I hatched about 30 eggs last year. Had quite a few cockerels, but I still only ended up keeping 3 pullets. This one, a Marans cross (so definitely brown eggs), and another EE who hasn't started laying yet. The last girl was attacked by a raccoon and nearly lost an eye and half her face is a...
If I had to guess, based on gold/silver sex-linking, I'm thinking you have two pullets and three cockerels. Upper left, lower middle, and upper right are male. The darker ones are female.
Faces are more likely to get you answers at this age. C: And shoulders. A full picture of the whole bird, preferably in profile, will be the most accurate way to tell if it's a male or female.
She is a mixed chicken. She may or may not have some Ameraucana in her lineage somewhere, with the muff and beard, but Salmon Faverolles have muffs and beards too, and lay tan eggs. How many toes does she have and what color are her legs? Whatever she is, whatever gave her the muff and beard is...
Pinched tails arent a breed-specific trait, it's a physiological defect that works against laying hens. Hobby or registered breeders who conform to a breed's SOP will select against any negative traits that pop up in their flock, so they wouldn't hatch out eggs from hens who displayed those...
Hatchery birds are bred en masse, and "hatchery quality" purebreds are known to be smaller and less conforming to parts of the SOP that deal with the health of the animal (such as breeding and producing hens with "pinched" tails rather than the tented tails that indicate a wide pelvis...
Yes, most likely brown.
A designer hybrid. The labradoodle of the chicken world. Hatcheries have to have a "new" thing every couple of years. Their hybrids won't breed true so if people want more of the same or certain characteristics they have to buy more.
A plymouth blue rock is a cross between a barred rock hen and an Andalusian Blue rooster. So these are probably crosses of Blue Rocks (also called Sapphire Gems) and Crested Cream Legbar mixes. I say CCL mixes rather than straight CCL because the websites selling Sapphire Skys says they will lay...
I had Wheaten Ameraucana cocks that looked like that at a young age, they definitely got more colorful as they got older. Might be too flashy/gold for what you're looking for, but I agree that he's one to keep an eye on.
I had one or two do that before. Eventually the casing kind of rubs off and the feathers spread out. You might be able to very gently press and rub them between your fingers and the sheath will sort of disintegrate under the pressure.
This is the kind of dark and glossy I mean. See the "cape" of dark red feathers? You should be starting to see those on Teddy's wings if she was a boy.