Blue Wheaten roo usage question

[Guest]

I have  a blue wheaten cockerel, and I noticed that he has lost or didn\'t have a beard & muffs!

I thought at first that the pullets might have picked them off, but after 2 months without  them, he is still bare. I do have a wheaten cockerel hatchmate of his, but I wanted to use just the blue wheaten on my 5 blue wheaten girls.
So, should I just cull him, use him and cull chicks without beards & muffs, or use the Wheaten cockerel, who is correct, but not as nice elsewhere....

My first instinct was cull him, and use the Wheaten boy, but I read here about using a roo with  a problem, and culling his chicks.

2 of the girls are hatchmates of both boys, so I\'m concerned of continuing the missing beard, etc.
Sterling

[bantamhill]

If he has had his muff\'s/beard pulled or eaten you should be able to see the remains. If he doesn\'t have them I wouldn\'t use him unless you are willing to deal with your birds being heterozygous for the beard and muff. I personally wouldn\'t recommend it if you have another option.

Michael

[verycherry]

Does he have very noticable wattles?  Most nicely muffed birds don\'t have wattles, or have small ones that are hidden by the beard and muffs.  In a lot of cases, heterozygous birds (only one gene for beard/muffs) will have small wattles showing, and those without any beard/muffs will have even more noticable wattles.  If you could show photo of the bird, a close up or head shot, someone here might be able to tell you.