Thought I knew what I was talking about....

Hello everyone! We began our chicken journey this past August. New to chicken keeping, we had no preference for breeds so ordered the "brown egg layer pack" from the hatchery. We ended up with a nice mix of Delawares (although unfortunately, one cockerel was included in the mix of "sexed birds"!), Buff Orpingtons, Australorps, and Barred Rocks. At almost 18 weeks old, we thought we were settled on the breeds. Looking at the newly arrived hatchery catalog, however, we realized that the combs of our supposed Barred Rocks don't look like the pictures in the catalog (or any other picture of Barred Rocks we've ever seen but apparently we have missed the obvious differences every time!). Our girls appear to have a pea or rose comb, so my question is, what the heck kind of chickens are these?? We absolutely love them to death, they are the sweetest birds we could ever ask for, highly personable, seem to get along reasonably well with the other birds, our dog, and our cockerel, and are just overall nice chickens. Do Barred Rocks sometimes have different combs? Are these combs going to turn into a single comb style (our Delawares combs look completely different) Ihope someone out there knows more than I thought I did! Thank you for any help! This photo was taken at 17 weeks old This pic was taken at about 14 weeks

It appears that you may have gotten Dominiques.

sourland said:

It appears that you may have gotten Dominiques.

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Thanks for the quick reply! That was what I was thinking. It just threw me because we were so "sure!" I'm not sure if it even makes a difference as we adore them no matter the breed, but it is nice to know.

Yep, Dominiques. They're a bit smaller than Rocks, and have the rose combs. I've not had any but several folks here just love them. Say they're friendly, great layers and are especially good for cold weather with the rose comb instead of the straight combs.

agree with Sourland

Thank you for the replies. As I read up on the breed, I can see how closely it matches my girls. It also explains why they were so much more petite than our other chickens!