Please help; hatchery fiasco…10 unknown chicks!!

[McChooky]

There was no invoice.
The order placed was 12 unsexed Bielefelders (they’re auto-sexing).
15 surplus (the chicks they had too many of & no home- no guarantee of what they were)
The free special - no idea. Or even if it’s alive. lol

Now I know why you called it a fiasco lol

 

[house1917]

My $.02... The chicks with the defined Cleopatra eyeliner are likely pullet Bielefelders. The little guy with the more red head and smudged eyeliner is likely a cockerel Bielefelder. Agreed with others that the black chick with white head dot is some kind of barred breed- and from the tiny comb Dominique makes sense. Rose comb and slate/green legs could be a Hamburg- but that's just a guess. And the yellow chicks with yellow legs could be White Rocks or Leghorns- if they're little spazzes I'd guess the latter. A few weeks it will make all the difference in IDing them- hope they continue to thrive!

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

the black one could be a Plymouth Barred Rock, or a male link.

 

[McChooky]

When a hatchery substituted half my order of sexed dominiques with straight run barred rocks it took me a couple months to figure out what I had.They never admitted what they did but the ones I didn't sell I was able to take pictures of and get a refund.

 

[McChooky]

I'm sorry you had 18 arrive dead.They need to replace this whole order and just give you these chicks free.What an awful thing to deal with!

 

[McChooky]

My $.02... The chicks with the defined Cleopatra eyeliner are likely pullet Bielefelders. The little guy with the more red head and smudged eyeliner is likely a cockerel Bielefelder. Agreed with others that the black chick with white head dot is some kind of barred breed- and from the tiny comb Dominique makes sense. Rose comb and slate/green legs could be a Hamburg- but that's just a guess. And the yellow chicks with yellow legs could be White Rocks or Leghorns- if they're little spazzes I'd guess the latter. A few weeks it will make all the difference in IDing them- hope they continue to thrive!

Legbars have that eyeliner too so I'm guessing you're right!

 

[McChooky]

It turned very cold here this week so I added plastic over the door of my run. I'm guessing thats whats killed the chicks during shipment. I'd watch these that survived very closely. They can still drop like flies regardless of how you try to save them.Just try to keep their little feet warm and don't let the heat fluctuate

 

[NatJ]

There was no invoice.
The order placed was 12 unsexed Bielefelders (they’re auto-sexing).
15 surplus (the chicks they had too many of & no home- no guarantee of what they were)
The free special - no idea. Or even if it’s alive. lol

In that case, I think I may see a male Bielefelder (light spot on head, shades of brown in other parts of the down: but it appears to have green feet, which is not right for the breed, so either it is not a Bielefelder, or else the hatchery needs to improve their breeding stock.) A Cream Legbar male would look almost exactly the same as a Bielefelder male at this age (including leg color because both are supposed to have yellow legs.) I am assuming Bielefelder because you ordered some, but there is always a chance that the "surplus" or "surprise" chicks could have included a Legbar male.


Chipmunk-striped chicks are hard. If they have single combs, they could be Brown Leghorns, or Welsummers, or Bielefelder pullets, or Cream Legbar pullets, or Olive Eggers from a cross of Welsummer x Legbar, or Speckled Sussex, or quite a few other things. Sussex are supposed to have white legs, I think all the other ones I named would have yellow legs. Some Easter Eggers have chipmunk stripes, single combs, and varied leg colors.

Chipmunk-striped chicks with pea combs are often Easter Eggers of one kind or another, although they can sometimes be Dark Cornish.

White chicks with single combs could be White Leghorns or White Rocks, or they could be males of any type of Red Sexlink (ISA Brown, Golden Comet, Red Star, etc.)

For the chipmunk-striped chicks and the white ones, there are other possible breeds too; I just listed the first ones I could think of, which are probably the most common ones.

It looks like pretty much everyone (including me) agrees that you have a Dominique (rose comb, black with a yellow dot on top of the head.)

 

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

I'm sorry you had 18 arrive dead.They need to replace this whole order and just give you these chicks free.What an awful thing to deal with!

Yeah. When I have time to sit at my pc I was thinking about posting about the situation.

They would not do anything other than credit our store account or back to card. Bad customer service on their part because their reputation is at stake- one would think.

 

[McChooky]

We ordered 4 different breeds of 25 sexed chicks and cockerels back in 95 and all of them arrived alive and survived. A free chick they added was the only chick that died.