OldSchoolSarge
Chirping
Hey all! Recently picked up some chicks from TSC (bad idea, I know!), including 4 that are supposed to be black australorp, but 1 of the 4 looks different than the other 3. This caused me to obsessively research all the different possibilities and I've come to the conclusion that I either ended up with 4 australorps as intended (though not breed standard), or I ended up with either small Jersey Giants or clean-legged marans. It's worth noting that there were 3 chicks in the bin that looked similar, but were half as big again. We were told that all chicks in the bin came in the same shipment, and the bigger chicks weren't feathered out any more than the smaller ones, so were avoided those out of concern that they were Jersey Giants. I'm suspicious the hatchery threw all the clean-legged marans in with the australorps. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'll add pics later, but the 1 that is different has darker grey/almost black legs, white undertones on the bottom of the feet (tops are mostly dark), a pure black beak, and is growing in pure black wing feathers. It also has way less white on it, mostly on the belly. The other 3 have lighter grey legs, almost pure yellow feet (the dark doesn't go down on the feet), mottled yellow and black beaks, and have white tips on the black wing feathers. They also have WAY more white on them, especially on their faces, including white rings around their eyes and white feathering on their ear tufts. They look almost grey/blue compared to the darker chick. I'm not sure how well you can see a difference in these pics with all my new chicks together, will try to add individual pics later! Thanks for any help!
