Backyard Fowl Keepers

It sounds like your roosters are showing different traits due to genetic variation. The smaller one might carry recessive traits from previous generations, which could appear in his chicks depending on what the hens contribute.

Do you know if either parent had a crest? If only one parent had it, then the crested rooster inherited the dominant gene, while the other got the recessive form. This would affect their offspring as well.

Since they have the same parents, they share many of the same genes, but not in identical ways. Their offspring could inherit traits from either rooster, and some might even look more like their grandparents!

It sounds like your roosters are showing classic genetic variation. If you want a particular look in future generations, you'll need to selectively breed the rooster with the traits you prefer.

If you breed both roosters to the same hens, you might see a mix of white, red, and crested/non-crested chicks. Keeping track of which rooster fathers which chick would be a fun genetics experiment!