Black Sexlink?

Hi all, I'm new, so if I am doing something wrong, please do let me know.

I have been raising chickens for about 3 years now, but have had chickens off and on for years, so only a newbie on the forum. This April, I went to Tractor Supply and bought some Cornish Cross, two Amberlinks, and the salesman said he had some black chicks that he had no idea of the breed. He said the hatchery didn't send them with any info other than the fact they were straight run. I thought it would be fun to be surprised so I bought three.

They all were black with a white belly and chest, no spots on the head. I wish I had thought to take pictures when they were young, but I didn't. Once they started to get in their first set of feathers, two had some brown around their head and necks and the other one was pure black. I am 99% sure the largest is a rooster. He is much larger than the other two and has that cockerel swagger. He feet are half again the size of the smaller ones. He started getting black greenish feathers on his back in the past week or so. The middle one acts more like a hen but also has the brown on the neck.

A few days ago I was taking pictures and noticed that the large one is starting to get white specks on its neck and head. Does this mean that they are sexlink even though they were identical as young chicks? I was under the impression that sex links mean you can tell what sex they are from the beginning? Next time I'm not buying surprise chickens because this is driving me crazy.

They are roughly 6 weeks old in the picture.

Sex links are hybrids that are bred so you can tell the male from the female at hatch by there color. Black sex-links females (as chicks) should be black without a white dot on the top of the head while males are black with a dot on their heads. Could you get some better pictures of your birds in question?

All of them were identical when I bought them, their heads completely black except under the neck and under the belly. Not a bit of white on the heads of any of them. The only real difference was the legs when they were chicks. Some had greenish black legs other had the same greenish black with a few toes or patches yellow.



This is the one that I am 100% sure is a roo. You can see the white flecks and what looks like barring on his face and neck.



This photo you can see the color of the feet, although his yellow toes were a lot brighter when he was a chick, and the black was more apparent.



These are all three together. The one I am sure is a roo is on the left. The one I am sure is a hen is on the right and she is pretty much solid black, no brown and barely any iridescence that the other two do. The one in the middle has a lot of the same coloring, minus the white flecks as the roo, but is hardly bigger than the hen.



This is the one that I am sure will be a hen.



Here you can plainly see the beautiful black feathers with blue/green/purple highlights on the roo.

Hopefully this helps some.

Two cockerels and one pullet. I'm pretty sure they're "Asian Blacks", a new made-up type we've seen at feed stores the last 2-3 years.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...8.html&usg=AFQjCNEzDVIJl-gsxA8CS9tYt_lsz384ew

x 2

I agree with donrae.

It is certainly possible, but I don't see any brown at all in the pictures of them?

I think they are Black Sex Links and you have a rooster and two hens, maybe. Or two roosters and one hen. You'll know if the other one that might be a rooster starts getting the white stuff on him, too.

littlegreywolf said:

I think they are Black Sex Links and you have a rooster and two hens, maybe. Or two roosters and one hen. You'll know if the other one that might be a rooster starts getting the white stuff on him, too.

Click to expand...

Two of the birds are clearly cockerels. They lack barring, so they can't be sex link cockerels.

The pullet could possibly be a sex link pullet, but it's much more likely she's whatever breed the boys are.

Jsweevil said:

It is certainly possible, but I don't see any brown at all in the pictures of them?

Click to expand...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...8.html&usg=AFQjCNEzDVIJl-gsxA8CS9tYt_lsz384ew

I was going off this like from Purely Poultry. It says they're black or black with red.