First time raising chicks, can you tell me what breed these are?

[kurui]

Hi! This is my first time posting. About four months ago my mum and I got four red sex link gallinas from the local chicken man (We live in Spain) and sadly one of them died. I was really upset- and then for my birthday she managed to get these three babies, I'm raising them in a cardboard box with a heatlamp, it's very exciting! They are almost three weeks old, and they come from (as far as I know) a flock of sussex and barnevelders, but I don't know whether the chicks are crosses or what. Could you help me work out what these babies will look like when they're grown up? I'm trying to pick names, but it's tricky!

The two dark ones are female and the pale one is the male.










Thanks!

 

[Kev]

Hmm, all three look boy-ish.

The two look very strongly of a cross with a barred rock. If you know the flock did not have a barred rock rooster, only barred rock hen or hens, then those two are boys for sure. That is because the gene for making the white bars on their feathers is a sex linked gene... if you breed a sussex or barnevelder rooster with a barred rock hen, the boys will be born black with a white spot on top of head and the girls would be black and don't have the white head spot.

This works only one way though.. if they have a barred rock rooster, he can make chicks like that in both sexes. Just a little something to help in the future...

 

[kurui]

Thanks! I don't really know a whole lot about the flock to be honest, though the two we were told were girls do have a white/yellow spot on their heads. If they're all boys that could be a bit of a problem...

The one we were told was a boy seems to be developing a tail faster than the other two, but I don't know if that means anything at all. I can ask if they have a barred rock- is there anything else I could ask to make sure they're boys/girls?

 

[Kev]

Yeah if you can ask if they have barred rocks and what sex they are. Basically if they don't have a barred rock rooster, it's automatic both of these are boys for sure. If they do have a barred rock rooster mixing with different breed hens, then it is not possible to tell by head spot..

Aside from that, all three are showing awful bit of comb with color in it this early on. Combs start getting bigger and pinker on boys much earlier than girls....

 

[kurui]

Oops! OK, I'll ask. As much as I wouldn't mind having three boys, I rather suspect my stepdad might have an issue with it, and I'm not sure how happy they'd be either?

 

[chickengirl1230]

They look like a barred rock or a cuckoo maran. I think you just have quicker maturing girls I have had some really hefty girls with big crowns before.

 

[kurui]

Ah! I know they have a Maran- I stalked their blog to try and get details haha! Fingers crossed, I would be so sad to have to give them up

 

[Kev]

Some roosters can get along.. they will establish a pecking order like hens do.. as long as nobody steps out of line, they can get along just fine.

There can be individual roosters that just cannot 'share'..... There is no way to tell early on on their personality.

One potential issue, if the boys become roosters that like to breed the hens very often, it can leave the hens messy looking- feathers broken on their backs from too often breeding. In that case one might be better or kept separate from each other. Many people keep "bachelor pens"- pens with only roosters in them for the hen's sake.

The last option is to... get many more hens! That could be fun.. called chicken math around here.. two chicks becomes 4... becomes 6...... hehe But the idea of more hens is so the rooster wouldn't breed the same hen too often.

 

[Kev]

Ah! I know they have a Maran- I stalked their blog to try and get details haha! Fingers crossed, I would be so sad to have to give them up

Those chicks have yellow beaks and legs though?

Marans are a white skinned breed and the gene for white skin is dominant over yellow skin. So a Marans should always throw chicks with white legs and beaks.

If you ever see a yellow legged/beaked bird labeled as Marans, it is either incorrect or the bird is actually mixed up.

 

[kurui]

Kev are you giving me a potential excuse to crochet my hens some jumpers because that way lies madness. Adorable, woolly madness.