Breed and Gender for a sort-of newbie

[JazChickenMamas]

Hi!! I’m a fairly new member to backyardchickens.com and kind of clueless when it comes to the different breeds. I first decided to dive into the chicken world last year; Ordered 10 rare standard females from TSC June 2020. I my chicken mommas!! Thankfully, they were all hens and to date, I haven’t lost 1…YAY A year+ later, I’m still not 100% sure what breeds I have LOL
Anyway, recently, one of my girls went broody (one of my solid white girls) and I decided I wanted to have her hatch some eggs so, I got 6 eggs from my neighbor who has a rooster and to our surprise, all 6 eggs were fertilized My girl who went broody has been an AWESOME Momma and all 6 of our babies are doing really well. Having my broody hatch and raise the chicks has been the most amazing experience. Now…I find myself curious what breeds/sex the chicks are. Attached are pics of all the babies and they’re 5 weeks old. Any of you awesome folks able to identify the breeds/sex? Any info would be greatly appreciated although, it doesn’t really matter to me what breed/sex they are, I’ll love them just the same lol I plan to keep 2 roosters and if I have more than that, I’ll have to try to re-home them. Oh, just an FYI…my neighbor’s rooster is an Ameraucana (Lavender, I believe or at least has the coloring of the Lavender breed) and I’m not sure about all the hen breeds she has, but I know she has at least one barred Plymouth Rock and some Easter Eggers.

Here are my best guesses for sex based on reading some past posts and looking at pics from past posts. I’m not even going to try to guess breeds lol:

1st pic: I think it’s a cockerel. He/she is my favorite because he/she is the only one who will let me approach and pick up him/her w/out running away and happens to be the smallest of the 6
2nd pic: Cockerel
3rd & 4th pic: pullets
5th pic: left: cockerel; right: pullet

Thanks so much!!

 

[Silviaschicks]

I believe your sex guesses are right, thought the 3rd looks suspicious...
For breeds, I believe you have
1: Cuckoo Marans parent
2: Barred Rock parent
For 3, 4 and 5 on the right I have no idea

 

[NatJ]

I got 6 eggs from my neighbor who has a rooster and to our surprise, all 6 eggs were fertilized

Do you remember how many eggs were what color? That can help with figuring out the mothers.

FYI…my neighbor’s rooster is an Ameraucana (Lavender, I believe or at least has the coloring of the Lavender breed) and I’m not sure about all the hen breeds she has, but I know she has at least one barred Plymouth Rock and some Easter Eggers.

If the rooster is solid lavender-color, then the chicks with white barring must have a parent with barring. Their mother might be a Barred Rock, but any other hen with white barring would also work (that includes colors called Crele or Cuckoo, and also Cream Legbar.)

If the mother has barring and the father does not, then all chicks with barring are males (I notice that you already figured out that 1 & 2 are males.)

Chick 3 has a crest on the head, and so does the chick on the right in photo 5.
They must have at least one parent with a crest, so if the father has no crest, then look for a crested mother. Polish have crests, Cream Legbars have crests, some Olive Eggers have crests, some other kinds do as well.

Chicks 3 & 4 appear to have extra feathers on the sides of the face (muff), so at least one parent must have muffs. Ameraucanas have muffs, so these chicks may have gotten it from the father. (But since I see some chicks without muffs, the father may have the not-muff gene as well. If he does not have muffs, then he is not a proper Ameraucana, and these chicks would have to have a mother with muffs.)

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

Seeing a bunch of mixed breeds. Fifth on right and potentially 4th are the only pullets

 

[JazChickenMamas]

I believe your sex guesses are right, thought the 3rd looks suspicious...
For breeds, I believe you have
1: Cuckoo Marans parent
2: Barred Rock parent
For 3, 4 and 5 on the right I have no idea

Thanks so much for your response! I really appreciate it! It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the majority of them are Roos! I was the only girl around my house (Husband, 2 human boys & 3 furry boys (2 dogs & a cat) until I got my 10 ‘Lil Chicken Mammas and had to “special order” my girls soooo…apparently I’m supposed to be a boy-mom by nature

 

[JazChickenMamas]

Do you remember how many eggs were what color? That can help with figuring out the mothers.


If the rooster is solid lavender-color, then the chicks with white barring must have a parent with barring. Their mother might be a Barred Rock, but any other hen with white barring would also work (that includes colors called Crele or Cuckoo, and also Cream Legbar.)

If the mother has barring and the father does not, then all chicks with barring are males (I notice that you already figured out that 1 & 2 are males.)

Chick 3 has a crest on the head, and so does the chick on the right in photo 5.
They must have at least one parent with a crest, so if the father has no crest, then look for a crested mother. Polish have crests, Cream Legbars have crests, some Olive Eggers have crests, some other kinds do as well.

Chicks 3 & 4 appear to have extra feathers on the sides of the face (muff), so at least one parent must have muffs. Ameraucanas have muffs, so these chicks may have gotten it from the father. (But since I see some chicks without muffs, the father may have the not-muff gene as well. If he does not have muffs, then he is not a proper Ameraucana, and these chicks would have to have a mother with muffs.)

Hi!! WOW thanks so much for all the great info! You’re so knowledgeable & It’s all so very interesting! I wish I had thought to take a pic of the eggs before I gave them to my broody, but I didn’t even think about it lol I want to say a couple were creamy white w/ a slight blue tint, but I’m not 100% on that. I’m going to try to get up w/ my neighbor this weekend and get some pics of her flock especially the rooster (he’s beautiful but can’t remember if he has muffs) & come to think of it, I believe she does have at least 1 Polish hen. I’ll definitely have to update once I have more info and hopefully some pics to share. Thanks again! I really appreciate your response