What breed are these chicks?

[Westcoaster87]

Can anyone tell me what breed these chicks are? I picked up these 12 heritage chicks the other week and their colours are changing so dramatically from what they started off as I'm worried they are not what I thought they were. For example, the black ones with white on their wings now have bright yellow on their chests and the very dark grey started off the same as the very light ones.

 

[BantamLover21]

What were you told they were? I'm not very good at telling the breed of very young, black and white chicks; it might help if I knew what they could be.

 

[Westcoaster87]

Hehe, okay.

What I was told is they they are Black Orpingtons, Lavender Orpingtons, 1 Golden Laced Wyandotte and 1 Welsummer.

One the the Lavender Orpingtons has turned very dark grey while the others have stayed looking like Lavenders and the Black Orpingtons are losing a lot of blac, their wings are getting whiter and their chests are turning yellow. All of this could be normal but I just don't know, lol

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Chicks fluff often looks very different from feathers, and that makes it very difficult to tell breed of young chicks. Personally, I wouldn't panic. Wait until they get true feathers, and if you're concerned post photos and ask again.

 

[Westcoaster87]

It's more amusement than panic, lol. I think one of them might actually be a Blue Orpington which I am very excited about

I think it's fun to guess especially with all the funky colours. I supposed if there is no pure orpingtons that would be something to get a little frustrated about but as you say, we will only know once all their true feathers are in.

 

[juliechick]

I see your Welsummer and your Wyandotte in the first pic. I can see a couple Lavendar and one Blue chick in the last pic. I'm pretty sure you have what they told you.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I tried to post earlier, but the site was updating. Anyway, you've already figured out one is blue. In the last picture, the 2 lightest color chicks are the lavs (behind the blue). In the first pic, the left chick is your Welsummer and the one beside it is the GLWyandotte.

Its completely normal for black chicks to grow in white feathers, by the way. As they grow, they will continue to have molts and eventually they'll be black. My black Cochins were the same way

 

[Westcoaster87]

It was the Black Orpingtons I was unsure of. They are very white and bright yellow which seemed a little strange. The other chicks seem to be true to breed from what I could tell.

So all that white is normal then, eh? And what about the spotting (mottling?) around the eyes? Is that indicative of anything. I know I'm supposed to wait to see but this is all so fascinating with them being my first chicks

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yep, all that creamy white is normal. It'll all molt out before they become adults. All of my black chicks look sort of like little penguins when they hatch and end up black as adults. If you look around on Feathersite or even a hatchery website like McMurray, you'll notice the chicks of breeds that come in black look just like your little peepers (Jersey Giants, Austrolorps, Orps, Cochins, ECT).

 

[Westcoaster87]

Aaaahh, okay. So now I have another possibly silly question. Does the size of chick indicate anything when it comes to gender? A few of these guys are double the size of others (they all hatched out at the same time) and 1 is actually pretty aggressive. This size variation is among the Orpingtons- I'm not referring to the other breeds.