What breed are these chicks??

Hello,

This spring my son (2 years old) wanted to get some black chicks. My dad surprised us with some black chicks from Tractor Supply. The tag on them said "Black Special" but I can't find anything on a breed called Black Special. Would anybody be able to help identify these chicks? They're about 8 weeks old now, and some are all black, and some got a reddish color on most or part of their bodies.

Last year we bought 8 silkies from Tractor Supply. Once they grew up we ended up with 6 roosters, so we had to re-home 4 of them to make things a little less hostile. We traded the one rooster for 3 Rhode Island Red Hens, which are super nice. We also have some ducks. The new chicks get along with our older chickens and ducks great! But we have no clue what they are!!




They were all huddled in the food dish, I did put them inside to warm up!

This is an older picture

Current picture

The more red/brown one is in the back of this picture. This one has by far the most color.

Younger picture


Younger picture




Younger picture but I love this one:

Very cute! The chicks with the brownish bits looks a lot like my black Sexlinks. The others could be Austrolorps or Jersey Giants, they're pretty common breeds at TSC. Ours has a "black special" bin as well. It usually just contains a mix of black egg laying and dual purpose breeds. Pic #4 makes me think you may have a couple of cockerels in there. 2 of those little ones have pretty large combs.

Thanks! I just assumed they were all the same breed, it would make sense that the different colors could be different breeds. I definitely think we have a few cockerels from the comb size on some of them. I was hoping if I figure out the breeds it'd be easier to sex them also. I have always thought from the pictures online that they looked like black sex links, but they never had spots on the back of their heads.

That's because the cockerels get the head spots, I believe. As little fluff balls, my black Sexlink pullets were all black, a couple of them had brown smudges here an there.

That sounds promising then that I will have some hens! Thank you!!

Here is a better picture of one with the red on it. Should this be a hen? The comb looks pretty large to me, but I'm not sure.