I’d stick with the birchens unless you decide it’s the one you use to breed blue Wheatens. Sometimes it’s harder to tell if splashes are birchen or self colour as the copper ca get diluted, but I assume it’s probably a splash copper, as in a blue copper but splash.
Not the first hatch of the season, but the polar vortex did throw off egg laying and hatching. I am still fine tuning them for this season, I have seen a few eggs with thinner shells than I would like so they getting extra calcium. They are being fussy about laying where I tell them to, and some hens are still on strike. A few more hatches and I will have them dialed in for better hatch rates again, then it will be time to let eggs go out with confidence.That's awesome. Looking forward to seeing lots of pics as they all grow.
Was this your first hatch of the season?
My "blue" splash - she's from Meyer - has plenty of black flecks and dark legs. She was not white as a chick - she was BLUE. I have seen other splash chicks that are white and I was growing one out that was white with pink legs, but dogs got it. I only have 1 splash and 1 blue copper. The splash lays darker.
The Polar vortex is brutal where you are. Whoa
Thanks! My son (6) says she is always flashing her big dark eyes at us and flirting. The WTB/OE rooster she's with does not give her enough attention and she is always vying for the attention of a SLW cockerel. He's penned with his own kind, but my son says Splash has a big crush on him. LOL We're growing out these Marans roos and expanding chicken town because - well- you know! lol
Blue (my namesake Brahma rooster) was blue as a chick, pale blue for a Brahma but blue (hence the name). He is actually splash, but the splash parts didn’t show until about 8-10 weeks. He is a darker splash than all my splash hens (unrelated to him). Splash is quite a varied phenotype, it seems yours is similar to his, quite dark, the base being medium grey rather than white/light grey.
