4 week old "assorted" bantam "pullets". Breed/Gender? (Will update bi-weekly)

[Melisma42]

I hope so too! I'll guess when the time I comes, but I might be wrong. Hope they are all the gender you hope for!

hoping for pullets, but I have had great luck placing my "accidental" roos in good flocks so far! I live close to downtown Lexington, KY so I cannot have roos here.

 

[The-White-Elephant]

hoping for pullets, but I have had great luck placing my "accidental" roos in good flocks so far! I live close to downtown Lexington, KY so I cannot have roos here.

sorry roos, hope you have a great home!

One of my friend live there I think.

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

We did an assorted Cochin bin. We did get a silver laced cochin. That is a WIN!

I've never seen a silver laced cochin before. Sounds so pretty! We have a blue cochin hen, black cochin roo and hen, and 4 cochin X silkie projects that we got almost 3 years ago from someone as chicks. The same person gave us a "black cochin" and a "white cochin" but it turned out they are far from a cochin. Midnight (the black one) has a ton of gold-ish silver lacing on his chest, wings, hackle feathers, saddle feathers, and on his back. Sprinkles (the white one) is pure white except for a few lavender splotches on his tail and back. If you want some pictures, I'll try and go get them!

 

[NatJ]

I am too new to chicks to judge well! Except toes. I can count toes. :-D

You've got a good start, since you counted toes and looked for feathered feet and the color of the feet. I've seen plenty of other people who try to identify chicks based on color, and forget to check the feet at all

The breeds that could be included are silkies, easter egger, polish, green queen easter egger, mille fleur, barred rock, cochin, brahma and welsummer.

I have 1 feather legged, but she has 5 toes, so silkie.

You are probably right about the Silkie, but it has a chance of being a "Green Queen Easter Egger," since MPC says they can also have 5 toes and even silkie feathers. You will probably know for sure when it starts laying eggs.

The other four are clean legged--leaving easter egger, polish, welsummer and barred rock from the breeds they listed.

None of your chicks are Barred Rocks (color is wrong).

Polish would have a crest on their heads, and usually have a bulge on the top of their skull-- I'm not seeing that, so you probably do not have any Polish either. (Most of them are also the wrong color for Polish.)

For Easter Egger vs. Welsummer:

--Welsummer must have the chipmunk-striped chick down, while Easter Egger can have that or any other color.

Aldieb must be and Easter Egger, because it is the wrong color for a Welsummer.

--Welsummer must have a single comb, while Easter Eggers can have any comb (but often have pea combs.)

Bella and Aldieb have pea combs, so they must be Easter Eggers because Welsummers cannot have pea combs.
(I'm not sure about the comb type on the other two maybe-Welsummer chicks: it can be hard to tell when they are young.)

--Welsummers cannot have muff/beard on their face, while Easter Eggers (and Silkies) can have it or not. Beard is extra feathers under the beak (like a beard), and muffs are extra feathers on the side of the face.

I think I'm seeing puffy cheeks (muff/beard) on all of your chicks, which would make them one Silkie and four Easter Eggers. It can be hard to tell on little chicks, but is usually obvious after they are a few months old, so this is something you may want to watch for as they grow older.

--Welsummers have yellow legs, so any with not-yellow legs are not Welsummers (I see you have already been checking this.)

 

[ThinMintTheChicken]

You've got a good start, since you counted toes and looked for feathered feet and the color of the feet. I've seen plenty of other people who try to identify chicks based on color, and forget to check the feet at all


You are probably right about the Silkie, but it has a chance of being a "Green Queen Easter Egger," since MPC says they can also have 5 toes and even silkie feathers. You will probably know for sure when it starts laying eggs.


None of your chicks are Barred Rocks (color is wrong).

Polish would have a crest on their heads, and usually have a bulge on the top of their skull-- I'm not seeing that, so you probably do not have any Polish either. (Most of them are also the wrong color for Polish.)

For Easter Egger vs. Welsummer:

--Welsummer must have the chipmunk-striped chick down, while Easter Egger can have that or any other color.

Aldieb must be and Easter Egger, because it is the wrong color for a Welsummer.

--Welsummer must have a single comb, while Easter Eggers can have any comb (but often have pea combs.)

Bella and Aldieb have pea combs, so they must be Easter Eggers because Welsummers cannot have pea combs.
(I'm not sure about the comb type on the other two maybe-Welsummer chicks: it can be hard to tell when they are young.)

--Welsummers cannot have muff/beard on their face, while Easter Eggers (and Silkies) can have it or not. Beard is extra feathers under the beak (like a beard), and muffs are extra feathers on the side of the face.

I think I'm seeing puffy cheeks (muff/beard) on all of your chicks, which would make them one Silkie and four Easter Eggers. It can be hard to tell on little chicks, but is usually obvious after they are a few months old, so this is something you may want to watch for as they grow older.

--Welsummers have yellow legs, so any with not-yellow legs are not Welsummers (I see you have already been checking this.)

Yup! Our green queen from Meyers Hatchery ended up looking exactly like a silkie except for the smooth feathers. 5 toes, poof, muffs, beard.

 

[Melisma42]

Nat-
Thanks for the detailed response! I learned a lot! So seems like 1 probably silkie and 4 EEs!

 

[Melisma42]

6.5 week update!! I think that they are all EE, except Pips? Does Pips look full silkie? She’s going through a true ugly phase right now .

None of them look like boys yet to my eyes!

Maybe Mandarb is a welsummer?? I’m not sure I see tufts.

 

[NatJ]

Maybe Mandarb is a welsummer?? I’m not sure I see tufts.

Mandarb has a beard & muffs, so not a Welsummer.

None of them look like boys yet to my eyes!

They don't look male to me either, at least not so far.

 

[Melisma42]

Thanks Nat! The muffs on the others are much more obvious to me. I appreciate the second set of eyes!

I love how they turned into a nice color wheel from white to dark grey. =]

 

[NatJ]

Thanks Nat! The muffs on the others are much more obvious to me.

The muffs are more obvious if you compare to a chick who has none-- I've seen plenty of chicks with no muffs, but you don't have any in this batch to compare with. That's probably why it was more obvious to me.

I love how they turned into a nice color wheel from white to dark grey. =]

Yes, that is nice