Black Sexlink, Australorp or Barred Rock?

[DebB11]

We bought 6 chicks yesterday at Southern States. We thought we were getting all black sexlink pullets. Got home and began to second guess if they were all pullets or not. 2 of the chicks are all black, a bit of white under the neck on 1. The other 4 all have yellowish areas on their heads. To me that sounds like black sexlink males..... but MOST of the chicks in the bin had the yellowish spots on their heads. Very few had solid black heads.

DH called this morning wanting to know if we could bring back the "males" as we do not want 4 roosters.... the lady assured DH those with the yellow heads were not males but were Australorps??? She said what we bought were all layers.. She sounded confident in what she was telling him.

I have another post in which others responded and said maybe they were BR? I looked at some pics of BR pullets online but couldn't find any that looked like mine. I do know they had BR there yesterday but they were in another bin and I remember them looking different than the ones we got.

I can post a pic if someone will tell me how. They aren't the best pics but was all I could get with our camera.

 

[Fool]

mypetchicken.com has pictures of chicks

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Day-Old-Baby-Chicks/Australorp-p234.aspx

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Day-Old-Baby-Chicks/Barred-Plymouth-Rock-p231.aspx

 

[schellie69]

The 4 with the white on the head could be BR chicks that got put in the wrong bin, I don't think they are Australorps ours did not have white spots on their heads. I would think barred rocks I know they have the white spot on the top of the head. With black sex-links the hatchery can tell males form females at hatch and usually just throw the males away. Post some pictures that would help I hope someone else can help.

 

[Mahonri]

Just hope they are barred rock pullets.

oh yeah, you may have some roos.

 

[scbatz33]

austrolorps don't have dots. they look more like penguins with varying amounts of white/yellow on their chest until they feather out.

 

[DebB11]

I didn't think they were australorps either...... not according to pics I saw.

They are either BR or sexlink males...... I just hope the other 2 are indeed sexlink pullets.

The lady that my husband spoke to said we have all layers.....but how can you even know UNLESS they are sexlinks? You can't tell this early with a BR or Australorp, correct?

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:
with br, one has dots on their heads one doesn't....boys have dots i think. I never can remember. With the other? no. Unless they are vent sexed and even that isn't 100%

 

[Fred's Hens]

Black sex links= females black head top, males white splotch on head
Barred Rocks= females small round circle dot on head, males irregular shaped splotch on head. BR=inexact science, but helpful.

 

[DebB11]

here is what I have..... this is all of them..

here is another...

 

[debid]

They may have purchased vent sexed chicks from a hatchery. At some hatcheries, they hire professional vent sexers to come in on hatch days and vent sex thousands of chicks. This is how you can buy Australorp pullets (and why they are more expensive than straight run chicks). So, if your feed shop ordered some Australorp pullets, then I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is what you have (the ones with yellow areas on their heads).

ETA: you were posting when I was. Notice that the ones with yellowish markings also have dark legs which is another characteristic of Australorp. No, they don't have a lot of yellow like the classic penguin suit but I still think Australorp.