blue is a really popular color these days and almost every breed can be found in blue. The face looks really orpish to me. Orp/cochin cross? Is that possible? I just don't see any leghorn - they're slight of build and have HUGE combs. Orps have small combs at maturity and cochins have that fluffy butt.

 

[Just Because]

She is the smallest one of my girls but she is also the youngest. We had a cyclone come through when she was young and good feed was hard to come by afterwards so for just under a month they were all living on bread and parrot seed with the occasional tin of tuna for protein, which isn't exactly ideal for her during her growing period.

So she is not big but she is heavily built, for her size, her thighs and breast are HUGE

so much so that when she plays in the rain or the sprinkler (when it gets hot i turn on the sprinkler hose) and gets all wet, she doesn't actually look all too much different.

I at one stage considered that she may of had a parent who was a bantam but the lady I got her off doesn't breed bantams of any sort except true bantams like the silkie and the Japanese chicken ( I think that's what she called it

) so that ruled out that one. But now that you mention Orpington, the lady did have some of those, and I can see a resemblance between the back half of my little girl and this one i found on google images: http://www.brbpoultry.co.uk/BLUE ORPINGTON HEN.jpg

 

[kari_dawn]

My first thought when I saw her was orpington mix as well. With the leg feathering, cochin definately would not be out of the question either. She is so pretty!