Who's the Daddy

From the first hatch of Indian Game cross eggs in the incubator, I have five chicks whose colouring puzzled me. They are either ginger and white or ginger with black markings. I had assumed they must be Ixworth cross Indian Game. As I had never bred from this cross before I didn't know what to expect. The chicks are much slighter than the other Indian game crosses and have single rather than pea combs.

Yesterday, admittedly a little slow off the mark, it dawned on me what they most likely are. Before we had the Indian Game cockerel I ran the hens with the Welsummer cockerel.

I moved them in with the Indian Game on the 21st February. On the 1st March the Australorp, one the hens was caught liaising with the Welsummer cockerel after escaping. On the 29th March I set the eggs I had collected over the previous couple of days.
I am now wondering if the first few eggs collected were fertile to the Welsummer rather than the Indian Game cockerel.

Photo: 2 of the growers which I now think are most likely Welsummer crossed Ixworth or Australorp, rather than from a cross with an Indian Game cockerel


Photo: All following chicks hatched from an Indian Game Ixworth cross have looked like the chick in the photo below


My dilemma now is what to do with the 5 growers, any cockerels we will eat even though we don't expect much from them. The hens I may keep and see how they turn out as layers.

With the new pens now in place next year this error shouldn't be repeated.