Both Breed and Gender Unknown

[Starblaiz]

Hello! I'll try to keep the backstory here brief:

I'm new to chickens--this is my first and only one so far. I work as a bio lab prepper at a community college, and one of the students' experiments in November was to study animal development by candling eggs. The eggs came from Carolina Scientific, who won't even tell me what breeds of chickens they select their eggs from. Since I didn't want to throw the 14-day-old eggs away when the experiment was over, I convinced the powers that be to let me take them home in an incubator so that they would at least have a chance at survival. In the candling experiment, they found that only two of the eggs were actually fertile (which as I understand it is not that surprising in the dead of winter), and after I took them home only one of those two hatched.

So the takeaway of that paragraph is that I have zero experience with chickens and no idea how to tell what this one is. S/He hatched December 3, which makes him/her 32 days old in this photo. I'm at work right now, so if this isn't enough to tell I may have to wait until tonight to get a better picture. Thank you all for your help in advance.

Chris

 

[Blackberry18]

It looks like a Production Red cockerel, maybe a mixed breed.Do you know where the eggs came from?

 

[Starblaiz]

They came from Carolina Scientific, which is no help in determining breed. I emailed them shortly after receiving the eggs (brown eggs, if that helps). Here is their reply:

"Good Morning Chris,

Since the eggs come from a variety of chickens, we do not have any particular breeds. I apologize that we cannot give you any specific types.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
Best Regards,
((Name Redacted))"

 

[Pork Pie]

Yep, a little boy for sure

Ct

 

[donrae]

Definitely a young cockerel. My guess for breed is some generic red production type bird, perhaps mixed at some point with a leghorn for that ginormous red comb at such a young age.

 

[drumstick diva]

adorable little boy

 

[Blackberry18]

They came from Carolina Scientific, which is no help in determining breed. I emailed them shortly after receiving the eggs (brown eggs, if that helps). Here is their reply:

"Good Morning Chris,

Since the eggs come from a variety of chickens, we do not have any particular breeds. I apologize that we cannot give you any specific types.
Let me know if I can help with anything else.
Best Regards,
((Name Redacted))"

Thanks, assuming that the chickens range together, it's safe to assume you have a mixed breed cockerel. He's beautiful, good luck!

 

[Starblaiz]

Thanks, everyone. You confirmed my fears. I don't know anything about sexing chickens, but from what little I've been able to glean from the internet and books, I thought the chances were leaning in the direction of cockerel. Unfortunately, that means I can't legally keep him in my city. Luckily though, the secretary at my work is about to start keeping chickens at a small farm outside of the city, and she's agreed to take him if I can't.

Thanks again to everyone who replied so quickly to help a wide-eyed newbie! I'm sure I'll be back again before too long--my wife and I have been bitten by the hatching bug, and they do this experiment every semester. I expect a better hatch rate come Spring semester.

Regards,
Chris

 

[showinbirds]

Cockerel

 

[Blackberry18]

Thanks, everyone. You confirmed my fears. I don't know anything about sexing chickens, but from what little I've been able to glean from the internet and books, I thought the chances were leaning in the direction of cockerel. Unfortunately, that means I can't legally keep him in my city. Luckily though, the secretary at my work is about to start keeping chickens at a small farm outside of the city, and she's agreed to take him if I can't.

Thanks again to everyone who replied so quickly to help a wide-eyed newbie! I'm sure I'll be back again before too long--my wife and I have been bitten by the hatching bug, and they do this experiment every semester. I expect a better hatch rate come Spring semester.

Regards,
Chris

You're welcome. Good luck!