about silkie bantam: Hair plugs

[kmakani]

Hi there. I'm new to this chicken life and loving it so far. For Christmas the kids each received a chicken from the pet store. They said they were a silkie bantam and a phoenix. I looked at many pictures online, but my bantam does not have the beautiful plumage that a saw, but a very bad hair plug job, very sparse ( maybe six little things sticking our of his head). He/she is about 6-8 weeks now. Is that normal or do I have a mix of some kind? It has feathers on its sides of the leg/feet, 6 toes on each side, black skin, pretty bald on top. Thank you in advance!

 

[LilPeeps]

Sounds like a typical hatchery bird. They won't get the plumage of a SQ bird. Can you post pics?

 

[kmakani]

I don't know if this will work, but I uploaded a pic above
Aloha!

 

[LilPeeps]

Yep, looks like a hatchery bird.

 

[mainchick]

Looks like your basic hatchery baby,give it some time, it's crest might fill in a bit.

 

[kmakani]

Oh, so sad. Poor thing! Talk about ugly duckling (but will stay that way)

 

[Dances with Ducks]

I think he looks kinda cute!

 

[kmakani]

Cute in a special kind of way

We'll see as he/she grows up. I'm going to pick up new additions to my chicken family this weekend (an Americuana and a Rhode Island Red). Hopefully, these guys turn out to what they're supposed to be!

 

[danischi24]

Well for a start, your Americauna will NOT be a Americauna. It will be an EE or Easter Egger (which is a mixed breed that doesn't breed true) because the only way to get true Americaunas is through special breeders which are expensive & hard to find. However, hatcheries, feed stores etc. market their EEs as Americaunas or Araucanas. Your EE may lay blue, green, brown, pink or whitish eggs & there is no way to tell until they actually lay. Just giving you the heads up so you aren't disappointed if you don't get blue eggs.

 

[Smoky73]

Most true AMERAUCANA (not Americana) breeders are not hard to find and we are not all that expensive. There are several of us on this forum alone.
It is true though as what you are probably getting is a EE or easter egger mutt. Still pretty and great either way for a backyard flock.