Can someone ID these Roosters?

Haystack, jump in here...........
Can anyone ID these roosters? The bottom Pictures of the black ones that is.
I know the top 2 pictures are the Americana roo, but what are the 2 in the bottom picture.

For some reason the place that my boyfreind went though to get his hens, must not know the difference between hens and rooster when there chicks. They also screwed up his order and he didn't get half of what he had ordered. He had ordered some Americana's and some silver laced wyandottes. He got none of them. So the next year the place that he ordered from ordered 6 for him for free. They should have all been hens, but they are really good at there jobs, NOT!! Because 1 of the Americana's was a rooster and 2 of the Wyandottes were roosters.

Unfortunately such is the nature of roos--they do not reveal themselves until it is too late.

The other problem is that a lot of roos look alike. Unless you have a breed with some distinct feather pattern, comb or leg feathering, a lot of roosters tend to look similar---

Kassy!! Cute pic. The two black ones on the left and the black one on the right have the U shaped body and combs of the Langshan's, but the problem is that the langshans have feathered feet. This leads me to believe they are mixed breed. I would be interested in what others might think. Cute pic of you and your girls. Haystack.

LOL, that's not me Haystack. I wish it was!!
That's my boyfriend daugher :)

I'm going to have to get a list from him of what he ordered, and then show you pictures of what he got. I know they screwed up big time when he got them.

And those to black boys were nasty, nasty, nasty boys. They would try to attack you as soon as you had your back turned.

I'm off rotation at work now, so I'll be headed to his place in a couple of days. I'll get pictures of the other ones if I can. After all, I just got a new camera, so I have to use it :)

This is actually my girl :)

Where did you order from?? Not the same place as the last year?
Hatcheries often throw in several roos as freebiez... they call them packing peanuts to keep the others warm... could that be what this is?
The two in the pic don't look like the same breed to me.. I'm thinking Australorp and Marans?? Does the place you bought from offer Marans? If not, I'm dead wrong.. those gold hackles throw me off... I'm just tossin around ideas and guesses.. Don't take me serious.. LOL

We think they were both Australorp. And I believe from what I have read on then in the past, they are not the nicest roosters.

The second time around they ordered him 6 hens, and out of those 6, three of them where roosters? We had better odds when we let one of the girls hatch our own eggs. We got some interesting looking Americana's. One I ended up calling crow. Because she is black and she would fly up in the tree all the time. I would have to get her out so she would go into the coop to be safe for the night.
We had leghorns that went up into the trees to sleep at night, and one by one we lost them. Finally the last one got kind of smart and went into the coop at night. She would fly back out of the pen during the day when no one was home. Then one day the neighbors dogs came over and that was the end of her :( ( I said she got Kind of smart).

He ordered his though the feed mill where he lives, near the borader of Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan.

I think the all black one has the classic Australorp look.. the one with the gold hackles could just be standing different.. but it's head looks different to me. The gold hackles could be from the sun couldn't it??

I'm starting to have a problem with my Modern Game bantams getting too brave and straying too far from the coop.. time to clip wings.. I came home tonight and someone closed my back gate and put a board up.. I think some of the chickens were sneaking in the yards.. LOL

I'm all for hatching home grown..

ZZ's The one with the gold hackles has that classic austrolorp body, but the gold hackles makes me think its a mix breed. The other three blacks have a much deeper u shaped body. They are not Austrolorps. I have fifteen austrolorps and none have that u shaped body. I also went through Carol Ekairus' Poultry breeds book and the classic pic of austrolorps is not u shaped body. The only thing close I could find was the langshans. That was why I thought they were mixed breed. Got me!!! Haystack

We had a run of "Australorps" with golden hackles on the forum a while ago. Remember ZZ?

It seems to be something that crops up occassionally in Australorps. I don't know if it is due to "funny business" in some strains' background or is just an atavistic trait. Langshans were used in the creation of Australorps and the ones we had here, looked very U-shaped, especially when they were young. They sort of bulk-uped and looked more Orpingtonish as they matured.

However none of them had as much color as that one does. It looks more like a black-tailed red something or other.

Well, I'm stumped then.. The gold hackles throw me off too.. At first glance I thought Marans... They seem to have the face and beady eyes... but ?? They don't look to be the same breed to me.. I like the challenge of trying to figure it out.. :) but I'm out.. LOL

You have Marans too don't you? Do you see Marans here?

You are right Catscan! Oh gosh.. I must be loosing my mind completely.. What the??? LOL

Is this the pic???

edited to add..
He had some gold hackles, but no gold in the saddle.. I don't have a good pic..

This message was edited Jun 24, 2009 10:14 PM

ZZ's!!! You need to update your photo studio. That pic just made me groan. LOL

OK let's face it there are times when we just don't know what the heck we are talking about. It's called the pride factor!LOL

Ok Catsy you have managed to throw me another curve ball, rather than try to catch it, I just ducked. I have finally figured out what those Roosters are! They are Roosters, Go figure. Have a great day, HI ZZ's. Haystack

Hey catscan, I liked your answer.....

