All of these chicks from Zeeb and Mostaccioli have Wheaten as their father, because they show blue in their feathers.Zeeb (Old English Game Bantam) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
"Beez"
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Pullet. Beez is still so friendly and loves roosting on my arm.
She's super sweet and a pretty little thing. We love her.
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☆
Mostaccioli (Mystic Maran) x Wheaten or Cheetah (Easter Egger)
"Gnocchi"
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Gnocchi became extremely aggressive and started attacking both cockerels and hens and trying to kill them.
So I dispatched my first chicken ever (normally my partner does it, though I have culled a quail before, we both process) and he cooked him up. The meat was absolutely delicious and had none of that rooster toughness. But he was a bit small. So this is his almost 8 week picture.
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"Rigatoni"
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Cockerel. He's also become a little aggressive, but nowhere near as bad as Gnocchi.. but bad enough to have to be separated. He will be culled soon. My partner said he'd do it if I process.. it's a deal!
Notice his yucky beard.. I gave him wet food so he made a mess haha.
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"Ditalini"
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Pullet. I'm a bit disappointed that her head does not seem to have any color. Looking at the babies, and the eggs the chickens lay, I actually think Long Ziti is the mother of the 3 MM x EEs. Which is unfortunate, considering I think Long Ziti is a bit ugly. She is solid black with bright yellow eyes, which Rigatoni has. But Ditalini here seems to have been spared both the yellow eyes and ugliness. Not sure if she will move forward in the project, but she is very cute and I'm happy to have her around. Let's see how she grows!
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Zeeb, Mostaccioli, and Long Ziti do not have the blue gene (because they all show black in their feathers but no blue). Because they do not have the blue gene, they cannot give it to their chicks. Cheetah does not have the blue gene either. So that leaves Wheaten as the only possible source of the blue gene for these chicks, making him the only possible father.
If Wheaten is genetically splash (two copies of the blue gene), then he must give blue to every chick he sires. That would mean that chicks who show black (the ones with Klim as their mother) were sired by Cheetah.
For chicks from Blue the EE, Mini Wheat appears to have splash (inherited the blue gene from both parents), so Wheaten would be the father of that chick. The ones that show blue could have either father, because they need one blue gene and one not-blue gene to show the blue color (inherit blue from the mother and not-blue from Cheetah, or inherit not-blue from the mother and blue from Wheaten.)
The Sebright has a rose comb."Concrete"
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Cockerel. Why had no one ever told me that sebrights shine purple? Or at least this boy does, he is so beautiful. He is also a really nice boy, so we may try to keep him. I need to check the genetics on the comb, since I don't really like it. He also crows every morning with Groucho.
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For the birds you have, there are two major comb genes involved, rose and pea.
Pea comb is pea and not-rose (Easter Eggers).
Rose comb is rose and not-pea (Sebright).
Walnut come is both rose and pea (Silkie).
Single comb is not-rose and not-pea.
If you like the Silkie-type combs, then the rose comb from the Sebright will not be a problem. Just breed him to hens with pea combs or walnut combs. He may be pure for the rose comb gene, or he may carry the not-rose gene as well (that is pretty common in rose comb breeds.)