AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi everybody!

I have a batch of eggs to go to the hatchery tomorrow and I am really excited about finally (hopefully) getting some pekin chicks. I did get one the other day and will post a photo of it because I'm not sure who it came from.

I need some help with probable chick colours so that I can identify the chicks once I get them back. I have the opportunity to use 2 trays at the hatchery to separate some, but no more than that so I will need to put some colours together.

The colour matings I have are:

1) Brown red roo with a white hen and a buff hen - these are together, so may be from either hen so they are all mixed up anyway.

2) Mealy grey roo with birchin hen.

3) Blue dun roo with blue dun hen.

To clarify what I need to know - what colour should the chicks from these matings be at birth?

Am I better to put the mealy/birchin eggs with the brown red-buff/white ones (will I be able to tell them apart)?

Or should I put the mealy/birchin eggs in with the blue dun ones - will the mealy/birchin ones be black at birth or grey (and therefore similar to the blue dun which I assume will be blue?)?

Is it safer to put the blue dun in with the brown red - buff/white? Will they have the greatest difference in down colour?

I know they should reveal themselves as they grow up but I would like to be able to identify them as soon as they are born.

To put it YET another way (not that I think you are a bit thick, but that my explanation so far is very confusing ), if someone can just tell me what colour the chicks are when born I can make up my own mind!

Brown red x buff? (Note: the brown red has white breeding)
Brown red x white? (The brown red has white breeding)
Mealy grey x birchin?
Blue dun?

One more question - what colour is the progeny from lavender x blue dun likely to be? Obviously not lavender, but will blue dun breed true from a one-sided mating? I have a beautiful blue dun pullet and I am going to use her to improve my lavenders via my lav rooster Deccy.

I would really appreciate some help on this.

Thank you!

Deb

Hi Deb,

Sorry I am not up on colours like that, hopefully CL will see your post as she breeds a lot of Pekins.

I only have the 2 pure Pekins a buff roo and a black hen. I have yet to put one of their eggs in the bator so not sure what they will produce. I do have 2 off angels eggs to go in, however she had a major cluttered feather pooey prob ang gave her a bit of a trim last night, so she now has a big bullseye

Take Care
Deb

HI Deb, I can't help much with your question re down colour. I have found white down chicks can end up being something different like silver laced, columbian, cream, furness etc and I never know until the feathers start to come through. I have found the same with black down chicks, the maybe black, birchen, dark laced etc, but agian no idea until the feathers start to come through.

Sorry I can't help.

Thanks anyway Deb & Rosemarie. I put the blue duns in by themselves (well, with the Belgian eggs) and put the buff & white in with the birchin/mealy grey.

I decided to do it this way as I figure the birchin/mealy chicks SHOULD be either black or grey (with grey/blue type variations), and that any from the red-brown buff/white crosses SHOULD have reddish/buff variations (possibly straight white). So I should have yellow/buff type chicks vs black/grey type chicks.

This seemed safer than putting the blue duns and the mealy/birchin eggs together as I wasn't sure how much variation there would be in the two types.

I'll let you know on 15th October whether or not this was a good idea!

Deb

Forgot to mention - I did find some colours on the UK pekin site at this address http://www.pekinbantams.com/chicks.asp but they didn't have the ones I wanted.

I had a look at the site, thanks Deb. But I have to say some of my cuckoo chicks look like the mottled chick they have there and my other cuckoo chicks have more cream underbelly than the one on the site. I get a very big colour variation in the down of my cuckoos. My silver partridge was much more white only with a darker pattern along the back. I think there is a very big variation in chick down even within the colours of pekins by the look of it.

I currently have one that has an orange face, blue chest and grey to black back?????? I am dying to see what it turns into.

I will try to post a photo later.

It is very exciting to see what they become. Last year I had a chick that hatched out yellow and silver - I thought it was going to be some magical colour but when I took it to a vaccination day the other breeders looked at it and said "it's white". And it was. And still is.

I am going to take photos of all my babies so that I have a record of what colour they were when they hatched.

Have you got a pic of your orange-faced chick up?

Deb

Not yet, Have been a bit busy.

I put up a couple of photos of the orange faced chcik yesterday. Still waiting for approval. Maybe some find an orange faced pekin offensive