Welsummers? Black Cooper Marans? and Rhode Island Reds? I have 25 chicks from my little flock as of

Laura5999 · Dec 11, 2012

These are members of my little flock which were all just little guys when I got them in May of this year. (Man, they grow up sooooo fast!) Started with 13 and after an incident with my Pomeranian I am down to 11.

Well, since I am not a big egg eater... I thought I would try my hand at "attempting o incubate a few eggs".... well I didn't stop at a few - Like an addiction I couldn't ..... currently I have 25 chicks that range from 4 weeks to 2 weeks old but not sure what they are. any help is much appreciated! THANKS!

hen-welsummer?/Rooster w/ dark gray legs maybe Maran? & what about Ethel, the black hen, I actually have two that are identical

and here is Lucy

and these are some of my sweet little ones

jules1329 · Dec 12, 2012

In the first pic, it looks like you have a Welsummer roo and hen. I can't tell what the red one is.

debid · Dec 12, 2012

Your question is unclear. You're trying to figure out the breeds of your flock that is producing the eggs you're hatching? Or you're trying to figure out what breed the chicks are? The chicks would all be barnyard mixes unless you happen to have a rooster and hen of the same breed and you selected an egg from that pairing. For the adults, pictures showing the whole bird would really help.

I can tell you that Welsummers don't have white ears but the foreground pullet in photo #1 could be a brown Leghorn. The red pullet in #2 looks like a production red or hatchery RIR, #3 and the black pullet in #2 look like a black Sex Links. Marans should have feathered legs and dark eyes.

jules1329 · Dec 12, 2012

Ah! I didn't notice the white ear!

donrae · Dec 12, 2012

debid said:
Your question is unclear. You're trying to figure out the breeds of your flock that is producing the eggs you're hatching? Or you're trying to figure out what breed the chicks are? The chicks would all be barnyard mixes unless you happen to have a rooster and hen of the same breed and you selected an egg from that pairing. For the adults, pictures showing the whole bird would really help.

I can tell you that Welsummers don't have white ears but the foreground pullet in photo #1 could be a brown Leghorn. The red pullet in #2 looks like a production red or hatchery RIR, #3 and the black pullet in #2 look like a black Sex Links. Marans should have feathered legs and dark eyes.

x2

Laura5999 · Dec 12, 2012

thanks

hdowden · Dec 12, 2012

1st pic: brown leghorn, production red/rir,, and a welsummer roo
2nd pic: production red/rir, blk assuie or JG, a silver duckwing oegb, and a blk tailed white jap
3rd pic: blk sex link

debid · Dec 13, 2012

hdowden said:
1st pic: brown leghorn, production red/rir,, and a welsummer roo
2nd pic: production red/rir, blk assuie or JG, a silver duckwing oegb, and a blk tailed white jap
3rd pic: blk sex link

The black pullet in #2 has a bit of color showing in her hackles which is why I said SL.

hdowden · Dec 13, 2012

does the op know what color egg the blk in the 3nd pic lay?

Laura5999 · Dec 14, 2012

the 2 black hens are nearly twins that are both very big, plump, soft feathered, friendly hens with dark slate legs. they do have a small green sheen towards their rear

and I read that marans MAY OR MAY NOT have feathered feet.

http://www.icyousee.org/graphics/marans.gif

and I know you guys keep saying in #1 is a welsummer rooster but as I mentioned before he also has dark legs and in my research I found this:

According to the standards they should NOT have feather stubs or feathered feets and you would have to cull them out. If this is the only one you really want to keep, then by all means, try to cull the second generation of chicks and thereafter of feathered feet. It is a fault and disqualification. It is common in the US breeding stock like Frizzle was saying. Personally I would cull them out if they do pop up in my flock.

Green or slate legs, nope, it would be a big, big fault and it would not be a Welsummer.President of the Welsummer Club of North America & BYC Member since 4/11/2002 and Appenzeller Spitzhaubens

The hens, which are correctly copper-colored, produce a very satisfactory proportion of cockerels with an ideal red mark on the breast. These two color characteristics have a very strong correlative between them; hens that have nice hackles, and cocks that have nice breasts .
Excessive black

The present Brown-red color instability explains the frequent appearance of nearly or even totally black pullets. These latter, genetically remain Brown-Reds, and under no circumstances are they to be considered a true Black. This mistake must be avoided and these two varieties mustn't be mixed in the breeding pen.
These quite black pullets (we should rather speak of melanised Brown-Red pullets) can in no way be presented in the show as a real Black variety and it would be a swindle to sell them as such. Due to past crossing of Black, E, birds and Brown Red, ER, birds the E allele can be isolated in some Red-Brown lines. This is one reason for the overly melanised birds.
However, some of these ‘too’ black pullets can be useful to correct ‘light’ birds but only if the are known to be ER based, and egg color is very good. The regular use of very well colored cocks corrects the excess black in some hens, which are sometimes totally black.
This phenomenon is the same for the eye color. The regular use of very well colored cocks whose eyes are orange-red allows improvement in some situations that seem insurmountable (i.e. hens with dark brown or black eyes).
The choice of the cock is of the highest importance in order to improve this Marans variety, the stress must be made with equal stress on plumage and the quality of the egg color, the ideal selection consists in using 100% of true color hens (with good coppery hackle), and not selecting the blacks except in cases of emergency in order to preserve the precious extra reddish-brown egg.
In the same line of birds, it is often easier to control the excess black in the cocks, than in the hens. Generally, the cocks have feet, eyes and plumage (including the ear tufts) less darkly colored than hens of the same breeding. That's why the standard accepts the darker shank and feet of the hens. The orange-eyes are notably essential. Today, very few hens have reddish-brown or black eyes.

Other color flaws
We can find another color flaw in the Brown-Red hens. It's the appearance of feathers, which are speckled, stippled, with more or less light marks, fawn-colored coppery colored, or with light shafts. They are said to have stippling on the breast and even on the whole body. Such hens have sometimes been shown as "partridge" Marans, which is totally unacceptable. The true genetic "partridge" color present in some breeds (like the wild type Duckwing) has nothing in common with these Marans hens, which can only be considered as bad Brown-Reds from which you can get nothing good. These hens often corresponds to cocks whose breast red color is too spread out down to the thighs, and whose coppery tones are often replaced by a pale light fawn or straw-

and this is why I remain indecisive AS TO THEIR BREEDS. THANKS FOR ALL THE INPUT

Welsummers? Black Cooper Marans? and Rhode Island Reds? I have 25 chicks from my little flock as of

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Laura5999

Hatching

jules1329

In the Brooder

debid

Free Ranging

jules1329

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donrae

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Laura5999

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hdowden

Crowing

debid

Free Ranging

hdowden

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Laura5999

Hatching

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