Wheaten Crele Orpington Project, Reboot

[MysteryChicken]

I will get pictures of him tomorrow.

 

[MysteryChicken]

He looks somewhat like the back of this hen, but with barring.

Hard to describe.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Just read through the entire thread What caught my attention at first was the fact that you are using Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons in this project, and the results interested me. You mentioned that some had yellow faces at hatch and some dark brown. The cockerel in your first post that was Buff Orpington x Barred Rock (the BO was the father right?) feathered with a lot of white, rather than buff like your first pullet.

I have found this to correlate with the color of down on the faces at hatch when breeding Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses (a similar mix). Some BO hens always produce chicks who have orange faces, and they grow to look a lot this hen of yours. What is she?

Yep.

This girl feathered out similarly, but I have the pictures on my older phone.
View attachment 2680548Love this picture of my Project hen before rooster damage.

Here are some photos of a couple Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses that hatched several years ago (2 chicks on the left). Note that their faces appear yellow in color.

Both of those turned out to be cockerels and were killed by a coyote before I could see what they looked like as mature birds. However, at 6 weeks of age they were clearly feathering with unusual amounts of white in the breast and hackle areas, and were somewhat similar in appearance to poorly bred Barred Rocks that you see occasionally.

I was able to hatch a pullet of this cross successfully last year. Again, she hatched with a yellow face but matured to have unusual amounts of white in her hackle and breast feathers. The barring was also softer and not as pronounced as other barred breeds and crosses I have hatched in the past. Photos of her as a chick and as an adult.

This year I hatched this cross again using different BO hens but the same Dominique rooster. The faces on these chicks were an orangish/brown in color rather than yellow. Photos of the resulting pullets as chicks and feathered:

Notice that the hackles buff barred rather than white. Some of your chicks hatched similar in appearance to this.

I thought I would share, because I found it fascinating that two BO hens seemingly identical in color could throw such different chicks. The DOM x BO pullet with white consistently throws solid buff chicks when mated to my Rhode Island Red rooster (just an interesting phenomenon). It makes me want to investigate the buff feathering further. Also, continuing to outcross buff to other colors seems to produce a lot of red birds, I think that is because buff is a dilution of red?

Anyhow, I don't know much about wheaten but thought I would share. Fascinating thread either way. I'm working on my own project which is a blue/black/splash barred bird, similar to a blue Plymouth Rock but with more of an Australorp body type.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Just read through the entire thread What caught my attention at first was the fact that you are using Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons in this project, and the results interested me. You mentioned that some had yellow faces at hatch and some dark brown. The cockerel in your first post that was Buff Orpington x Barred Rock (the BO was the father right?) feathered with a lot of white, rather than buff like your first pullet.

I have found this to correlate with the color of down on the faces at hatch when breeding Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses (a similar mix). Some BO hens always produce chicks who have orange faces, and they grow to look a lot this hen of yours. What is she?

Here are some photos of a couple Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses that hatched several years ago (2 chicks on the left). Note that their faces appear yellow in color.
View attachment 2718589
Both of those turned out to be cockerels and were killed by a coyote before I could see what they looked like as mature birds. However, at 6 weeks of age they were clearly feathering with unusual amounts of white in the breast and hackle areas, and were somewhat similar in appearance to poorly bred Barred Rocks that you see occasionally.
View attachment 2718594
I was able to hatch a pullet of this cross successfully last year. Again, she hatched with a yellow face but matured to have unusual amounts of white in her hackle and breast feathers. The barring was also softer and not as pronounced as other barred breeds and crosses I have hatched in the past. Photos of her as a chick and as an adult.
View attachment 2718597
View attachment 2718598
This year I hatched this cross again using different BO hens but the same Dominique rooster. The faces on these chicks were an orangish/brown in color rather than yellow. Photos of the resulting pullets as chicks and feathered:
View attachment 2718606
View attachment 2718607
Notice that the hackles buff barred rather than white. Some of your chicks hatched similar in appearance to this.

I thought I would share, because I found it fascinating that two BO hens seemingly identical in color could throw such different chicks. The DOM x BO pullet with white consistently throws solid buff chicks when mated to my Rhode Island Red rooster (just an interesting phenomenon). It makes me want to investigate the buff feathering further. Also, continuing to outcross buff to other colors seems to produce a lot of red birds, I think that is because buff is a dilution of red?

Anyhow, I don't know much about wheaten but thought I would share. Fascinating thread either way. I'm working on my own project which is a blue/black/splash barred bird, similar to a blue Plymouth Rock but with more of an Australorp body type.

The cockerel chicks had chocolate brown faces, & females had blond faces.

My parent, or F0 cross of Buff Orpington X Barred Rock, males had yellow faces with headspots, & females had brown faces with no headspot.

My Buff Orpington X Australorp females looked the same as the Buff Orpington/Barred rock female chicks.

You used a Barred rooster over solid hen, so all your offspring would be Barred.
I used the sex linked breeding of Buff Orpington, over Barred Rock hens.

For some reason I've never had a Buff Orpington/Australorp cockerel.


