Spitzhaubens

[PhoredaBurds]

View attachment 1041631 View attachment 1041632 View attachment 1041633 Any thoughts on if this is a rooster. It is 9 weeks old.

Looks like a roo to me

 

[PhoredaBurds]

I try not to get attached to roosters. In fact, I keep telling myself that this boy is only a visitor, but.....

He's just so pretty!!!!!


I enjoy watching him walk across the yard & often find my daughter holding him instead of the spitz pullet. About 14.5 weeks old & thankfully no crowing. I'm hoping it's because of my big orp roos are present. If they prevent him from crowing, then I can keep him longer. (Last year my male spitzes started crowing at 9 weeks.)View attachment 1041888 View attachment 1041887View attachment 1041889
View attachment 1041891

Sometimes the spitz roosters have really fun personalities, that combined with good looks really makes it tough to stay detached. He certainly is a cutie!

 

[Faraday40]

I was just noticing how l-o-n-g legged my spritz roo looks. DH is 6'5" with most of his height in his legs. Hmmmmm. Maybe there's a subconscious reason I like my little spitz roo.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Do you think it could be a gold pullet? It doesn't even look like an Appenzeller to me at all. No crest and the feather pattern doesn't look right to me either. I don't know genetics. Can you explain split gold spangled? Thanks!

The crest can come in late sometimes, but you are right about the feather pattern being off. It is highly probable that a non-spitz fertilized the egg from which that chick came from.

I love genetics & figuring out spitz genetics. We've got a couple things going on here: silver/gold color and spangle patterning.

All types of chickens have either silver or gold base color. It is a sex-linked color, so males carry 2 copies (on the sex-determining chromosomes, he is ZZ) and females carry only 1 (on the sex-determining chromosomes, she is ZW). W does not carry a color gene. Therefore only the males can be silver split to gold. Gold split to silver is not possible because silver is dominant and therefore the color that will show up. Sometimes silver split to gold roosters will look "cream colored", but basically silver (white base). "Sex-linked" chickens are made by putting a gold based rooster over silver based hens (such as putting an RIR over Delaware hens. Chicks hatched from this cross will either be gold/red pullets or silver-appearing cockerels.

For the chick in question to be from a pair of silvers, the rooster would have to be carrying the gold gene, hidden by his silver gene. The chick would have to be a pullet (ZW) to show up as gold because the laying hen can only give either silver(S) or female (W) to the chick.

Ugh this is getting really complicated.

The spangle involves 3 different patterning genes (Db, Ml, Pg) which are not sex-linked. If one of these genes is missing bc one of the parents only had a heterozygous pair, then the spangle can be broken into lacing, barring, or other funky pattern. This would explain the not-so-spangled patterning on the chick.

Not to further complicate things, but one of the spangle patterning genes is called "dark brown" (Db). If it occurs with the pattern gene (Pg), but without the melanizing gene (Ml), autosomal barring will occur. The chick will be brown and molt it's chick down out into a black and white barring pattern. Looks slightly different than what the barring gene does. This can occur on a genetically silver chick. I had this happen with one of my very first spitz eggs. Have to dig out my old pics, but I think my chick had more white at that age.

Does that make any sense? Probably more than u wanted, lol.

 

[MonicaWA]

The crest can come in late sometimes, but you are right about the feather pattern being off. It is highly probable that a non-spitz fertilized the egg from which that chick came from.

I love genetics & figuring out spitz genetics. We've got a couple things going on here: silver/gold color and spangle patterning.

All types of chickens have either silver or gold base color. It is a sex-linked color, so males carry 2 copies (on the sex-determining chromosomes, he is ZZ) and females carry only 1 (on the sex-determining chromosomes, she is ZW). W does not carry a color gene. Therefore only the males can be silver split to gold. Gold split to silver is not possible because silver is dominant and therefore the color that will show up. Sometimes silver split to gold roosters will look "cream colored", but basically silver (white base). "Sex-linked" chickens are made by putting a gold based rooster over silver based hens (such as putting an RIR over Delaware hens. Chicks hatched from this cross will either be gold/red pullets or silver-appearing cockerels.

For the chick in question to be from a pair of silvers, the rooster would have to be carrying the gold gene, hidden by his silver gene. The chick would have to be a pullet (ZW) to show up as gold because the laying hen can only give either silver(S) or female (W) to the chick.

Ugh this is getting really complicated.

The spangle involves 3 different patterning genes (Db, Ml, Pg) which are not sex-linked. If one of these genes is missing bc one of the parents only had a heterozygous pair, then the spangle can be broken into lacing, barring, or other funky pattern. This would explain the not-so-spangled patterning on the chick.

Not to further complicate things, but one of the spangle patterning genes is called "dark brown" (Db). If it occurs with the pattern gene (Pg), but without the melanizing gene (Ml), autosomal barring will occur. The chick will be brown and molt it's chick down out into a black and white barring pattern. Looks slightly different than what the barring gene does. This can occur on a genetically silver chick. I had this happen with one of my very first spitz eggs. Have to dig out my old pics, but I think my chick had more white at that age.

Does that make any sense? Probably more than u wanted, lol.

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to answer this question! I really appreciate it!

 

[MonicaWA]

PhoredaBurds, here is another chick from that roo and one of the two females. It looks strange too, even the leg color.

 

[MonicaWA]

I try not to get attached to roosters. In fact, I keep telling myself that this boy is only a visitor, but.....

He's just so pretty!!!!!


I enjoy watching him walk across the yard & often find my daughter holding him instead of the spitz pullet. About 14.5 weeks old & thankfully no crowing. I'm hoping it's because of my big orp roos are present. If they prevent him from crowing, then I can keep him longer. (Last year my male spitzes started crowing at 9 weeks.)View attachment 1041888 View attachment 1041887View attachment 1041889
View attachment 1041891

I had one with long legs like this. I named him Drumsticks.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

PhoredaBurds, here is another chick from that roo and one of the two females. It looks strange too, even the leg color. View attachment 1042170 View attachment 1042171

Do u have any pics of the parent birds?

 

[MonicaWA]

The other hen in the pen looks about the same. Is it genetically possible for them to produce chicks with a single comb?

 

[Alaskan]

Could the eggs have gotten swapped by accident?