Best layer ever! What is breed is she?

[verycherry]

This pullet was given to me by my neighbor a few months ago, along with a brown leghorn and a black Langshan. These were the last 3 left after preditors got all her others. I have a better coop, so she gave up and gave me these.

This girl is the same age as my other pullets, about 8 months old, but never heard the term "pullet egg" obviously. Her first egg was large and perfect, and for the last two months has been laying the best JUMBO sized medium-colored brown eggs, about half the time with pretty brown speckles, and sometimes the speckles are lavender! What the heck is she?

I keep forgetting to take the camera to the farm for a better photo, so I hope this is good enough. Her neck and chest color gradually fad into the black. Where the fading occurs, the feathers are almost two colors, like laced. The black has a green shine like an Australorp.

Thanks for any and all help!
Sherry

 

[Old Rando]

She looks like a black sex-link to me. Hatcheries sell them under different names. Black Star is one I can think of right now.

 

[verycherry]

Thanks. A black sex link had actually occured to me, but the ones I googled were mostly black. This one is as much red as black.

 

[SoccerMomof7]

Does that mean it could be a red sex link? I have seen them as chicks but not adults!

 

[greyfields]

way too much red to be a BSL...

She looks so much like a brown leghorn... but that comb is just all wrong.

 

[verycherry]

I'm pretty sure the red sex links are red with white.

Maybe there are just different crosses to get the black star?, or is it always a RIR and barred rock?

 

[verycherry]

My brown leghorn is about half the weight of this girl, and her breast is rosey colored. This one is more red/orange. She's also about as big as the roo in the photo, lol! She's a meaty thing!

Makes me wonder if one of her parent birds was a BSL breed back to a RIR. I wish my neighbor had known what she bought!

 

[verycherry]

Ok, I just found a couple of photos on feathersite that show 2 BSL's with more red, but just not as much as mine. So I'm thinking she probably is a BSL, just not a typical one. Do they all lay a speckled egg? I love her eggs!

 

[greyfields]

I have raised BSL's and even bred them myself. I've never had one look anywhere near that red or have that faint 'barring' on the flight feathers.

 

[Chickndaddy]

There is someone on here that has Black Sex-link very similar to yours. I will see if I can find the pic. But I vote for BSL.