Crossing breeds

[LuciferRoo]

If a rooster mates with a hen and both of them are mixed, will their offspring look the same or different?
I had a great girl hatch this spring. She is big, friendly without being annoying and I like the way she looks. She is all black but when she spreads her wings, there is white feather at the tip of each wing.
I would like to hatch more like her.
I think I know the parents as there was only a choice of 2 roosters and 4 hens. Only one hen is black. The likely rooster is a mix and looks l a lot like Barred Rock

 

[nuthatched]

Mixed breeds are genetic roulette.

 

[NatJ]

If a rooster mates with a hen and both of them are mixed, will their offspring look the same or different?

When you cross chickens that are already mixes, you will often get chicks that look different than each other.

Some chicks could look like one parent or the other, or they could look like one or another of the grandparents, or they could look different than any of their relatives.

This goes for colors, comb types, body shape, and other traits as well.

People who have learned a bit about chicken genetics can predict some of the possible outcomes, but surprises can happen anyway.

I had a great girl hatch this spring. She is big, friendly without being annoying and I like the way she looks. She is all black but when she spreads her wings, there is white feather at the tip of each wing.
I would like to hatch more like her.

A black hen has a good chance of producing some black chicks, although she may produce chicks of other colors as well, depending on her own genetics and the genetics of the rooster. There are some roosters that would produce only white chicks, or only "blue" (gray) chickes, with a black hen.

There is also a good chance that some of her chicks will inherit the other traits you like (size, temperament, etc.)

I think I know the parents as there was only a choice of 2 roosters and 4 hens. Only one hen is black. The likely rooster is a mix and looks l a lot like Barred Rock

You certainly could hatch more chicks from the same group, and see if you get any more that resemble the hen you like.

If you want to post photos of the possible parents, it may be possible to figure out exactly which ones produced a particular chick (sometimes it is possible, sometimes not.)

 

[LuciferRoo]

Here are the photos of the,possible parents.
First photo is of the alpha rooster. Second is the beta, although he did mate as well.
Unfortunately, I don't have any good pics of the 4th hen and she is gone but she was golden in color.

3rd photo is of Karen and some of "her" chicks. If course the actual mother could be any of the three hens.

 

[NatJ]

Here are the photos of the,possible parents.
First photo is of the alpha rooster. Second is the beta, although he did mate as well.
Unfortunately, I don't have any good pics of the 4th hen but she was golden in color.

Pretty chickens!

From the chickens in those photos, I think all possible pairings can produce a black daughter, with only one exception: the beta rooster with a red or gold hen should not produce any black chicks. (Most of the pairings can also produce non-black chicks, or black chicks with white barring.)

Unfortunately, I don't see any way to narrow it down by comb type or other features either. So this isn't really helpful for figuring out the parentage of the one you really like

 

[LuciferRoo]

The first set of chicks that produced that black pullet was in May.
Then about 3 months ago, Karen went broody and set on some eggs. All of those have white barring. Of course, except for the father, I have no idea who the other parent(s) is or are.

 

[LuciferRoo]

Here is the daughter.
If I get a chance I will take a picture of an open wing to expose the white feather.

 

[NatJ]

The first set of chicks that produced that black pullet was in May.
Then about 3 months ago, Karen went broody and set on some eggs. All of those have white barring. Of course, except for the father, I have no idea who the other parent(s) is or are.

Barring is inherited differently than many other genes, because it is on the Z sex chromosome.

A rooster has chromosomes ZZ, so he can have barring on both of them, or one of them, or none of them. If he has barring on both Z chromosomes, he will give it to all his chicks. I was guessing from the photos that your rooster may have barring on just one Z chromosome, which would mean he could give barring or not-barring to any chick. (2 barring genes makes a rooster with more white: either wider bars or more bars of white.)

A hen has chromosomes ZW, so she can only have one barring gene. She gives that barring gene to her sons, and gives a W chromosome to her daughters (makes them female, does not give them barring.) A hen inherits her W chromosome from her mother, and her Z chromosome from her father (so it only matters whether her father has barring, not her mother.) A hen can never have the lighter (more white) kind of barring, because she can never have two barring genes.

So if the barred rooster has 2 genes for barring, then every chick of his will have barring, and he cannot be the father of the black pullet.

But if the barred rooster has just one gene for barring, then half his chicks will get barring from him, and the other half will not. So this would mean he could produce some black daughters.

Then about 3 months ago, Karen went broody and set on some eggs. All of those have white barring. Of course, except for the father, I have no idea who the other parent(s) is or are.

Male chicks can inherit barring from their father or their mother or both, so it would also be possible to get barred males from barred hens with the beta rooster. (Although I think the beta rooster has a gene that turns black into white, but I expect him to give that to half his chicks rather than all of them. That would let half his chicks show black in their coloring.)

Here is the daughter.
If I get a chance I will take a picture of an open wing to expose the white feather.

She is pretty! Unfortunately, I don't know which parents she came from.

I suppose if you really wanted to try to figure it out, you could pen the males and females in specific combinations for a month or more, hatch eggs from each group (sorted by which hen laid the eggs), then look at the chicks and decide whether to try other combinations.

The two biggest factors I am not certain about: whether the barred rooster has two barring genes (cannot produce un-barred chicks) or one barring gene (can produce both barred and unbarred chicks) and whether the beta rooster has one or two of the gene Dominant White that turns black to white (two of it, he cannot produce chicks that show black, but one of it means he can show some chicks that show black and some that show white instead of black.)

 

[LuciferRoo]

Thank you NatJ, that was a great explanation.
I think next spring I will try to pair the various combinations, put the eggs in an incubator and see what offspring they produce.

To me the young black girl looks like a daughter of the black hen. Their 'faces' look similar.... or maybe I am seeing things LOL.
I sure hope that the beta was not the father. I lost him during the summer.
The remaining rooster had 8 chicks two months ago and all barred.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you NatJ, that was a great explanation.
I think next spring I will try to pair the various combinations, put the eggs in an incubator and see what offspring they produce.

I would expect some variety from each possible pairing (as in, not all chicks from the same parents will look alike.)

To me the young black girl looks like a daughter of the black hen. Their 'faces' look similar.... or maybe I am seeing things LOL.

You might be right. I just don't know one way or the other.

I sure hope that the beta was not the father. I lost him during the summer.

That is disappointing

The remaining rooster had 8 chicks two months ago and all barred.

Do you know who the mothers were, and how many chicks are males vs. females?