thislittlepig73
In the Brooder
Hi y’all! I have a Black Langshan hen (Matilda) who recently hatched two chicks. My rooster is a red giant Brahma (Red). Before she went broody, I had another rooster (Gaston) who was black and white Polish. And I have a bunch of guineas. Anyway, these two chicks are very different from each other. One chick is solid black and still has the fluffy baby feathers you would expect. But the other chick is totally different. It is black and white and after about a week it looked to be completely feathered. And the tail feathers stick up like a tiny rooster. During the day the mama and her feathered chick leave the brooder and roam the barnyard. The feathered chick has to fly a little, about two feet, in order to get out of the brooder. No problem. But the little black chick can’t get out of the brooder - no real feathers yet - and it peep-peep-peeps all day for mama, so she goes back and forth to check on the one and roam with the other. My question is: why are the chicks so different? The feathered one doesn’t even look like a chick. But neither does it look exactly like a keet. Could it be a chicken-Guinea hybrid? All my birds roam the same area, but I’ve never seen a Guinea mating any of my chicken hens. But it’s the only explanation I can come up with. I’m attaching pics - what do y’all think?