Any ideas what breed has markings like this?

[Tatuana]

Fully aware Invi is too young to say for a fact what she is (she's two weeks.) My kids are confused, though, so I'm hoping maybe you all can help me out.

I got the chickens for my unofficial "class" (I babysit the neighborhood kids during the day while their parents shop or whatever). The lady I bought from told me what breeds they should be based on egg color and the babies. I've printed out a picture of each baby and put it by the brooder so they can see them grow.

... invi is not turning out like her picture and it's blown the kids small brains. The lady I bought the eggs from said she's most likely a Buckeye chicken. I can't find any pictures similar to her, so I'm wondering if she's mixed with something.

Can anyone help me find out in a generic sense what kind of chicken have color patterns like her? If I don't get a "right" picture I'm going to go nuts. One of the younger children keeps crying that the picture is wrong and setting off the other kids.

Please help me. Right screaming kids over a "wrong" picture isn't great.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Chick plumage isn't really accurate to adult plumage. Especially with wheaten chickens (colour pattern for red.) My RIRs darken as they age, and those white feather tips do disappear. The chick's a little light-coloured in the fluff department, but frankly, that's normal variation. He looks like a Buckeye to me.

Maybe scour the internet for the lightest colour buckeye chicks you can find and show how the chick's feathers change as they age? Surely you have some kids who used to be blonde and got darker hair over time to use as an example? Tell them that chicks don't always look exactly like their parents? Tell them to just deal with it?

 

[Tatuana]

That makes sense! I didn't know their actual markings changed. I knew colors did, though. I feel very silly now.

Surely you have some kids who used to be blonde and got darker hair over time to use as an example?

That's a great example! My youngest son was born with white hair, now it's a very dark brown/blond color. I'm sure I can dig up the pictures to show the kids.

You're a serious life saver. I never would have thought that a chicken could change in both design and color. I'll see if I can turn it into a game maybe. Take a picture every other day so they can see how baby changes.

Tell them to just deal with it?

Oh, I totally have. They're between the ages of a year and eight. Telling a three year old that they're wrong is stressful. And once one goes off, they all go off. This has been going on for three days for some reason.

Luckily, the baby chicken itself is an angel.

 

[Pyxis]

Did the person you bought the eggs from run a bunch of different flocks, all with their own roosters and all separate so they can't interbreed?

I'm thinking no, since she was guessing what breeds they were based on egg color. If she had a bunch of different flocks to hatch a lot of purebred chicks, she should have already known what pen she collected the eggs from and not needed the egg color to guess what breed they are. I guess unless for some reason she collected them and then mixed them all together without marking them, but that would be silly to do.

She may have a bunch of different breeds of hen and one rooster over them, and was guessing what hen each egg came from based on its color. It's possible this chick was from the egg of a buckeye hen, but if the rooster wasn't a buckeye too, then it's a mixed breed and there's really no way of telling what it's going to turn out like.

Same for the rest of all the other chicks too, if that's the case. I agree with Sylvie; tell the kids to just deal with it Or just take down all the pictures if it bothers them that much. Especially since all the rest of the chicks might not grow up to look like the pictures either, if what I suspect is true.

 

[Tatuana]

I'm not exactly sure how she had it set up. I know the listing said 'barn yard mix' and talked about how they all had free range over a 4,000 foot coop or something. I'm sure they're mixed. Luckily I know for a fact that my silver laced and buff ones are pure. She said it's either a Buckeye or one similar based on pictures she saw of the egg and the four day old babies, though.

It'll be fun to see WHAT the little snots end up being. Are they like cats, where you can say "Oh this one is a tuxedo, and that one is a speckled"? Even if genetically they aren't, they still look the part? Or is it like you can get one that's part frizzle and part polish and ends up with a frizzy head or the left half is frizzy and the right half is polish? This is more my own curiosity than needing to know for kids.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree with Pyxis

 

[Pyxis]

If it said barnyard mix then that means she was letting them all run together and they're probably all mixed breeds, in which case I would take the pictures down soon if it's going to bother the kids that the chicks don't look like them.

Are they like cats, where you can say "Oh this one is a tuxedo, and that one is a speckled"? Even if genetically they aren't, they still look the part?

Kind of. They won't be real breeds, so you can't say, for instance, that Invi is a Buckeye, because she's not. You could say she's red, though, because she would be the color red. You might hatch one that is spangled in pattern, but you wouldn't call it a speckled sussex, because it's not a purebred sussex. Or you might hatch one that is buff in color, but that doesn't mean it's an Orpington.

No, you won't get any that are one color on one side and one color on their other half, I think that's what you're asking? You might hatch one that's a cross of polish and, say, brahma, that has a small crest that it inherited from the polish and also feathered legs from the brahma, sure, that could happen, they could get traits from both breeds.

But you can't get a bird that looks like one breed on its right side and another breed on its left side. That's not how genetics work

(Of course, there are chimeras, where two embryos combine into one and then it does look like it's half one thing on one side and half another thing on the other side, but that is a whole separate issue and very, very, very rare, and only happens because it is literally two birds in one.)

 

[sylviethecochin]

Are they like cats, where you can say "Oh this one is a tuxedo, and that one is a speckled"? Even if genetically they aren't, they still look the part? Or is it like you can get one that's part frizzle and part polish and ends up with a frizzy head or the left half is frizzy and the right half is polish? This is more my own curiosity than needing to know for kids.

Chickens are a bit funny--because they're not registered or pedigreed, if it looks like an australorp, then as far as shows are concerned, it is an australorp. If I have a properly built barred duckwing hen with yellow legs, straight comb, white earlobes, and a small crest that lays blue/green eggs, then as long as she looks like a Cream Crested Legbar, she is a cream crested legbar--no matter if I bred her from chickens of unknown heritage three gens back. But only so far as a show judge is concerned.

On the other hand, breeders are going to be really bothered if chickens of unknown heritage are used in a breeding program, because of colours that might show up later. No matter how much like that CCR those chickens look.

And x2 Pyxis on the genetics explanation.

 

[Tatuana]

Thanks to both of you! That's very helpful. I know cats up one and and down the other. Chickens are a whole new world to me.

 

[Bonniebooboo]

Here is example for you. I Hatched this little lady. She resembles yours. Note how she changed in just a few months. She is an Easter Egger. They definitely change.