Farm Store Chicks Breed

[maudeflanagan]

I am questioning whether or not I have what I think I am supposed to have. I bought 3 chicks from the farm store. The bin had 2 kinds of chicks in it. The labels read “Olive Egger” and “Australorp”. I already have a handful of australorps, but no OEs. I purchased the last 3 of the chipmunk chicks they had. This was a few weeks ago. The store I bought them from gets their birds from Townline Hatchery. Their website only has 1 image as an adult. I am have gotten it into my head that what I have in my brooder might not be OEs. 2 of them have larger combs than the 3rd. My concern is, I actually picked up some straight run bantams that were mislabeled. The chicks have stayed rather small but have a lot of feathers. Any opinions? I have also noticed they have different color legs from bird to bird.

Thanks!

 

[HappyClucker7]

They look like OEGBs, and the first two are cockerels.

 

[Zamial]

I am no expert but I have a flock of Autralorpe and that does not look like any Australorpe I have ever seen. They start out black and pale yellow and turn all black. Hope this helps some.

 

[maudeflanagan]

I am no expert but I have a flock of Autralorpe and that does not look like any Australorpe I have ever seen. They start out black and pale yellow and turn all black. Hope this helps some.

I am aware they are not australorps. They came from a bin that was full of australorps minus the 3 I purchased which were labeled as OEs. Thank you for your reply.

 

[JedJackson]

The first two photos show a male, the second two show a female or females.

As far as breed goes, they don't look like typical olive eggers, but who knows? That color pattern is seen in many breeds. They could be bantams, they could be olive eggers, they could be something else. I think it will be wait and see.

 

[Capricoco]

I am questioning whether or not I have what I think I am supposed to have. I bought 3 chicks from the farm store. The bin had 2 kinds of chicks in it. The labels read “Olive Egger” and “Australorp”. I already have a handful of australorps, but no OEs. I purchased the last 3 of the chipmunk chicks they had. This was a few weeks ago. The store I bought them from gets their birds from Townline Hatchery. Their website only has 1 image as an adult. I am have gotten it into my head that what I have in my brooder might not be OEs. 2 of them have larger combs than the 3rd. My concern is, I actually picked up some straight run bantams that were mislabeled. The chicks have stayed rather small but have a lot of feathers. Any opinions? I have also noticed they have different color legs from bird to bird.



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Thanks!

They look like black breasted red OEGBs. The first two have black Brest feathers, which indicate male, and the last one has red breast feathers which indicate female. Hope this helps.

 

[maudeflanagan]

They look like black breasted red OEGBs. The first two have black Brest feathers, which indicate male, and the last one has red breast feathers which indicate female. Hope this helps.

This does help, thank you. I am debating what I want to do with these little guys. I mainly have chickens for egg production. At the very least, I will likely send the boys to a new home. It would be different if my intent was to have bantams, but I don’t feel like the tinies fit into my flock plans.

 

[Shevraeth]

I feel like I’m ignorant here, but isn’t an olive egger just a blue layer crossed with a dark brown layer? The hatchery could have crossed easter eggers, which are themselves kind of a mutt, with welsummers or marans or something, and with the genetics lottery, you get a mishmash of traits for each bird? (which would explain how they’re all kind of different)

 

[Capricoco]

I feel like I’m ignorant here, but isn’t an olive egger just a blue layer crossed with a dark brown layer? The hatchery could have crossed easter eggers, which are themselves kind of a mutt, with welsummers or marans or something, and with the genetics lottery, you get a mishmash of traits for each bird? (which would explain how they’re all kind of different)

Yes, but sometimes if there are only a couple chicks left they throw them in a different bin and don’t re-label. It’s happened to me before. If I had to guess, they probably had an assorted bantam bin and when these three were left they moved them. They look very similar to BBR OEGBs so I’d say it’s pretty likely that that’s what happened.

 

[3KillerBs]

I feel like I’m ignorant here, but isn’t an olive egger just a blue layer crossed with a dark brown layer? The hatchery could have crossed easter eggers, which are themselves kind of a mutt, with welsummers or marans or something, and with the genetics lottery, you get a mishmash of traits for each bird? (which would explain how they’re all kind of different)

Yes.

"Eggers" of whatever type can look like anything.