accidental chicks! breed/sex?

augiedranch

Songster
11 Years
Mar 14, 2008
754
12
171
Texas
Accidental chicks. .. (I was on a 12 day work trip and the babysitter/farm sitter didn't notice my hen sitting on eggs and I by the time I got home they were already developing, and I did not want to do anything to them).
First question, what are they?
Second question, which is cockerel or pullet

In my flock free ranging :
Rooster- rhode island red and a birchen bantam cochin

Hens- rhode island red, production red, ee's, red stars (gold comets), Dominique's

This is their first time outside and they aren't happy in these pics

Thank you in advance
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Since none of your roosters are barred, and barred hens (Dominiques) can only pass their barring to their male chicks, all chicks with barring are male. The ones with feathered legs are sired by the Cochin. Any chicks with a pea comb will be from your Easter Eggers. If you have any chicks with red down, they are likely pure Rhode Island Red. Production Reds are usually a cross breed involving RIR, as are the red sexlink hens; so if their chicks are fathered by the RIR rooster, they will look like RIR or Production Red chicks. Most of them are mixed breeds.
As far as male/female; only your barred chicks can be sexed for sure because of how the barring gene works. They are male. The rest, you will have to wait and see. Any chick with a red comb before 10 weeks old is a cockerel.
 
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The above response is an excellent reply. I agree, any barred chicks are males, any with feathered feet are half Cochin, and most of the others will just be production reds, but if there were some EE chicks then they would have greenish legs (at least mine do) and at least a small beard, but I don't particularly see any of those. How many chicks are there?
 
Thank you for the info! Very cool. Any suggestions on the white one with feathers on the feet? Dad cochin, but any idea on mom? Just trying to see what color he might be. I'm going to give him to a lady that wants a pet roo.
 
Since none of your roosters are barred, and barred hens (Dominiques) can only pass their barring to their male chicks, all chicks with barring are male. The ones with feathered legs are sired by the Cochin. Any chicks with a pea comb will be from your Easter Eggers. If you have any chicks with red down, they are likely pure Rhode Island Red. Production Reds are usually a cross breed involving RIR, as are the red sexlink hens; so if their chicks are fathered by the RIR rooster, they will look like RIR or Production Red chicks. Most of them are mixed breeds. 
As far as male/female; only your barred chicks can be sexed for sure because of how the barring gene works. They are male. The rest, you will have to wait and see. Any chick with a red comb before 10 weeks old is a cockerel.

x2, very well said, I was going to say the same thing.

As far as sexing the non-barred chicks, post pics of each of them again at 6-8 weeks and by then most/all of the cockerels should be evident. :)

On the white chick, it is a cockerel, and the mom is most likely a Golden Comet. Golden Comets are a Rhode Island Red/Rhode Island White cross, so that's the only place I can see the white coming from. In the picture he looks solid white, but you can try closely inspecting his feathers that are coming in to see if there's any red or black in them.
 

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