_______________________________________
My hen is an F1 cross of Buff Orpington/Barred Rock X Buff Orpington/Australorp X Buff Orpington/Barred Rock X Australorp.

Buff is made up of several Genes.

Wheaten = E^Wh/E^Wh

Columbia = Co/Co

Dark Brown/Ginger = Db/Db

Mahogany/Red = Mh/Mh

Diluter = Di/Di

Gold = s+/s+, or s+/-

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Just read through the entire thread What caught my attention at first was the fact that you are using Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons in this project, and the results interested me. You mentioned that some had yellow faces at hatch and some dark brown. The cockerel in your first post that was Buff Orpington x Barred Rock (the BO was the father right?) feathered with a lot of white, rather than buff like your first pullet.

I have found this to correlate with the color of down on the faces at hatch when breeding Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses (a similar mix). Some BO hens always produce chicks who have orange faces, and they grow to look a lot this hen of yours. What is she?

Here are some photos of a couple Dominique x Buff Orpington crosses that hatched several years ago (2 chicks on the left). Note that their faces appear yellow in color.
View attachment 2718589
Both of those turned out to be cockerels and were killed by a coyote before I could see what they looked like as mature birds. However, at 6 weeks of age they were clearly feathering with unusual amounts of white in the breast and hackle areas, and were somewhat similar in appearance to poorly bred Barred Rocks that you see occasionally.
View attachment 2718594
I was able to hatch a pullet of this cross successfully last year. Again, she hatched with a yellow face but matured to have unusual amounts of white in her hackle and breast feathers. The barring was also softer and not as pronounced as other barred breeds and crosses I have hatched in the past. Photos of her as a chick and as an adult.
View attachment 2718597
View attachment 2718598
This year I hatched this cross again using different BO hens but the same Dominique rooster. The faces on these chicks were an orangish/brown in color rather than yellow. Photos of the resulting pullets as chicks and feathered:
View attachment 2718606
View attachment 2718607
Notice that the hackles buff barred rather than white. Some of your chicks hatched similar in appearance to this.

I thought I would share, because I found it fascinating that two BO hens seemingly identical in color could throw such different chicks. The DOM x BO pullet with white consistently throws solid buff chicks when mated to my Rhode Island Red rooster (just an interesting phenomenon). It makes me want to investigate the buff feathering further. Also, continuing to outcross buff to other colors seems to produce a lot of red birds, I think that is because buff is a dilution of red?

Anyhow, I don't know much about wheaten but thought I would share. Fascinating thread either way. I'm working on my own project which is a blue/black/splash barred bird, similar to a blue Plymouth Rock but with more of an Australorp body type.

I believe what you’re seeing is the difference between sex-linked silver and gold.
All roosters have either two gold genes, two silver genes, or one gold gene and one silver gene. All hens have either one gold gene or one silver gene. It’s sex-linked, so the roosters always have two genes and the hens always have one. Your buff Orpington hens have one sex-linked gold gene. I’m guessing your Dominique rooster has one gold gene and one silver gene.
Your cockerels with silver (white) leakage have one gold gene (from their mothers) and one silver gene (from their father). Silver is dominant, so that’s why they look mostly silver despite also having gold. The pullets have one silver gene from their father. The pullets have less silver than the cockerels because cockerels tend to get more leakage.
The pullets with gold necks have one gold gene (also from their father- with sex-linked genes, pullets always get the gene from their father).

 

[NatJ]

I believe what you’re seeing is the difference between sex-linked silver and gold.
All roosters have either two gold genes, two silver genes, or one gold gene and one silver gene. All hens have either one gold gene or one silver gene. It’s sex-linked, so the roosters always have two genes and the hens always have one. Your buff Orpington hens have one sex-linked gold gene. I’m guessing your Dominique rooster has one gold gene and one silver gene.
Your cockerels with silver (white) leakage have one gold gene (from their mothers) and one silver gene (from their father). Silver is dominant, so that’s why they look mostly silver despite also having gold. The pullets have one silver gene from their father. The pullets have less silver than the cockerels because cockerels tend to get more leakage.
The pullets with gold necks have one gold gene (also from their father- with sex-linked genes, pullets always get the gene from their father).

I think you're saying it is not really caused by the hen, but is actually just a coincidence of which genes the rooster passed to which chicks, right? And hatching more chicks from each hen would probably have shown all kinds of chicks coming from the one hen, and all kinds of chicks coming from the other hen?

(Just making sure I understand what you say. I think that makes sense.)

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I think you're saying it is not really caused by the hen, but is actually just a coincidence of which genes the rooster passed to which chicks, right? And hatching more chicks from each hen would probably have shown all kinds of chicks coming from the one hen, and all kinds of chicks coming from the other hen?

(Just making sure I understand what you say. I think that makes sense.)

Yes. They mentioned gold chicks coming consistently from one hen, but that was when crossed to an RIR rooster.

 

[MysteryChicken]

@CrazyCochin

 

[MysteryChicken]

Getting pictures today. Also getting pictures of the F2 Giant Silkie Back cross chicks for my other thread too.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's the cockerel. Now I'm starting to thinking he may actually be partridge after all with one copy of Columbian. I have a chick from my Giant Silkie project that's nearly identical.