It looks more like a black-tailed red something or other.

LOL
Thas sounds good to me.

Those are the only pictures I have of them on my computer, but I know he has pictures of them, so I'll see if I can find better pictures of them after I get to his place and post them some time this weekend

I still love the answer catscan :)

And yup Haystack, they are roosters! LOL

Far be it for me to make you groan Haystack! I'll have you know that pic has very sentimental value! LOL That high tech tractor was a big deal that day.. The neighbor's dog had all three of those roos for dinner one night... (not in that fancy tractor either) No way to update those pics.

I think this is fun...My favorite thing is guessing the gender or breed.. I'm not trying to make any claims to fame.. I'm just trying to learn.. I've been a bumbling idiot for 2 weeks now.. I told you guyz not to take me serious!

The Guide to Poultry breeds by Carol Ekerius shows the Australorp as more of a J shape rather than U shape.
The American Standard of Perfection shows a more pronounced U shaped back on the Australorp roo... There is no mention of gold hackles.. It does say they were developed from the black orpington..

ZZ,
I'm glad you like guessing, because I will be posting more for you to guess this weekned :)

After I get to all the pictures of them.

Oh cool Kassy! Really, that is my favorite thing... I love it! I learn not only from the results down the line, but the input from the experts.. it's so fun!

OK ZZ i have a really good one for you.

Would you say this is a leghorn? The bigger one in the back.

We ended up getting 3 chickens that a teacher had raised as a school project. When they were older, they were looking for homes for them, and a freind knew that we had chickens and asked if we might take them.

When I went to pick them up, the husband of the teacher told me this was a leghorn. He said a neighbor said they would take it as soon as it started laying eggs......LOL

And any ideas as to what this little girl was?

She also came from the teacher and was in the picture with the leghorn.........LOL

No, I would not say that is a Leghorn.. he has muffs!

I have no clue what the lil lady is.. she's cute though!

Thankz.. :)

Very good ZZ, and he didn't lay eggs either............LOL

That teacher and her husband had them all mixed up.
Told me the one with the tufts was a leghorn. I didn't have that heart to tell him it was a male Americana. The neighbor would have waited a long time for it to lay eggs.

Oh, and I was told the other 2 came from blue eggs. So I was thinking the little girl might have been a American or and American cross? The eggs she layed were a very light brown that almost had a tint of pink to them.

And it got better. I was told that Ozzie came from a blue egg too. Ozzie was a Turken. From what I have read on Turkens, they lay brown eggs?

Well... If the mom was an EE, then that explains the muffs.. The dad could have been Leghorn... Easter Eggers do lay pinkish eggs. That's why they are called EEs.. it's all the pastel colors.. not just blue.

Ozzie very well could have come from a blue egg.. That doesn't mean she will lay blue eggs.. it just means that's what her momma was. In that case, sounds like a Naked Neck Roo was hangin around.. LOL

I've been reading a lot about egg color.. improving egg color is very hard to do.. since you could have a chick hatch from a beautiful sky blue egg, and have excellent breeding, just to have it lay ugly mudd green eggs!

So you have Easter Eggers... a wonderul wild mix of breeds that sometimes lay blue, green or pink eggs.

LOL ZZ
I loved that last part about the mudd green eggs.

We have a pretty white girl that sometimes lays what looks like a mudd green eggs. But sometimes they seem to be almost a light olive green. She is one that we hatched. I'll try to get some good pictures of the other young easter egg chickens that we hatched too. Most of them lay blue eggs.

OK another question for you? Do Easter egg chickens sometimes not have tufts?

And Ozzie the naked neck turken was a rooster. He was my favorite. We wanted to mate him with our brown girls but we lost him before we could last year. He died suddenly :(

Awww.. I'm sorry you lost Ozzie.. I love Naked Necks... They are so sweet!!

LOL I have a hen that lays a HUGE mudd green egg with a blue tip.. LOL I'm serious! She is broody now.. I need to get a pic of that horrible whopper egg she lays..

Easter Egger is a "catch all" name...I think it's a better label than Mutt.. They can be crossed with anything.. so they could have blue legs, muffs, beards, or not.. and still lay blue eggs, or pink or green..

I have come to believe that is one of the reasons the name "Americana" was created.. As I understand it.. Americanas are just a more correct Easter Egger. The whole controversy over true Ameraucanas is something I don't agree with and it's very confusing. That's why I chose not to participate... and not to pursue purebred Ameraucanas (although that's what I have).. Easter Eggers are more fun and I love the wild color combinations!
I also started building a flock of the lavender color Ameraucana.. I have a nice Lavender Roo and several "splits" (black with the lavender gene).. but see? They are not recognized by the ABC, so does that make them mutts???

Oh gosh.. you opened a can of worms.. I'm sorry!
Let me go finish my 3rd cup of coffee.. LOL

LOL ZZ
Well I'm going to go finish packing so I can head to my boyfriends and see how the girls are.
And try to get you some pictures ;)