Chick identify and gender.

[loulusea]

Can anyone tell me what they think this gray black and white chick's breed is? And then does anyone want to take a guess at what this 2 to 3 week old buff orpingtons sex is? Do you think it's a male or a female?

Thank you

 

[SilverBirds]

Don’t think the black and white one is a Sebright because it has a rose comb. It could be Silver laced Wyandotte.

Sebrights have rose combs. I think the chick is a Silver Laced Sebright. It has the correct chick pattern and is a bantam.

 

[SilverBirds]

Here's a couple now

It isn't a Cornish X. It looked mostly white to me in the other pictures you posted but I can see now that it is buff. It could be a buff Orpington, or it might be one of the hatchery meaties NatJ was talking about in the post above mine. Time will tell.

 

[NatJ]

Also the buff orpington has humongous legs! She may be just a big girl if not a roo. Any particular things to look out for with Buff orps as they are growing?

For sexing, I would mostly watch for the comb and wattles to get bigger and red.

That happens in most males between about 4 weeks and 12 weeks, while females wait until they are almost ready to lay eggs (16 weeks and up.)

But the humongous legs sound unusual. That may mean the chick is not really a Buff Orpington. Or it may just mean that large chicks are much bigger than bantams. Maybe post a few more photos of that chick?

 

[NatJ]

Here's a couple now

Hmm, that's interesting. I see what you mean about the big legs.
I don't know, so I'll fall back on the usual advice: keep an eye on how it grows, and hope it becomes clear in time.

What's a cx?

CX stands for Cornish Cross.
They are hybrid meat chickens, that grow white feathers and have very thick legs. They grow very quickly, so by the time they are 2 months old they are heavier than most adult chickens of other breeds.

Cornish Cross chickens are usually butchered around age 2 months, because they usually develop health problems from growing so fast.

The name is because someone crossed a Cornish chicken (one breed) with another breed, about a hundred years ago, and found their their chicks grew bigger and faster with more meat than any other kind of chicken they had been raising up until that time. Over time, they selectively bred chickens to produce a cross like that, and they no longer have actual purebred Cornish involved, or any other pure breed of chicken in the mix. But the name stuck.

Purebred Cornish chickens do have a meaty breast and thick legs, but they do not have the explosive growth of the Cornish Cross hybrids (CX). They are also relatively rare. They come in several colors, including Buff that can look a lot like the chick you have.

Your buff chick is definitely not a Cornish Cross (CX), because yours has buff colored feathers, and Cornish Cross are always white.

Some hatcheries have been developing other meat chickens lately, with colored feathers and an in-between growth rate. Some of them have thick legs, so there is a chance your buff chick is one of them, but I can't tell for sure.

Can anyone tell me what they think this gray black and white chick's breed is?

Where did you get the chicks? Sometimes that helps with figuring out what breeds they might be.

 

[NatJ]

Can anyone tell me what they think this gray black and white chick's breed is? And then does anyone want to take a guess at what this 2 to 3 week old buff orpingtons sex is? Do you think it's a male or a female?

Thank you

For the Buff Orpington, I think it is too young to tell yet.

For the one that is gray, black, and white: it might be a Silver Laced Wyandotte or a Silver Laced Sebright, although there are other possibilities as well.

I can't see the comb or the feet, and both of those can give useful clues about what breed the chick is (Wyandotte and Sebright should both have rose combs, Wyandotte would have yellow feet while Sebright feet are a blue/gray color.)

Do you know if the chick is a bantam? Sebrights are bantams, Wyandottes can come in both standard and bantam size, there are some other breeds that come in just one size or the other.

 

[SilverBirds]

Can you post more pictures of the "Buff Orpington"? Could just be the size difference of the bantams, but thinking they may be a CX...

 

[NatJ]

Don’t think the black and white one is a Sebright because it has a rose comb. It could be Silver laced Wyandotte.

Can you see the comb on the black and white one? (Circled in the photo in the first post.) I can't see the comb on it at all, because it has its back turned to the camera.

Both Sebrights and Wyandottes have rose combs, so comb type is no help in telling those two apart.

 

[SilverBirds]

This is my big buff orpington. Do you think it's a female? From a straight run.

Still too early to tell. You'll need to update in a few weeks.

 

[NatJ]

This is my big buff orpington. Do you think it's a female? From a straight run.

It is too early to be sure, but being straight run there should be about a 50/50 chance of male or female, so I wouldn't get your hopes up very far.

Looking at the photos, I feel that it doesn't look quite right for a Buff Orpington, but it does not look enough "wrong" for me to be sure of that either.

Buff Orpingtons should have a single comb (it does) and white feet (the feet are either white or a light blue. Yellow feet would be wrong, but the chick does not have yellow feet.) Buff Orpingtons should have buff feathers (it does), but I see white tips on the wing feathers (I would not expect that on a Buff Orpington.)

In the photo with three chicks, all three of them look like Red Sexlinks to me. (Different angles can make different things obvious.) Red Sexlinks are often sold as Gold Comet, Red Star, ISA Brown, and various other names, and they lay brown eggs. Starlight Green Eggers can also have that appearance, but they lay green eggs. I think there are a few other mixes that can also have that coloring (including some that are meant to grow quickly to be used for meat.)

So I am not really sure what to think about your mystery chick. In a few more weeks, hopefully it will be obvious whether it is male or female, and that may also help with figuring out what kind of chicken it is (some have different coloring for males vs. females, so if we know the gender we can sometimes rule out certain breeds or mixes.)