Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

We are fairly certain that the Light Sussex cockerel and the Dark Sussex hen in the first photo are the parents of the cockerel at the top of the middle photo. We are even more certain that this cockerel and the Red Leghorn hen beneath him are the parents of the young hen in the end photo. What do you think? Why do you think we have drawn the conclusions we have?
At any one time we usually have three to four cockerels and thirty or so hens, they are all free range and so we can never be entirely sure who has mated with whom: we like it this way as it means we get a fabulous variety of chicks. A lot of poultry breeders will have dedicated pairs or trios of birds in enclosed pens so that they always know which chicks have been produced by which hens and cockerels. The huge advantage of doing it this way is that if the breeder likes the chicks s/he has produced s/he knows how to produce them again. This is how pure breed poultry and indeed pure breeds of many animals are bred and why the breeds then continue and don't die out.
A great many animals produce offspring that are similar in some ways to themselves. Our guess about our green winged cockerel was based on his colouring, shape and adult size: all of which are similar to the Sussex birds we think are his parents. In addition, he is quite a calm bird and Sussex chickens are usually quite calm. The young hen in the final photo appears to have the classic black and white neck markings from her Light Sussex 'granddad' as well as the very obvious red chest of her Red Leghorn 'mum'. She also seems to have more of a Leghorn shape (not obvious from the photo of her mum who is all hunched up...). We don't know what her character will be as she is not yet fully grown but as Sussex are calm birds and Leghorns quite 'flighty' it will be interesting to see how she turns out and who she takes after.
Finally an update (overdue), on our poorly turkey poult from the 21st who is thankfully much better. The swelling in her eye was reduced by the next day and touch wood, no sniffles or further swellings since!!