Blue Wheaten or Easter Egger

[Guest]

I was wondering if this hen was pure bred or not. I have a purebred Rooster but i didn\'t know if she was??

  She is in molt in this picture.

[Guest]

Here is a picture of the Rooster.

[John]

The cock looks like a blue wheaten, as you said, but the hen isn\'t an Ameraucana from what I see.  She doesn\'t have a recognized color/pattern and has willow legs.

[Guest]

Ok Thanks. i didn\'t think she was but sometimes you take a look at her she kinda looks like she is but the leg colors off. i geuss i\'ll have to start looking for a purebred hen then.

[Guest]

Might her plumage be Splash Wheaten? If so, maybe she\'d be okay to breed to roo & just breed toward 1 or 2 generations down the line tham might have slate instead of willow legs?
I\'m not very knowledgeable on achieving a change in leg color, but wonder if the plumage color genes might at least already be on target.

[Mike Gilbert]

No, she is not splash wheaten either.   I would say she is some kind of red with a dose of dominant white.  E.Egger.
If you cross her with the blue wheaten cock, expect quite a bit of variation among their chicks.   But if you then breed the best of those females back to the original cock you might start to get some uniformity.    You would be fighting willow legs for generations to come in all likelihood.   The reason being that yellow skin epidermis is recessive and can be carried by birds that have slate legs.   To get rid of the recessive trait it would probably be necessary to test mate all breeders (in the future), wait for leg color in the chicks to develop, and keep excellent records to know which chicks are out of which breeders.    Not an easy task.